Experts say a gap in the reporting of sexual assault and harassment in the public service needs to be addressed. 

Employment lawyer Paloma Cole says; “We have no idea about how prevalent an issue [sexual assault and harassment] is in the APS”, as numbers are not centrally collected and agencies are typically unwilling to reveal figures.

Just three out of 14 federal departments have provided figures on sexual assault and harassment when asked by reporters.

Defence, Finance and Health appear to have been willing to provide figures for the 2019-20 financial year, but others refused to state the number of complaints, allegations or investigations undertaken within the period.

Departments tend to hide behind alleged privacy and confidentiality concerns.

Ms Cole said any numbers put out by departments are likely to be just a fraction of the true number.

“Australians expect that people employed by the government [will] be safe at work, they expect that if a particular department has recurring reports of inappropriate conduct that action will be taken to address that, that investigations will be made into why that might be,” she told reporters this week.

Ms Cole pointed to existing mechanisms that force private employers to report gender equality indicators to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, and quesitoned why that could not be expanded to include data on complaints relating to sexual harassment and assault.

“At the moment, there isn't that positive obligation on employers to keep those records and to report that information [and] that needs to change,” she said. 

She also suggested amending the Sex Discrimination Act to include public servants.