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Speaker 1: You're listening to a Muma Mia podcast. Mamma MEA acknowledges

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Speaker 1: the traditional owners of land and waters that this podcast

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Speaker 1: is recorded on.

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Speaker 2: A quick heads up. This episode talks about sexual assault. Hey,

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Speaker 2: I'm Taybor Strano. This is MMA MIA's twice daily news podcast.

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Speaker 2: The Quickie New Crime Daty here in Australia paints a

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Speaker 2: devastating picture. Reports of sexual assault have surged, with more

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Speaker 2: than forty thousand victim survivors coming forward in just one year,

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Speaker 2: the highest rate in over two decades. But what do

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Speaker 2: these numbers really tell us about the state of reporting

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Speaker 2: sexual abuse in Australia? Is this actually just the tip

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Speaker 2: of the iceberg before we get there? Here's Claire Murphy

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Speaker 2: with the latest from the Quickie newsroom for Tuesday, September.

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Speaker 1: Nine, Thanks Taylor. The three missing children of a fugitive

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Speaker 1: in New Zealand have been found after their father was

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Speaker 1: shot and killed by police. Tom Phillips went on the

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Speaker 1: run in December twenty twenty one. He was in the

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Speaker 1: midst of a hustdy dispute with their mother, taking their

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Speaker 1: three children and vanishing. It's belief they've lived in the

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Speaker 1: New Zealand wilderness ever since, but despite numerous sightings and

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Speaker 1: an eighty thousand dollars reward, they remained missing for the

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Speaker 1: next four years. A witness called police in the early

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Speaker 1: hours of Monday morning to say she'd spotted Phillips and

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Speaker 1: his eldest daughter after an attempted burglary of a rural

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Speaker 1: farm supplies store on the North Island. Phillips and the

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Speaker 1: girl took off on quad bikes, but were stopped by

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Speaker 1: police who laid road spikes. When Phillips was approached by

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Speaker 1: an officer, Phillips shot him in the head. He remains

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Speaker 1: in a critical condition. Another officer arrived shortly after shooting

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Speaker 1: Phillips dead. The daughter was taken into custody, where she

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Speaker 1: provided the information that led them to her siblings. The

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Speaker 1: children's mother saying she's deeply relieved and is looking forward

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Speaker 1: to welcoming them home with love and care. The identity

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Speaker 1: of a man dubbed the Moor Park rapist till Sydney's

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Speaker 1: night Stalker, has finally been revealed, more than thirty years

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Speaker 1: after the attacks. Glen Gary Cameron is accused of sexually

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Speaker 1: assaulting at least ten women in Moore Park and says

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Speaker 1: in a West between nineteen ninety one and ninety three.

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Speaker 1: Then now sixty one year old was arrested at Sydney

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Speaker 1: International Airport in February last year, but his identity was

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Speaker 1: suppressed until the order was lifted earlier this year. Police

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Speaker 1: alleged Cameron, who would have been in his late twenties

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Speaker 1: at the time of the attacks, threatened the women with

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Speaker 1: knives before assaulting them. Some were also beaten. He was

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Speaker 1: implicated in the crimes after a forensic review of the

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Speaker 1: cases using modern DNA and fingerprint technologies. He's currently facing

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Speaker 1: thirty four charges, but despite being arrested more than a

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Speaker 1: year ago, is still to enter a plea. Both parties

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Speaker 1: reportedly still working on agreeing to the facts of the case.

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Speaker 1: The Australian e Safety Commissioner has added six new codes

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Speaker 1: to the Online Safety Act that will limit the ability

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Speaker 1: of children to speak to AI chatbots. Julian Van Grant

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Speaker 1: says there's been increasing reports of children as young as

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Speaker 1: ten spending hours a day speaking with AI bots, many

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Speaker 1: of them having conversations that are sexual in nature. The

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Speaker 1: new codes would require age verification of users if they

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Speaker 1: attempt to access harmful content. The move comes As the

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Speaker 1: deadline approaches for the deactivation of social media accounts for

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Speaker 1: Australian children under the age of sixteen, the platforms told

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Speaker 1: it's on them to identify the accounts and have them

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Speaker 1: removed by December ten. The man who was arrested last

