BENDIGO lawyer John McPherson is as keen as anyone to learn more about the #MeToo movement and its possible legal implications.
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He will have that opportunity when he emcees a Talking Justice seminar at the Goldfields Library next month with novelist, playwright and social commentator Van Badham.
Mr McPherson said that, as a man, it was his role to listen to women’s stories about sexual harassment in the workplace and elsewhere.
He said the law was often slow to catch up to social progress on women’s rights, but the #MeToo movement was forcing important discussions.
“It’s a reflection of the slowness that institutions can move on these matters,” Mr McPherson said.
“It’s not entirely coincidental that the time when Victoria started appointing female magistrates and judges, we’ve seen quite a bit of change in the law’s approach to sexual assault matters.
“We had to wait until the 1970s for the Equal Opportunities Act, and there were no women in judicial office until the 1980s. Marital rape was also legal at that time.
“All of that has changed now and rightly so, but clearly there is still more work to be done.”
The seminar will focus on weighing up concerns around due process and the presumption of innocence, with the rights of a victim to have a safe environment to share their stories.
More panelists will be announced in the coming weeks.
Talking Justice is organised by the Loddon Campaspe Community Legal Centre.
Executive officer Hayley Mansfield said the recently exposed abuse of a woman at Eaglehawk CFA demonstrated that regional Victoria and Bendigo were not removed from the circumstances that gave rise to the #MeToo movement.
Talking Justice was previously held over one weekend each year, but it has now been broken up into quarterly events to be able to better respond to “issues of the day”.
The Talking Justice #MeToo seminar will run from 5.30pm to 7pm on Thursday, May 17, at Bendigo Library. Bookings are essential.