The former Albury student who lodged a sexual harassment complaint against Barnaby Joyce says she should not have to reveal the details of what happened.
Catherine Marriott, who grew up on a farm near Benalla and attended Scots School Albury before moving to Western Australia, appeared on the ABC’s 7.30 program on Tuesday night to speak about how “all hell broke loose”.
“I don’t want to be someone who is defined by that incident. I want to be able to have a career where the first thing people think about when they meet me is not ‘oh, that happened to her’,” she said.
“I don’t want to be in a position where I’m a victim, I want to be in a position where I can continue the work that I have.”
It is alleged Mr Joyce sexually harassed Ms Marriott in August 2016 while he was still agriculture minister, which he denies.
She she was in tears and could not sleep for a week.
The incident was reported confidentially to the NSW Nationals in February this year, but Ms Marriott’s name was then leaked.
“I was living with this guilt and this growing anger about the fact I had spent my entire career building capacity in other people to stand up for you believe in and yet I didn’t have the strength in myself to stand up to that,” she told 7.30.
“If I went to the police it was me vs him, which is a toxic space to be in and will create no outcome to anyone else.”
She did not want to go through the long and expensive process of court, but did want to help raise awareness of the issue in workplaces.
“I wasn’t brought up to run away from things that frighten me, although it took me some time to build up some courage,” Ms Marriott said.
This article first appeared in the Border Mail
