''I'm Proud I Spoke Out”

In 2010, when Kristy Fraser-Kirk called out the inappropriate behavior of her boss, the then CEO of David Jones, she was labelled a gold-digging bimbo. Yet a decade on, workplace sexual harassment in Australia is still rife, sanctioned by a system that is failing victims.

- Alexandra Carlton and Sarah Grant

She says it began, as it so often does, with a sleazy comment. But it didn’t end there. On May 23, 2010, Kristy Fraser-Kirk, then a 25-year-old junior publicist with retail powerhouse David Jones, was at lunch with several of her colleagues. They were there to celebrate a big PR win for the department store, and the wine and conversation flowed. Until it flowed, for Fraser-Kirk, into a dark place, one that she says she found to be “degrading” and a “complete abuse of power”. Fraser-Kirk was seated next to the company’s CEO, Mark McInnes, a man 20 years her senior and many rungs above her on the company ladder. As part of the subsequent sexual harassment case, Fraser-Kirk made a statement of claim, in which she detailed how McInnes leered that the dessert being served tasted like “a fuck in the mouth”. Later in the evening, she said, he would slide his hand under her jumper and touch her bra strap, then try to coax her to his apartment in Bondi, implying, she believed, that they would have sex there. At an event the following month, she says McInnes attempted to kiss her twice and persisted with the invitation to his apartment.

What followed, after Fraser-Kirk complained to her HR department and asked for a review into their workplace culture, was one of the most high-profile sexual harassment cases in Australian history, one that settled out of court and led to McInnes’ resignation (complete with a golden handshake, reported to be about $2 million). Fraser-Kirk was variously labeled a champion for women and a grasping gold-digger after her lawyers’ ambit claim of $37 million. She walked away with $850,000, much of which went towards her substantial legal bills. McInnes initially admitted to behaving in a manner unbecoming of the high standard expected of a CEO, but later denied most of the allegations.