The former Liberal staffer, who alleges she was raped by a colleague in a ministerial office in 2019, made a rousing speech to thousands of people at the Canberra March4Justice on Monday.

“We fundamentally recognise the system is broken, the glass ceiling is still in place and there are significant failings in the power structures within our institutions,” Higgins said.

“We are here because it is unfathomable that we are still having to fight this same stale, tired fight.”

Higgins quit her job as a media adviser and went public in a hope she could protect other women from traumatic incidents at work.

“We’ve all learned over the past few weeks just how common gendered violence is in this country,” she said.

“It’s time our leaders on both sides of politics stop avoiding the public and side-stepping accountability. It’s time we actually address the problem.”

She spent recent weeks watching the news around her play out from a spare bedroom in her father’s Gold Coast apartment.

“I watched as the prime minister of Australia publicly apologised to me through the media, while privately his media team actively undermined and discredited my loved ones,” she said.

Higgins was waking to new information about the alleged assault which has haunted her.

“I watched as people hid behind throwaway phrases like due process and presumption of innocence while failing to acknowledge how the justice system is notoriously stacked against victims of sexual crime.”

Organisers of the rallies, which were expected to see 100,000 people march in cities across the country, rejected the prime minister’s officer to meet behind closed doors.

March4Justice Brisbane heading down George St to Parliament House.

Thousands of protesters gathered in King George Square in Brisbane to attend the March4Justice.

They gathered in black clothes to show mourning for victims of sexual and gender-based violence.

Rallying cries of “Enough is enough”, chants of “Hey, ho, Christian Porter’s got to go” and “I believe her” echoed from King George Square to outside Parliament House, where the Premier and several of her ministers joined the march.

Local March4Justice co-convenor, Kat Fry, said “For too long our system has benefitted one type of person, at the expense of all others, and we’ve had enough.”

Many women were holding messages and signs outlining personal experiences of sexual assault and abuse, calling for an end to sexual and gender-based discrimination and violence in Australia, beginning with the federal parliament.

The march arrived outside Parliament House where local singer Asabi welcomed the march with a rendition of Whitney Houston’s I’m Every Woman.

Signs on a park bench in the Botanical Gardens.

Earlier, Prime Minister Scott Morrison declined to attend the protest, but about 15 coalition MPs and senators went outside to hear the speeches.

A strong contingent of Labor politicians including leader Anthony Albanese and the senior leadership attended the demonstration, along with the Greens and independents.

Australian of the Year Grace Tame addressed the Hobart rally about her advocacy for other victims of sexual assault.

“Evil thrives in silence. Behaviour unspoken, behaviour ignored, is behaviour endorsed,” she said.

Women’s March4Justice founder Janine Hendry said the prime minister’s offer of a meeting with just three women was not enough.

“We have already come to the front door, now it’s up to the government to cross the threshold and come to us,” she said.

The rallies are being held across Australia to protest the unacceptable treatment of women in the workplace and the community and the right of women to feel safe.

Minister for Women Marise Payne was on duty in the Senate during the demonstration and also offered to meet with up to four women inside parliament.