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Speaker 1: year for an alleged assassination attempt on then presidential candidate

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Speaker 1: Donald Trump has begun his trial. Ryan Routh was arrested

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Speaker 1: after he was spotted hiding in the bushes near Trump's

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Speaker 1: golf club in West Palm Beach during the twenty twenty

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Speaker 1: four campaign. It's alleged he intended to shoot Trump during

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Speaker 1: his round, but was seen by a Secret Service agent

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Speaker 1: When Trump was still a few hundred yards away. The

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Speaker 1: agent opened fire, forcing Routh to flee the scene before

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Speaker 1: ever firing a shot. He's pleaded not guilty to all

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Speaker 1: five charges and has chosen to fire his legal team

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Speaker 1: to represent himself. The US district judge rejecting questions he

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Speaker 1: proposed during jury selection, including some about pro Palestinian activism

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Speaker 1: and Trump's support for a US takeover of Greenland. Actors

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Speaker 1: Olivia Coleman, Javier Bardem and Amy lou Wood are among

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Speaker 1: more than thirteen one hundred film workers who've signed a

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Speaker 1: pledge refusing to work with Israeli film institutions implicated in

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Speaker 1: genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people. The Film Workers

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Speaker 1: for Palestine pledge was also signed by Susan Sarandon, Mark Ruffalo,

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Speaker 1: Riz Ahmed, Tilda Swinton, Julia Swala, Miriam Marghalese, Ken Loach,

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Speaker 1: and Juliet Stephenson. The joint statement by the group read,

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Speaker 1: as filmmakers, actors, film industry, workers and institutions, we recognize

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Speaker 1: the power of cinema to shape perceptions. In this urgent

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Speaker 1: moment of crisis, where many of our governments are enabling

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Speaker 1: the carnage in Gaza, we must do everything we can

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Speaker 1: to address complicity in that unrelenting horror. It goes on

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Speaker 1: to say that inspired by filmmakers United Against Apartheid who

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Speaker 1: refuse to screen their films in apartheid South Africa, they

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Speaker 1: pledge not to screen films, appear at, or otherwise work

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Speaker 1: with Israeli film institutions, including festivals, cinemas, broadcasters and production

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Speaker 1: companies that are implicated in genocide and apartheid against the

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Speaker 1: Palestinian people. The group said that the majority many of

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Speaker 1: Israel's film companies have never endorsed the full internationally recognized

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Speaker 1: rights of the Palestinian people, and added that it was

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Speaker 1: despite operating an Israel's system of apartheid and therefore benefiting

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Speaker 1: from it. A small group of family members, colleagues and

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Speaker 1: close friends have attended a private funeral for legendary Italian

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Speaker 1: fashion designer Giorgio Omani, who died last week at the

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Speaker 1: age of ninety one. The service was held at the

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Speaker 1: Church of San Martino in Revolta, a village close to Piacenza,

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Speaker 1: the city where he was born. Italian media is reporting

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Speaker 1: that Amani would later be cremated and his ashes laid

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Speaker 1: to rest in his family chapel in Revolta that houses

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Speaker 1: the remains of his parents and older brother. In a

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Speaker 1: mark of respect. Armani's stores closed on Monday afternoon. The

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Speaker 1: city of Milan, Armani's base since its family moved there

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Speaker 1: in the late nineteen forties, also held the day of

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Speaker 1: Mourning Thanks Claire.

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Speaker 2: Next. What the new sexual assault statistics reveal about Australia.

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Speaker 2: The Australian Bureau of Statistic has just released its annual

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Speaker 2: crime snapshot, painting a concerning picture for the state of

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Speaker 2: sexual Abuse. In twenty twenty four, police recorded forty thousand

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Speaker 2: and eighty seven victim survivors of sexual assault. That's up

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Speaker 2: ten percent from the previous year. The sexual assault victimization

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Speaker 2: rate also rose up from one hundred and thirty to

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Speaker 2: one hundred and forty seven reported cases at per one

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Speaker 2: hundred thousand people. That's the highest level since the ABS

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Speaker 2: began releasing data in nineteen ninety three. Every state and

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Speaker 2: territory saw an increase in reports, with New South Wales

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Speaker 2: driving the largest jump at twelve percent, followed by Queensland

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Speaker 2: and Victoria. We also know the majority of victim survivors

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Speaker 2: who reported were female at more than eighty percent, and

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Speaker 2: two and five of those reports came from someone age

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Speaker 2: between ten and seventeen years old. Again, two and five

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Speaker 2: reports of sexual assault were family or domestic violence related.

