Commissioner Andrew Colvin has asked for Australian Federal Police (AFP) who were raped or sexually assaulted by other Federal Police to come forward and make a formal complaint after a report says that 2% of AFP employees have been raped and/or sexually assaulted.
Over the past six months former Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Elizabeth Broderick, has interviewed/consulted with over 1000 AFP employees and the results are horrific. On Monday the Broderick Report was released by the AFP. (Click here to read the report) It found in the last five years 66% of women and 62% of men have been bullied and 20% have been sexually harassed which is almost double the national average. Worst of all is that 2% have been raped by another AFP employee, sexually assaulted or had another AFP employee attempt raping/sexually assaulting them.
“The Australian Federal Police has urged dozens of members who may have been the victims of rapes or attempted rapes by colleagues to come forward after a shocking report found “pervasive” sexual harassment and bullying in the organisation.” (Click here to read more)
Given there are over 6000 AFP employees that means an estimate would be over 120 possible rapists/criminals guilty of sexual assault working in the AFP. The SMH says the Broderick report estimates “30 rapes” but that number seems to based on the 1000 interviewed not the total number of employees as Commissioner Colvin also estimates that it is over 100 in the video below. Also it is well-known that many people do not report sexual assaults so the true number is likely to be much higher.
AFP employees who made complaints in the Broderick Report did so anonymously so now the AFP Commissioner Andrew Colvin is asking those people to make formal complaints. But based on some of the findings in the Broderick Report I wonder how many will come forward.
It was reported:
One woman reported being moved from her role for refusing to sleep with her unit co-ordinator, while others reported being discriminated against and bullied after announcing pregnancies.
“When I announced my second pregnancy … my supervisor said to me, ‘I thought we agreed you would keep your legs together’. It was horrible. I had to move out of that area because working there was not going to be sustainable,” one woman said.
“When I told my supervisor I was pregnant he said, ‘I’m really disappointed in you’,” said another woman.
However, just 18 per cent of people bullied or sexually harassed in the organisation sought assistance and just a third of them went on to make a complaint.
The majority of those said they wished they had not, due to the way the complaint was handled and the career ramifications that resulted from making it.
“If I had my time again, I would never report (being sexually harassed),” one woman said. “When I reported the incident to my team leader. I was moved. How is that fair,” another woman said.
“Because I reported being sexually harassed, my career here is over,” another said.
Ms Broderick laid the blame for such behaviour squarely on the AFP leadership.
“Poor leadership is a common factor when instances of sexual harassment and bullying occur,” she wrote.
“Leadership at all levels of the AFP must consistently and visibly commit to a zero tolerance approach to sexual harassment and bullying. (Click here to read more)
How did it get this bad – Australian Federal Police culture
The sexual harassment, sexual assaults and rape are an extension to a large degree of the bullying and bastardisation which has long been known to exist in the AFP. One example is an article I wrote in June 2013 titled “AFP Commissioner Tony Negus caught bullying and bastardising a second whistleblower” which related to the Tony Negus’s mismanagement, cover-ups and his own sex scandal when he was the previous AFP Commissioner.
One of the reasons the AFP bully their staff so much is to make sure they cover-up corruption in the government which I also wrote about in one of the first articles on this website in June 2011 called “Pigs On The Run – The Australian Federal Police“.
The bullying and the cover-ups in the AFP are nothing new so I find it odd that Commissioner Colvin said in the below media announcement that he was surprised by the result of the Broderick Report.
Will the new measures achieve anything?
Commissioner Andrew Colvin held a press conference on Monday (22/8/16) at the AFP head office in Canberra with Elizabeth Broderick and which is the below video that the AFP posted on YouTube. Andrew Colvin said all the right things and said he was determined fix the problems and some credit must be given to Colvin as he was the one who commissioned the Broderick Report at the end of 2015 which has just been completed. The below video is 23 minutes long but even if you just watch the first 3 minutes it is quite damming of the culture in the AFP.
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Commissioner Andrew Colvin – How has he performed after 2 years in the top job?
Andrew Colvin has only been in the role 2 years but things are not looking good. The AFP seem more interested in chasing government whistleblowers and covering-up for corrupt politicians and government officials than actually doing their job.
In the above video Andrew Colvin thanks the waiting media for coming to the media briefing at “short notice“. Andrew Colvin could have given the media plenty of notice is he wanted to as he would have had the report for a while and would have been getting progress reports over the last six months. Giving the media short notice for a media conference/briefing is a common trick to make sure that very few media show up which minimises the media coverage but then you can say later that you weren’t hiding anything as you had a media briefing. Sounds like the cover-up in the AFP might have already started.
The AFP problem is not minor, it is massive given these people are meant to enforce the law and the government needs to intervene and try to correct the problem. Leaving it up to Andrew Colvin and the AFP to fix is weak political leadership but unfortunately all the federal politicians seem to be disturbingly quiet on this issue.
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Categories: Australian Federal Police, Commissioner Andrew Colvin
This is not AFP Culture, it is Police Culture. We see these reports of cops participating in Criminal behaviour all to often. And why would you report the criminal you work with when the Whistle-blower is punished for doing the right thing. In the case of Rick Flori on the Gold Coast, he was actually charged for doing the right thing.
It’s disgraceful! I know what it’s like to be punished for doing the right thing. Rick Flori should be compensated.
It seems Commissioner Colvin is one person who will look seriously at the problem in the A.F.P., this is a great step in the right direction.
Maybe, the rest of the States and Territory might follow suit.
RAPE is also force used by emotional and psychological pressures like emotional blackmail, threats, false promises or leading the target (victim, usually vulnerable and in a vulnerable situation/position etc) into a terrible state of mind by putting them in a double bind. Prison officers and mental health workers in institutions, for example who want their slice of pie from inmates/patients. They degrade the inmate/prisoner BUT GET PROMOTED, GET AWAY WITH IT, LIE THROUGH THEIR TEETH, THROW IT ALL BACK ON THE TARGET VICTIM. COMMISSIONS COVER UP FOR THEM. COHORTS HAND IN HAND. EXPOSE AND CHARGE THEM TOO.
This isn’t about the police. It’s purely another example of what those cowardly, dumb, bogan males do to females.
These truly disgusting males are spread through every level of social class, every occupation, every suburb, everywhere!
Other than being male, their other identifiable markings are: being bullies, egomaniac, vulgar, arrogant and delusional believing they are special.
Do you know any??
Not condoning any of rotten or criminal behaviour but there is a problem with some female officers who use pregnancy to not finish their workload, sit on it then dump it onto the next colleague. This is a real problem and I have known members to leave their careers because of this gross injustice. The feminazis in the organisation will hijack this to their advantage and then mischievously invent a story to jusify poor work performance. I am not convinced that AFP is saddled with a rapist mentality. I have witnessed outside “consultants” brought in and paid substantially (taxpayers money of course) to provide a report for the desired (political) result.
What protection will any whistleblower will receive for making a disclosure?
Probably none
As typical, the strategy will see the whistleblower further victimised
UNLESS
the AFP genuinely wants to prosecute the perpetrators
My wife was raped by an AFP agent. Complaint was filed – and they refused to do anything. So this report achieved absolutely nothing. Hopeully the commonwealth ombudsman makes them at least do a misconduct investigation and fires the rapist agent.