Information is Power. Withholding Information is Abuse of Power.

Information is power. When legally required information is withheld, power becomes control.

International Women’s Day is a day of declarations.

Of leadership.

Of equality.

Of commitment to dignity.

In March 2021, while public messages celebrated gender equality, my voice was being systematically narrowed — not by accident, but through silence, assumption, and the withholding of information.

I was not empowered.

I was not informed.

I was not protected.

I was silenced.

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The Optics

On 8 March 2021, staff received a message from the Vice-Chancellor celebrating International Women’s Day and the University’s tenth consecutive Workplace Gender Equality Agency citation (https://www.wgea.gov.au). It spoke of a “continued focus on equity, diversity and inclusion” and a “shared commitment” to gender equality.

Union communications throughout February and March discussed enterprise bargaining, workloads, digital change, and gender equity campaigns.

National campaign messaging focused on insecure work and collective action.

There were elections to organise.

Committees to populate.

Statements of equality to issue.

The messaging was active.

The rhetoric was strong.

But equality is not measured by newsletters.

It is measured by how power responds to vulnerability.

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The Reality: 9 March 2021

The day after International Women’s Day, SIRA informed me that my complaint had been closed.

It stated that it had liaised with SafeWork NSW and that the employer’s Return to Work program was compliant with legislation.

No explanation of evidentiary testing.

No transparency regarding investigative methodology.

No indication that my evidence or my GP’s evidence had been formally considered.

SafeWork had determined shortcomings had been corrected.

The matter was administratively finalised.

But here is what is not in those letters.

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The Withholding

I had never been properly informed of my statutory workers’ compensation entitlements.

I had not been provided clear guidance about:

• Weekly payment entitlements,

• Injury management obligations,

• Insurer duties under SIRA standards,

• The employer’s Return to Work program that SIRA later referenced as compliant.

The inspector treated me as though I already understood my statutory rights.

I did not.

Those rights were never passed on to me by the employer. Nor properly explained by the insurer.

The workers’ compensation framework is not optional guidance.

It is statutory law.

Employers and insurers are required to inform injured workers of their rights, entitlements and injury management processes.

Instead, assumptions were made.

I was treated as if I should have known.

As if ignorance of rights was personal failure.

As if raising confusion was obstruction.

Victim-blaming does not always arrive as shouting.

Sometimes it arrives as condescension.

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The Hostility

During interactions with SafeWork NSW, the inspector stated:

“Well all they’ll do is show me their policies and I don’t want to ruffle feathers.”

And:

“I’m not here to play he said she said.”

But that is exactly what occurred.

The inspector accepted the employer’s position.

The individual I had identified as relentlessly harassing me — the National Manager of Employment Relations and Safety — was representing the employer.

The inspector sided with the employer’s narrative.

In front of the WHS & Wellbeing Manager.

Who remained silent.

The very person tasked with wellbeing.

Silent.

That silence was not neutral.

It was alignment.

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The Redirection to Lawyers

On 9 March 2021, a long-standing friend contacted the WHS & Wellbeing Manager out of genuine concern for my health and safety.

She had every right to do so.

Raising a WHS & Wellbeing concern — particularly where psychological safety is at issue — is lawful. It is responsible. It is exactly what workplace safety frameworks are designed to encourage.

What happened next was extraordinary.

Within minutes, the very senior HR executive whose conduct formed the basis of my workers’ compensation claim — the individual I had identified as relentlessly harassing me — returned my friend’s call.

She did not engage with the safety concerns raised.

She questioned my friend’s authority to contact the WHS & Wellbeing Manager.

She characterised the contact as inappropriate.

And she directed that all communication occur only through external lawyers.

The alleged perpetrator of the psychosocial harm intervened directly in a safety escalation.

The safety pathway was not protected.

It was intercepted.

Instead of the WHS & Wellbeing Manager independently addressing the concern, the matter was redirected to lawyers.

Safety was converted into legal containment.

This is not what psychologically safe systems look like.

This is the inversion of psychological safety.

A worker raises harm.

A support person seeks wellbeing intervention.

The alleged source of that harm inserts herself into the communication chain and redirects it to lawyers.

That is not trauma-informed governance.

That is power consolidating itself.

And when that consolidation occurs in the shadow of International Women’s Day messaging about leadership and equality, the contrast is not symbolic.

It is structural.

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Regulatory Compartmentalisation

SafeWork deferred.

SIRA relied on SafeWork.

Each pointed to the other’s findings.

When I asked for transparency regarding what evidence had been considered, I was told the complaint would be closed.

When I questioned process, I was treated as unreasonable.

When I asked for statutory clarity, I was treated as difficult.

When I showed distress, it was pathologised — not investigated.

My voice was not amplified.

It was administratively contained.

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The Informational Imbalance

Information determines power.

Who knows their entitlements.

Who understands regulatory pathways.

Who knows the difference between policy and statutory obligation.

Who knows what must legally be provided.

I did not receive:

• Clear articulation of my legal entitlements.

• Transparent injury management implementation.

• Enforced compliance with statutory duties.

• Proactive union guidance on navigating the workers’ compensation framework.

At the same time, institutional actors had:

• Legal representation.

• Governance structures.

• Regulatory familiarity.

• Policy documents.

• Organisational power.

Equality cannot exist where one party holds the map and the other is told she should already know the terrain.

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The Silence of Leadership

Senior leadership spoke publicly of gender equality.

Union leadership campaigned on insecure work.

Regulators referenced compliance.

But when I said:

I am not safe.

I am not informed.

I do not understand my statutory rights.

I am being isolated.

The response was not protective intervention.

It was silence.

Redirection.

Closure.

Because information is power.

When information that the law requires to be shared is withheld, power is no longer leadership — it becomes control.

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International Women’s Day — Reconsidered

International Women’s Day messages spoke of equity, inclusion and a shared commitment to gender equality. But equality is not measured by statements. It is measured by whether women are informed of their rights, protected when they raise safety concerns, and heard when they speak.

International Women’s Day is not about branding.

It is about power.

Power is not just exercised in overt decisions.

It is exercised in:

• What information is shared.

• What information is withheld.

• Who is believed.

• Who is dismissed.

• Who is labelled emotional.

• Who is told they should have known.

When a woman is uninformed of her statutory entitlements, and then criticised for not navigating them correctly, that is not equality.

That is structural imbalance.

When a regulator says it does not want to “ruffle feathers,” while a worker is describing psychosocial harm, that is not neutrality.

That is governance failure.

When safety officers remain silent in the face of hostility, that is not professionalism.

That is complicity.

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This International Women’s Day

If information is power, then withholding information — especially statutory information — is abuse of power.

If gender equality is real, it must include:

• Transparent regulatory processes.

• Proactive explanation of legal entitlements.

• Enforcement of employer and insurer obligations.

• Protection from psychosocial harm.

• Leaders willing to ruffle feathers when safety demands it.

Otherwise, equality remains a theme.

And women who speak become inconvenient.

I was not inconvenient.

I was uninformed.

And then I was silenced.

Information is power.

Withholding information is abuse of power.

Transparency is not optional. It is a duty.