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Speaker 2: Seeing these numbers spelled out is alarming. The conversation has

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Speaker 2: been bubbling over for years now. Australia has a domestic

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Speaker 2: violence problem. Australia has a sexual assault problem. Two things

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Speaker 2: that are not inherently linked, but given the figures ak

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Speaker 2: forty one percent of those recorded cases are FDV stories.

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Speaker 2: We already know to be true, now solidified by the

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Speaker 2: latest ABS figures. According to Australian Femicide Watch by Scherrelle Moody,

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Speaker 2: forty eight women have been killed by a person known

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Speaker 2: to them so far this year. Experts warn these numbers

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Speaker 2: from the ABS aren't even close to the true picture.

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Speaker 2: Only an estimated eight percent of victim survivors actually report

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Speaker 2: to police. That means the real number could be more

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Speaker 2: than ten times higher. There are lots of reasons why

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Speaker 2: people choose not to report what's happened to them. We'll

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Speaker 2: get to that in a moment, but first, the National

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Speaker 2: Association of Services against Sexual Violence told the ABC these

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Speaker 2: figures are just the tip of the iceberg, and until

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Speaker 2: early intervention, robust prevention strategies and real investment are prioritized,

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Speaker 2: the crisis will only deepen. What about other crime well,

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Speaker 2: the data shows theft and homicide are also on the rise,

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Speaker 2: with thefts at their highest in twenty years, majority occurring

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Speaker 2: at retail locations, and a nine percent jump in homicide

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Speaker 2: victims compared to last year. Still, the overwhelming story for

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Speaker 2: these statistics is the sheer, scale, persistence, and underreporting of

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Speaker 2: sexual violence in Australia, So what comes next, how do

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Speaker 2: we change the trajectory, and what support is available for

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Speaker 2: those who need it now? To help us answer those

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Speaker 2: questions were joined by full Stop Australia Chief executive Karen Bevn. Karen,

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Speaker 2: more than forty thousand reports of sexual assault? What did

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Speaker 2: you make of this shocking increase?

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Speaker 3: Look, I'd like to say I was surprised, but I'm not.

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Speaker 3: We've been running rape and sexual violence top lines for

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Speaker 3: more than fifty years, so we know that there is

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Speaker 3: an extensive experience of rape and sexual assault in our

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Speaker 3: community that is underreported. However, I think all of us

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Speaker 3: would feel shocked by these numbers this year in the community.

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Speaker 3: I think people have a sense that maybe this is

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Speaker 3: something that doesn't happen very often. It's happening every day,

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Speaker 3: and it's happening to people from all walks of life,

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Speaker 3: primarily women and girls. So we know from the data

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Speaker 3: that women and girls are overrepresented. They're about eighty percent

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Speaker 3: of all victims of rape and sexual assault. But really

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Speaker 3: it's happening across our community. Research tells us that ninety

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Speaker 3: or more than ninety percent of people who've been subject

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Speaker 3: to rape and sexual assault never report. So we know

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Speaker 3: this is a real challenge in our community, and we

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Speaker 3: know we're not talking about it or responding enough.

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Speaker 2: Okay, I want to circle back to that ninety percent

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Speaker 2: figure in a moment. Given the numbers that we have

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Speaker 2: been dealt from the ABS over forty thousand, that is

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Speaker 2: still very, very high. Why do you think that number

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Speaker 2: is so high?

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Speaker 3: If you look at the context of rape and sexual assault,

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Speaker 3: it happens in the context of really disturbing attitudes towards

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Speaker 3: women and knowing that women are largely the people who

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Speaker 3: are carrying the most significant burden of this kind of violence.

