Attorney General Tara Cheyne revealed she had been sexually assault more than 20 years ago. Photo: Thomas Lucraft.
CONTENT WARNING: This article discusses a claim of sexual assault.
Attorney General Tara Cheyne has publicly revealed for the first time that she was sexually assaulted more than 20 years ago.
“It was in my early 20s, I know I haven’t ever spoken about it. It was incredibly demoralising and yet I also didn’t speak about it because it was by a stranger.”
The Attorney General said she didn’t talk about the incident because she was worried how people would react.
“I have some unresolved trauma from it because I felt too ashamed to talk to anybody at the time,” she said.
“I pushed it out of my memory.”
Ms Cheyne spoke about the incident as the Legislative Assembly debated a motion brought by independent MLA Thomas Emerson, calling on the government to make concrete commitments to improving women’s safety while exercising through behaviour change, intervention programs and infrastructure improvements.
“I come to this … as a person who has been sexually assaulted, in public, in broad daylight,” she said.
“I don’t want to make it about me, but what I’m trying to do is demonstrate … women are unsafe everywhere.
“It doesn’t matter about the lighting, footpaths, whether you’re in the home or somewhere else — all these places, women’s lives are at risk.”
Ms Cheyne also took aim at the motion itself.
“I think perhaps if Mr Emerson had partnered with women who have lived experience … it would have been certainly a better product and we wouldn’t be in the mess that we’re in with all these amendments which I note have been entirely circulated by women with the exception of what Mr Emerson circulated before,” she said.
Minister for Women Dr Marisa Paterson, who brought amendments to the motion, said the issue of safety was not as simple as improving infrastructure.
“I feel quite a sense of frustration with this motion. If addressing women’s safety was simply about fixing footpaths we would not be in this position today,” she said.
Mr Emerson had called on the government to take targeted action to support women’s safety when exercising.
“It’s not acceptable that Canberra is a place where women don’t feel safe exercising at night,” Mr Emerson said.
“I’ve heard from so many women who are concerned about their safety and want to be able to exercise safely during the day and at night.”
Mr Emerson’s motion was backed by the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre, Living Streets, Menslink, Pedal Power and Every Street Matters.
Anti-sexual violence campaigner Kim Elms, who first raised the issue with Mr Emerson, spoke strongly in favour of the motion ahead of the debate.
“I’m a lived survivor of domestic violence and sexual assault and harassment while running, all separate incidents,” she said.
“We can do easy things in the community, simple solutions, improving lighting, improving footpaths, the infrastructure is there. Just fix what’s there. Make it accessible.
“Women, we’re already doing enough. You know, we can’t buy any bigger head torches than we’ve already got.”
Thomas Emerson consulted with community leaders (left to right) MensLink CEO Ben Gathercole, Pedal Power executive director Cecily Michaels and anti-sexual violence campaigner Kim Elms ahead of his motion. Photo: Nicholas Ward.
Canberra Rape Crisis Centre CEO Tiffany Karlsson said although most assaults were by people known to the victim and occurred within their homes, these changes could still make big differences.
“We have a lot of people seeking out support who have been victims of sexual violence by strangers who have been taking the opportunity to sexually assault people who cross their paths,” she said.
“So having more safety features, lighting and so on would be a great preventative action.”
Mr Emerson thanked Ms Cheyne for sharing her story in his closing statements on the debate.
Defending the motion, he said it was unfortunate the way the debate had unfolded.
“The original intent of the motion was quite clearly not to provide a comprehensive response to the gendered violence epidemic,” Mr Emerson said.
“Of course it would be insulting to suggest lighting would be the solution to this crisis.”
He said amendments brought by Dr Paterson expanded the motion beyond its original intent to address safety when exercising and removed the elements of the motion that provided practical steps to improve safety when exercising.
He successfully re-added points to the amended motion to highlight exercise safety.
“This was about targeted measures, practical measures that we could take, that the government can and should be implementing to respond to specific recent incidents that have occurred and have been experienced by women while exercising,” Mr Emerson said.
If this story has raised any concerns for you, 1800RESPECT, the national 24-hour sexual assault, family and domestic violence counselling line, can be contacted on 1800 737 732. Help and support are also available through the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre on 02 6247 2525, the Domestic Violence Crisis Service ACT 02 6280 0900, the Sexual Violence Legal Services on 6257 4377 and Lifeline on 13 11 14. In an emergency, call Triple Zero.
