A 23-year-old woman who claims she was grabbed by a guy at an Australian mining conference who demanded to be called “daddy” has detailed her experience on the front page of a local newspaper.
Amber Lilley, the deputy editor of the Kalgoorlie Miner, claims that she was grabbed and subjected to sexual advances by a guy during a gathering at a busy pub after the Diggers and Dealers Mining Forum that took place in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, last week.
The accusations were made public on Tuesday on the front page of the newspaper owned by The West Australian, according to Ms. Lilley, who wrote that she felt “weak, startled, and disgusted.”
According to Ms. Lilley’s account, “a guy in mining informed me he had a “rager” over me because I was wearing R.M. Williams boots and made an improper gesture.”
Then, as I moved through the throng and he followed, he told me to “call him daddy” and started touching me.
The fact that this could occur in a room full of people, many of whom I knew or knew about, startled, horrified, and made me feel vulnerable.
Police in West Australia and the guy’s employer have both received complaints against the man.
The 23-year-old said she was treated with the “utmost professionalism” during the conference but that sexist behaviour was commonplace at activities held after work all throughout the week.
Before making insulting remarks about her and other women, Ms. Lilley recalled, males would say, “off the record.”
These remarks, according to Ms. Lilley, “included how fantastic I looked in my costume, how maybe I should do skimpy bar work, how appreciative women should be for their present place in the field, and how there aren’t many female industry executives.”
The young journalist demanded an industry-wide overhaul, saying it would need a “relentless” effort to unearth a deeply ingrained misogynistic culture in the mining business.
It follows the discovery of a sexual assault and harassment culture in the FIFO (fly in, fly out) mining sector by a state-run investigation into sexual misbehaviour against women.
Nearly 100 responses were submitted for the investigation, which also looked into some of the largest miners in the state and government regulators.
It was revealed that BHP dismissed 48 employees over a two-year period for improper behaviour, while Rio Tinto had fired at least 12 employees in the previous year for sexual harassment or assault.
In the report titled “Enough is Enough,” which was presented to parliament by the inquiry’s chair and deputy leader of the WA Liberal Party, Ms. Elizabeth Mettam, 24 suggestions to safeguard female employees were made.
The scope and complexity of the issue “far beyond my expectations,” Ms. Mettam wrote.
This highlights the industry’s inability to safeguard its employees and begs the question of why the government did not handle this safety problem more effectively.
The only way to stop this disgusting behaviour is to call it out, discuss it, call attention to it, expose it, rail against it, prosecute it, and punish it.
A number of women’s accounts, including one who was “knocked unconscious in her donga and awakened to discover her slacks and underwear around her ankles,” are included in the study.
Another lady who had a close call with a huge truck she was operating was advised to engage in sexual activity with her supervisor in order for the safety inquiry to “go away.”
The same lady was advised that in order to get “her shirt,” which is another way of saying a permanent position with a mining business, she would need to “get on her knees.”
In an effort to combat sexual harassment, the Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western Australia issued an industry-wide directive on May 23 that restricted employees on lodging sites to four alcoholic drinks and zero shots per day.
Rob Carruthers, director of CME policy and advocacy, said the standard represented the industry’s commitment to make labour “as safe as possible at all times.”
Additionally, Mr. Carruthers stressed the need of having industry-wide guidelines that can be used at any business and promote sensible behaviour.