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Speaker 3: We're dealing with a significant growth in technology enabled abuse

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Speaker 3: and violence. We're also living in a community where we

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Speaker 3: don't talk about rape and sexual assault, and what that

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Speaker 3: means is that people can use this behavior almost at

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Speaker 3: times with impunity. Research with people who use sexual violence

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Speaker 3: tells us that they do not feel that they will

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Speaker 3: be caught. So all of those things sort of come

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Speaker 3: together as a bit of a perfect storm as to

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Speaker 3: why these figures get so high.

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Speaker 2: So this number is not necessarily than a true reflection

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Speaker 2: of the current state of sexual assault in Australia.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely not so. Research done in the last decade has

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Speaker 3: told us that in Australia about eight percent of people

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Speaker 3: who've been subject to rape and sexual assault report, and

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Speaker 3: many of them only reported because they didn't want somebody

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Speaker 3: else to experience what they experienced. So much of the

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Speaker 3: reporting that happens around rape and sexual assault is very

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Speaker 3: much what we consider benevolent reporting, i e. Something terrible

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Speaker 3: happened to me, I want this person not to be

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Speaker 3: allowed to do it to someone else. That is such

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Speaker 3: an insight into what's going on here. There is a

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Speaker 3: real lack of trust in our institutional response from police

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Speaker 3: and the courts, and that does stop people from reporting.

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Speaker 3: And then when you wrap around it the kind of

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Speaker 3: rape myths that turn sexual assault around and make it

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Speaker 3: seem like the victims responsible, there are a lot of

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Speaker 3: barriers to reporting.

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Speaker 2: Well, Karen, what are some of those reasons that might

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Speaker 2: stop someone from reporting what's happened to them?

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Speaker 3: So many people are fearful that they won't be believed.

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Speaker 3: People believe that if they tell their story that they'll

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Speaker 3: be blamed. We know that rape myths like what were

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Speaker 3: you wearing, did you drink too much? Did you do

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Speaker 3: something to make this happen? That's internalized in so many

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Speaker 3: of us. So a lot of the reasons people don't

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Speaker 3: report can be around that. The second thing is they

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Speaker 3: don't think they'll be believed by police, so they're scared

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Speaker 3: of what will happen when they tell their story.

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Speaker 2: And then I think.

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Speaker 3: There is a real concern that people keep hearing about

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Speaker 3: what happens when you go through the justice system as

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Speaker 3: a person who's been subject to rape and sexual assault,

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Speaker 3: and let's be honest, you know, most of what we

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Speaker 3: hear is pretty disturbing and suggest that system may in

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Speaker 3: fact cause you more harm. So all of those factors

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Speaker 3: come together to make it, you know, quite challenging for

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Speaker 3: someone to believe that reporting will meet their aim of

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Speaker 3: trying to stop this person from doing it to someone

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Speaker 3: else or achieve any form of justice for them. There

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Speaker 3: are definitely ways we can make that better, and a

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Speaker 3: lot of work is happening across police forces across the country.

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Speaker 3: We've recently had a major review into our justice system

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Speaker 3: and how it treats victim survivors of sexual violence, and

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Speaker 3: there are some changes on the way.

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Speaker 1: Let me say, it's not.

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Speaker 3: Fast enough, and it's not enough, and there's not enough

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Speaker 3: money to do it really well. But change is happening,

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Speaker 3: and i'd always stay to people if you would like

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Speaker 3: to report this, we will be behind you all the way,

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Speaker 3: and so will sexual assault services all across this country.

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Speaker 2: Some of the reasons that you've listed there, Karen, things

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Speaker 2: like those myths of well, what were you wearing, how

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Speaker 2: much were you drinking? Did you put yourself in this situation?

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Speaker 2: A lot of that stuff is maybe reserved for a

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Speaker 2: certain type of victim survivor, and as we know, there

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Speaker 2: is no such thing as a perfect victim survivor. These

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Speaker 2: recent starts from the ABS actually detail quite a varied

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Speaker 2: range of people who were reporting, two in five of

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Speaker 2: them under the age of seventeen. Is there one that

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Speaker 2: this affects more than any other or is this something

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Speaker 2: that everybody should be responsible for for everybody else out

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Speaker 2: in the community.

