Who We are?

Sexual Harassment Australia is a branch of A Whole New Approach Pty Ltd whom is a legal advocacy company that has represented employees throughout all states of Australia since 2004 (10,000 plus claims).

At the time of inception, AWNA principal Gary Pinchen (whom has three daughters of his own) was getting more and more destressed by the level of sexual harassment and related enquires throughout Australia, and the decision was made to start representing employees at various Australian state and federal bodies. Our advocacy movement was formed ahead of its’ time and way before the worldwide ‘me too’ movement.

Many women whom have been victims of sexual harassment suffer in silence and the majority of sexual harassment claims also settle on a confidential basis. Why is this? … It’s commonly due to the majority of victims wanting to just ‘move on’ in their life and to heal from the incident, in addition to of course rightly seeking justice and compensation for their suffering. Some people are however unable to choose this course of action due to a myriad of reasons – so we decided to take care of these particular women and to get them the justice that they deserve.

Sexual harassment in Australian workplaces has changed dramatically since our inception almost. Specifically, the workplace culture in 2004 consisted of majorly males throughout various levels of management and of whom ‘would just try it on’ with their female employees. Many women during this time have  experienced the immense pressure of needing to have sex with fellow colleagues, just to keep their jobs / overtime / promotions and pay increases.

Now the workplace environment is more covert, males act in a more predatory behaviour. The way I put it, Lions in the jungle don’t stalk, attack the biggest Wilder beast, biggest Cape Horn buffalo ,

They look for the one separated from the herd, the one limping along, the mother caring for its calf.

Males do this in the workplace, grooming young women, who need a job, just want to fit in, impressed by the bosses status, wealth, women who are victims of domestic violence, who do not have the energy to push back,

Recently separated, divorced, or widowed women. Women from lower social economic backgrounds, I know the post codes around Australia where women come from who get sexual harassed.

Claims we lodge now need to be more sophisticated, more detailed, you need to make your case, not just send a few facts on line to an equal opportunity, and let them sort it out.

The biggest difficulty I current see is women on our web site and phone calls make legitimate enquires, very few over the years pursue the claims, It’s of course their right not to.

But there is distinct trend in my view,

Even in 2022, most women know they have rights, that women do not feel empowered enough that you can take on larger companies wealthy individuals, and others will believe them.

In my submission it’s no longer about education, rights, it’s about empowerment, advances have to be made, this all has to be done with the encouragement of veracious claims