When journalist Tracey Spicer sent out a tweet in October 2017 asking if Australians had their own #MeToo stories, the secret was out.
Tales of sexual harassment from ordinary women and men in workplaces across the country began flooding her inbox and social media. And as the number of messages grew from the hundreds into the thousands, Tracey Spicer suddenly found herself at the centre of one of the most explosive and transformative issues in modern Australia.
However, rather than see the response from Australians simply as an opportunity to create a great story (which she has done in a three-part television special on ABC TV, Silent No More which is currently airing) like the thought leader she is, she also saw it as opportunity to find answers to what is a major problem in the workplace.
She wanted to start a conversation about what is and isn’t acceptable in the workplace, and to shine a light on the problem in order to find the solutions.
She wanted to ensure the next generation is not subjected to the same problem.
Tracy went on found Now Australia (which provides support to victims of sexual harassment in the workplace) and was joint winner (with Tarana Burke, US-based founder of the #MeToo movement) of the 2019 Sydney Peace prize for calling on the federal government to overhaul Australian defamation laws to ensure sexual harassment survivors are not condemned to silence.
