In short: 

New data shows women continue to face high rates of harassment in defence training facilities.

Defence was forced to release the documents by the Senate. 

What's next?

The royal commission into veteran suicide has recommended federal government do more to stop sexual violence in defence. 

abc.net.au/news/defence-adf-sexual-harassment-violence-politics-news/104372264

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Women training in the Australian Defence Force (ADF) are facing increasing rates of harassment despite a number of inquiries exposing the issue.

The results from the 2023 Workplace Behaviours Survey — only released to the public under an order from the Senate — show women are at significantly higher risk of general and sexual harassment in ADF institutions than men.

The figures follow recommendations from the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide to investigate the prevalence and impact of sexual violence within the ADF more broadly.

The commission found, while men in the ADF were subjected to sexual misconduct, women were far more likely to be targeted — something reinforced in these latest survey statistics.

Just one institution manages to bring down rates in 2023

The ADF's careers website proudly tells women they can "do what you love, without limits."

But that's not the experience of many training to join the armed forces according to the latest survey results that are broken down across a number of different institutions in the ADF:

The Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA), Royal Australian Naval College (RANC), Royal Australian Navy Recruit School (RANRS), Royal Military College Duntroon (RMC-D), 1st Recruit Training Battalion (1RTB), No. 1 Recruit Training Unit (1RTU) and Officer Training School (OTS).

Of the seven institutions, rates of unacceptable behaviour directed towards women — which takes in harassment, bullying and violence — have dropped at just one: ADFA, with more than half of women saying they'd been subjected to it.

At the Royal Australian Naval College and Officer Training School rates remained stable, with 58 per cent and 39 per cent of women respectively reporting it in the survey.

All other institutions saw their rates climb in 2023, with the biggest increases at RANRS and 1RTB of 15 per cent each.

Sexual harassment has also remained persistent, though more institutions have managed to bring those rates down.

At ADFA in 2023, women were almost seven times more likely to say they had been subject to sexual harassment than men, with 13 per cent of women saying they'd experienced it.

The survey found at RANC, men and women were similarly likely to be harassed overall but women were almost five times more likely to be sexually harassed, with 14 per cent reporting it had happened to them.

At RANRS, OTS and RMC-Duntroon women said they were sexually harassed at five times the rate of men in their institutions.

Trust in their senior colleagues to handle matters sensitively and confidentially was a key issue listed by those who chose not to come forward with official complaints.

Women training at Duntroon had significantly less faith in management to handle these issues effectively than their male colleagues did.

While rates remain high at a number of training locations, there is some progress being made.

At ADFA, rates of sexual harassment reported to the survey have dropped from 36 per cent to 13 per cent between 2021 and 2023.

At Duntroon, it went from 27 per cent to 10 per cent during that time.

'When I was deployed to Iraq I was issued a rape whistle … one of our biggest threats was being raped on base.'

These latest figures come more than a decade after the federal government commissioned the Human Rights Commission to review the treatment of women in the ADF.

It found some ADF workplaces are highly sexualised environments, which 'could be particularly degrading to women'.

A 2018 study commissioned by defence found sexual violence perpetrated against men is likely to be under-reported, though women are still disproportionately affected.

"The reported prevalence across different militaries demonstrate that a significant number of men in the ADF will have experiences of sexual violence," it said.

The release of these recent statistics reinforces the finding of the royal commission into veterans suicides that sexual violence remains a persistent problem within defence.

During the hearings, ex-serving ADF member and Director of Veterans Retreat, Ms Kylie James described the threats experienced by women from their fellow servicemen.

"It astounds a lot of the male veterans when I tell them when I deployed to Iraq I was issued a rape whistle," she said.

"Their minds are blown because they weren't… We were given a separate brief and that was one of our biggest threats, was being raped on base."

Government coy on whether they'll follow all recommendations

The royal commission has made a number of recommendations to try and tackle the issue, including calling on the federal government to commission independent research on military sexual trauma and urgently ensure the ADF has a complete and reliable record of all serving members who have been convicted of sexual offences.

The ABC asked Defence Minister Richard Marles if the government would commit to following those recommendations.

His office did not directly address those questions but in a statement said the survey results show there is more work to be done.

"The government also remains committed to delivering the thrust of the recommendations outlined in the royal commission's final report and is steadfast in its commitment to defence personnel, veterans and their families."

NSW Greens Senator David Shoebridge, who pushed for defence to release the documents, said this data should be used to remove senior staff who have failed to provide a safe workplace.

"It's little wonder defence tried to hide this data, because it shows how defence leadership have utterly failed to deal with bullying, harassment and other unacceptable behaviour in the organisation.

"Perhaps one of the most telling facts is that only one in five women in defence made a complaint about unacceptable behaviour they experienced, too often the reason they give is that no one in a leadership position would have done anything about it."