ABC journalist Ashleigh Raper never intended to make a complaint after being sexually harassed by NSW Opposition Leader Luke Foley at a Christmas party in 2016. The incident involved Foley placing his hand down the back of her dress and inside her underpants and was witnessed by fellow political reporter Sean Nicholls. She specifically asked Nicholls to support her decision not to make a formal complaint, which he respected. But when Liberal Corrections Minister David Elliot raised the matter using parliamentary privilege last month in Sydney and Canberra – without Raper’s involvement or consent – she was forced to go public against her will.

“A woman who is the subject of such behaviour is often the person who suffers once a complaint is made,” said Raper in her public statement released on Thursday, defending her decision not to go public earlier.