About Speaking from Experience

Speaking from Experience is run by the Australian Human Rights Commission, Australia’s human rights institution. 

Find out more about the Australian Human Rights Commission on the website. 

Workplace sexual harassment is common. In Australia, 1 in 3 people have been harassed in the last five years. If you have been sexually harassed at work, we want to hear from you. Your ideas on how to address workplace sexual harassment are important, and they can help us create resources and advice to make workplaces safer. They might also be used to improve policy and practice to address workplace sexual harassment in the future. 

There are two ways that you can take part in Speaking from Experience. You can choose what works best for you.

Written submissions

Share your ideas and thoughts in writing about:

Audio recording submissions

Share your ideas and thoughts in an audio recording about: 

• unhelpful responses to workplace sexual harassment
• helpful responses to workplace sexual harassment
• what you think needs to change to address workplace sexual harassment.

You can use the voice recorder on your phone or computer. After recording, click 'Make a submission' and follow the steps to upload your audio file. 

For audio recordings, you have up to thirty minutes (or 100MB), but you don't have to use it all. If you want, you can read any notes you have while recording. Your audio submission will be sent to a secure folder at the Commission, that only the Speaking from Experience team can see. What you tell us may be published with other people’s submissions, all together. It may also be published as part of a quote or a case study. We'll write it down and remove any details that might identify you or others before publishing. Learn more about how we protect your privacy.

Speaking from Experience will run from 19 March, 2024, until 30 September, 2024. During this time, you can send your ideas online.

Speaking from Experience is open to anyone aged 18 or older who has been sexually harassed at work in Australia.

We want to hear from you about:

• your thoughts on unhelpful responses to workplace sexual harassment
• your thoughts on helpful responses to workplace sexual harassment
• your ideas about what you think needs to change to address workplace sexual harassment.

You don’t have to share any specific information, and how much you share is up to you. If you don’t know, check out the Guide for having your say [PDF, 970KB] for some help thinking about what you'd like to share.

It’s important to note that this project won’t offer counsellors or connect you with support services, the police or the courts. It also won’t fix any problems from past experiences of workplace sexual harassment. Because there are no counsellors as part of this project, it’s better if you don’t share details about your experiences of sexual harassment. It could be upsetting, and we care about your wellbeing. If you want counselling or psychological help, you can get information from the support services listed.

If you’re 18 or older and have been sexually harassed at work in Australia, you can take part in Speaking from Experience. The Speaking from Experience project is just one of many ways that you can seek out if you have been sexually harassed at work. If you want to know about other choices you have, you can call the Respect@Work National Information Service on 1300 656 419.

In 2019, the Commission ran a study called the National Inquiry into Workplace Sexual Harassment. Part of the study was speaking with people who had been sexually harassed at work, and they said being a part of positive change helped them heal. Speaking from Experience then became a recommendation in the Respect@Work report.

This project will make resources using advice from those who have been sexually harassed at work. The goal is to help workers and employers know how to create safer workplaces for everyone.

This project won’t offer counsellors or connect you with welfare services, the police or the courts. It also won’t fix any problems from past experiences of workplace sexual harassment Because there are no counsellors as part of this project, it’s better if you don’t share details about your experiences of sexual harassment. This could be upsetting, and we care about your wellbeing. If you want counselling, you can find out how from the list of support services.

Speaking from Experience is not a project where you can file complaints, and it won't give any money for compensation. If you want those kinds of options, there are some other services to help you. You can find a list of these services here.

1. We will ask you if you are 18 or older.
2. We will ask you if you have experienced workplace sexual harassment in Australia.
3. We will ask you your email address and preferred name. You can use a made-up name (pseudonym) if you want to or if you must do so for other reasons. We need this information to contact you about your submission. We won’t share it or use it for any other reason.
4. We will ask some more questions about you, like your sex, gender identity, age, how you identify your race or ethnicity, your visa status, and if you live with disability. This helps us understand who’s sharing their thoughts for the project. It also helps us to create resources to make workplaces safer for people with diverse identities. If you don’t want to answer any of these questions, you can choose ‘prefer not to say’.

We’ll remove any details that might identify you or others before publishing, including names and places. We will also remove any other information that could tell people who you are, such as workplace names or locations. Sometimes details that are important to you will be removed, but this is because we want to protect your privacy as much as possible.

The Australian Human Rights Commission will securely keep the information you send for up to ten years, and only the Speaking from Experience project team will see it. A transcription service (writing it down) will briefly have access to audio recordings so they can turn them into written words. This information and the transcription service will follow the Commission’s Privacy Policy and the Australian Privacy Principles.

If we hear or read something in what you tell us that suggests that you or a child (under the age of 18) might be in danger, we might need to check in with you to make sure everyone is safe. In some cases, we might have to give this information to the police or child protection authorities.

We welcome submissions in written and audio format. They will be used in publicly available resources to promote safer workplaces.

You will not be asked to share information about your personal experiences of workplace sexual harassment. You will be asked, in a general way, about what you think needs to change to make workplaces safer.

If any submission we receive has names of individuals or workplaces in it, we will remove these before publication, although complete anonymity cannot be guaranteed.

If you've signed a confidentiality clause or non-disclosure agreement, and you want to make sure you are not breaking this agreement, please seek independent legal advice before taking part in Speaking from Experience.

If you have questions about the project or need help sending your submission, you can email the Speaking from Experience team at: speakingfromexperience@humanrights.gov.au

When you make your submission, we will ask if you would like to be sent a copy of the final resources. If you say that you want a copy of the final resources, we will send you an email in June/July 2025.