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Speaker 3: First of all, it happens right across the lifespan, so

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Speaker 3: we don't talk about it, but older women are subject

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Speaker 3: to rape and sexual assault every day. But these stats

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Speaker 3: do highlight that children and young people age ten to seventeen,

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Speaker 3: we have seen a significant number of reports relating to

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Speaker 3: that age rage, so we know that there are increased

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Speaker 3: reports This is really consistent with all of the research

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Speaker 3: data we have about the sheer volume of sexual assault

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Speaker 3: that happens to people under eighteen. So the Australian Child

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Speaker 3: Male Treatments Survey found that one in three girls and

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Speaker 3: one in five boys, so that's one in four Australian

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Speaker 3: children will experience some form of sexual violence as a child.

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Speaker 3: So it's very consistent with those findings. We know that

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Speaker 3: there's a mix of what's going on in that child

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Speaker 3: and young person group between at all perpetrated child sexual abuse,

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Speaker 3: which still happens, it's happening in families, it happens in

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Speaker 3: broader networks, but we're also seeing sexual harm happening between

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Speaker 3: children and young people and that's an area of growing concern.

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Speaker 3: But let me be clear, sexual violence is happening right

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Speaker 3: across the life course and solutions that are only focused

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Speaker 3: on one group will not change these situations. All kinds

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Speaker 3: of people are experienced sexual violence. While eighty one percent

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Speaker 3: of people who've reported sexual violence are women, we also

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Speaker 3: know that it's really over represented in LGBTQ plus communities,

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Speaker 3: that Aboriginal women and women of culturally diverse backgrounds are

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Speaker 3: overrepresented in these figures. So it's a complex connection between

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Speaker 3: people's experience, their age, and other life factors that might

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Speaker 3: make someone more vulnerable or more likely to have experienced

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Speaker 3: sexual violence.

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Speaker 2: Karen, in your opinion, what needs to change them?

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Speaker 3: So there's a couple of things we need to do.

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Speaker 3: I have to say, I think we need to address

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Speaker 3: the fact that our institutions have failed victim survivors of

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Speaker 3: sexual violence. So we have failed them in the courts,

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Speaker 3: we have failed them in investigation, and we have failed

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Speaker 3: them in responding to their requests for help. So I

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Speaker 3: think we absolutely have to hold our institutions accountable and

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Speaker 3: do that work and fund it properly so that when

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Speaker 3: people do speak up, they are actually responded to in

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Speaker 3: a trauma informed way and supported through their journey of

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Speaker 3: whatever justice looks like for them. So I think we

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Speaker 3: need to do that. We've also got to really elevate

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Speaker 3: the conversation about sexual violence because the most important thing

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Speaker 3: is that every single person in this country can make

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Speaker 3: a difference on this every single day, whether it be

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Speaker 3: making sure that we're checking in with our friends and

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Speaker 3: listening to them when they're telling us things that might

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Speaker 3: make them uncomfortable.

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Speaker 2: It might be.

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Speaker 3: Addressing some of those rape myths in our family and

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Speaker 3: in our community. We absolutely can start to unpick some

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Speaker 3: of that. We can do that in the way that

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Speaker 3: we behave online as well. Institutionally, our governments need to

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Speaker 3: get involved and really invest. The other thing we absolutely

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Speaker 3: can and must do is make sure that when people

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Speaker 3: seek help after experiencing rape and sexual assault that we've

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Speaker 3: actually got services available. So if we run a twenty

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Speaker 3: four hour helpline here in New South Wales, the Sexual

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Speaker 3: Violence Helpline nationally one eight hundred full Stop, there are

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Speaker 3: a number of services so we're they're in that moment

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Speaker 3: anytime of the day or night. Access to sexual assault

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Speaker 3: counseling and ongoing face to face support is really limited

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Speaker 3: in this country. Governments for years have underinvested in response

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Speaker 3: and we need that to change.

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Speaker 2: Thanks for taking some time to feed your mind with

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Speaker 2: us today. If you or someone you know needs to

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Speaker 2: speak to an expert, help is available, you can contact

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Speaker 2: one eight hundred RESPECT. That's the National Domestic Family and

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Speaker 2: Sexual Violence Counseling Service on one eight hundred seven three

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Speaker 2: seven seven three two. The Quikie is produced by me

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Speaker 2: Tabor Strano and Clare Murphy with audio production by Lou Hill.