CANBERRA, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Australian politician Julia Banks has taken aim at "appalling" and "undermining" behavior that is "widespread" in the nation's parliament.
Addressing to the House of Representatives late on Wednesday night, Banks said the behavior she had been subjected to "bullying, intimidation (and) harassment -- sexual or otherwise" during her brief parliamentary career.
Banks in August announced that she would not contest her seat of Chisholm in Melbourne's eastern suburbs at the next election, citing the downfall of former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and the "bullying and intimidation" of women in politics as "the last straw."
"In my political journey a culture of appalling behavior has been widespread, pervasive and undermining like white ants," she said on Wednesday night.
She said that retiring from politics was an "effective and palatable" response to the behavior she experienced.
"That's not the same as saying you're walking past the behavior," she explained, "Walking away is very powerful and there are many men, but particularly many women, in the workplace who have done this."
"Similarly, there are thousands would love to but can't afford to for a raft of reasons."
Banks dedicated her speech to people who were not in a position to speak out about harassment for fear of backlash.
A landmark report released by Australia's Human Rights Commission on Wednesday revealed that 39 percent of females and 26 percent of males had been sexually harassed at work in the last five years but only 17 percent reported the incident.
"These are usually the same reasons that prevent women from calling out or filling official reports for their behavior, so to all those women this speech is for you," Banks said.
