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Reclaim the Night 2025 in Adelaide Kaurna Yarta was held on Friday 31st October, with community members, feminist and trans justice activists, sex workers, trade unionists and folks from many diverse backgrounds and lived experiences, gathering to march from Rymill Park, through Rundle Street and Rundle Mall, on to Parliament House for an evening rally.
Reclaim the Night is a global activist event that calls for the elimination of gendered violence, an end to victim-blaming, and for actions to build safe and just communities.
This year’s march and rally was organised by a broad group of activists, survivors and organisations under the Reclaim the Night Collective, including the Sex Industry Network SA, Trans Justice Adelaide, the domestic and sexual violence sector, queer people, young people, multicultural communities, SA Unions and the union movement, and the Working Women’s Centre SA.
Reclaim the Night called for:
At Parliament House, the Reclaim the Night rally was jointly emceed by leading DFSV survivor advocate Stacey Nelan and graduating high school student and young feminist advocate Emma Choi. We were welcomed to Kaurna Country by Taylor Tipu Power, a member of First Nations women’s collective Ngangki Warra.
The gathered crowd then heard powerful and moving addresses by Mary Leaker from Embolden, Shai Wittles from Trans Justice Adelaide, Brass Brown from Sex Industry Network SA and Aira Firdaus from Working Women’s Centre Australia
Some of the urgent priorities for the speakers and the RTN collective include:
Speakers urged all sides of Parliament to resist hateful and divisive politics such as the anti-abortion bill being brought to Parliament in mid-November; and reminded us that we all need to be responsible for eliminating hate and discrimination towards gender-diverse people and for uplifting trans kids.
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Photos provided by Tessa Milford-Behn and Aeon Nguyen
Today, the Victorian Government introduced legislation to curb the use of Non-Disclosure Agreements in matters of workplace sexual harassment.
If this bill is passed, NDAs will only be used if expressly requested by a complainant, and employers will be banned from pressuring or influencing victim-survivors to sign NDAs. Victim-survivors will also be able to disclose their experience to seek support, and cooling off periods and waivers will apply.
Working Women’s Centre SA congratulates the Victorian Government, and those who have campaigned hard for this reform including workers and unions through the Victorian Trades Hall Council, victim-survivors, legal advocates and the Working Women’s Centre Victoria.
At our public meeting on NDAs on Thursday 2nd October, Minister Katrine Hildyard MP spoke about how the South Australian Government is following closely what happens in Victoria.
Speaking at the public meeting, the Hon. Katrine Hildyard, Minister for Women and Minister for Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence, said:
“On an individual level, strict NDAs give perpetrators yet another weapon to silence women. At a system level, NDAs mask the extent of sexual harassment. These terrible facts demand collective attention and action. Ensuring NDAs are no longer tools misused to silence survivors is a step forward. Our Government remains committed to monitoring work happening interstate including Victoria’s review of NDAs to inform our next steps. Please know that this issue is at the forefront of my mind. I look forward to walking alongside you all as we continue our efforts to end violence against women in all its forms.”
We hope that legislation in Victoria will also help encourage important changes in South Australia and around the country to stop the silencing of victims-survivors and the culture of silence that prevents workplace action on sexual harassment.
The Working Women’s Centre SA is calling on the South Australian Government to legislate to restrict and regulate the application of NDAs in our state, so that their overuse and misuse is stopped.
Reforming and regulating the way NDAs are used can:
Read a report back on the South Australian NDA public meeting including what the speakers said here.
On Thursday 2nd October 2025, a packed house of community members, unionists, industrial professionals, lawyers and Members of Parliament gathered at The Jade in Adelaide for the Working Women Centre’s forum about NDAs.
The forum is the latest event held calling for change to the way non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) are used in workplace sexual harassment matters.
Sexual harassment is a serious, widespread issue in workplaces – and NDAs have become part of this problem. It’s difficult to stop sexual harassment if the people who experience it are prevented from talking about it.
Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) are legal contracts which require someone to keep secret the details of the harassment they experienced, often for the rest of their life. In sexual harassment matters, victims often feel like they have no choice but to sign an NDA to resolve their complaint.
The forum first heard from special guest Sharmilla Bargon, Legal Director of Working Women’s Centre NSW and co-author of the groundbreaking report Let’s Talk About Confidentiality.
Sharmilla reflected on realising how widespread NDA misuse is in Australia and her research on legal practice and assumptions about NDAs. She said:
“Despite the Respect@Work reforms, strict non-disclosure agreements remain the default way workplace sexual harassment matters are resolved. Our research found that three-quarters of lawyers have never settled a sexual harassment complaint without a confidentiality clause.
This culture of silence limits transparency, prevents accountability, and risks perpetuating harm. NDAs can protect privacy, but they should never be used to conceal misconduct or silence those who speak out. Lawyers and employers have a responsibility to ensure settlements are victim-centred, trauma-informed, and aligned with the new positive duty to eliminate sexual harassment.”
Attendees were privileged to hear from two women who spoke about their own lived experiences with workplace sexual harassment, in conversation with WWC SA Advocacy Officer, Emma Webb.
Lauren and Leanne spoke about the serious and life-changing harassment they experienced in former workplaces, their experiences of trying to seek justice, and the silencing and shaming effects of NDAs in their circumstances. Their words were a powerful call to action for everyone in attendance. Lauren said:
“Speaking at this public forum was such positive and empowering experience. It was so refreshing to be in a whole room of people who want to make impact here and who understand the impacts of NDAs in silencing victims. The Working Women’s Centre worked with me to make me felt comfortable taking part. This experience really made me feel like change is possible; I was grateful to be part of it.”
The Working Women’s Centre SA was very pleased to end the meeting with an address by the Hon. Katrine Hildyard, Minister for Women and Minister for Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence.
In a wide-ranging and inspiring speech, the Minister reflected on the South Australian Government’s work to prevent violence against women, including the recently released Royal Commission into Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence.
“Strict NDAs, when initiated and misutilised by perpetrators, have terrible consequences for individual women and also allows poor workplace culture, sexual harassment and assault to continue. We know we can’t end a form of violence against women if they can’t even talk about it. And I say this in an environment where the utterly unacceptable prevalence of violence perpetrated against women persists, with women continuing to be harmed – at work, at home, and in public – with intersectionality increasing the likelihood of experiencing it.
“As are each of you, I am steadfastly committed to helping ensure that women in South Australia are not subject to any form of gendered violence, and to helping ensure that workplaces are places that always have the best possible capacity to respond when violence occurs and also have the best capacity to relentlessly play their role in prevention.
“Despite the Respect@Work NDA Guidelines, sadly, NDAs continue to be misused and wielded against survivors by their perpetrators – yet another way to harass, belittle, and silence them. As also mentioned by the Royal Commission, we know that the majority of NDAs are requested by perpetrators, with survivors often pushed into signing them, fearing loss of their employment or reputation, and retaliation for speaking up.
“On an individual level, strict NDAs give perpetrators yet another weapon to silence women. At a system level, NDAs mask the extent of sexual harassment. These terrible facts demand collective attention and action.
“Ensuring NDAs are no longer tools misused to silence survivors is a step forward. Our Government remains committed to monitoring work happening interstate including Victoria’s review of NDAs to inform our next steps. Please know that this issue is at the forefront of my mind. I look forward to walking alongside you all as we continue our efforts to end violence against women in all its forms”, said Minister Hildyard.
Throughout the meeting the gathered audience heard that reforming and regulating the way NDAs are used can:
The Working Women’s Centre SA is calling on the South Australian Government to legislate to restrict and regulate the application of NDAs in our state, so that their overuse and misuse is stopped.
For more information about our NDA campaign please read further here.
Join WWC SA for Reclaim the Night on Friday 31st October!
