Sovereign Hill’s board has appointed former Sex Discrimination Commissioner Susan Halliday to lead its investigation into sexual harassment allegations, reported exclusively in The Courier last week.
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Ms Halliday is a former assistant director of the Business Council of Australia and the Council for Equal Opportunity in Employment.
The board has also appointed harassment research and policy firm Rapid Context to run an independent review of Sovereign Hill’s harassment and discrimination policies and procedures.
The appointments follow allegations made by current and former staff of sexual assault and embarrassment by a male employee at the popular tourist attraction, and of a culture that supported the non-reporting of such behaviour.
In a press release issued by Sovereign Hill, they state:
“In appointing Ms Susan Halliday and Dr Samantha Crompvoets and her team from Rapid Context, the Board has enlisted two highly qualified and experienced experts to lead two very important processes.
“We are resolute in our attempts to ensure that, as a workplace, Sovereign Hill lives its values of fairness, respect and integrity every day and that, as a community organisation, we are forever cognisant of our social license to operate.
“We are confident that in the appointment of Susan and Samantha a full and frank investigation and review will be carried out and we are committed to implementing any recommendations that may come forward. We will work with the examiners in coming days as terms of reference and scope are finalised.”
The appointments come as the board also resolved to begin a search for a new CEO, and to maintain the position of current CEO Jeremy Johnson until mid-year.