Entrenched misogyny, allegations of rapes both recent and from decades ago; it's been hard going.

Add the grotesque behaviour of a staffer on a female MP's desk and it has meant many, but most especially women, have had a daily battle with their welled-up rage.

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"What's next?" we might well ask, as the current environment, as shocking as it is, has been only a brief public airing of what has always stained Australian society.

Wherever you sit on the spectrum in terms of understanding the degree to which this issue is poisoning lives, it is clear change has to happen.

What has been startlingly obvious though is we have a federal government, but especially a prime minister in Scott Morrison, seemingly incapable of taking such steps.

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And that's because of an inability to see beyond what's happening as anything other than a political issue, as much as it protests this isn't so.

It's as though Mr Morrison has taken a punt on settling it all with a few soothing, family man "I get it" tones and the launching of investigations that in turn disappear down a big bureaucratic black hole.

It won't. The more the government flails about, making ham-fisted noises masquerading as insight the more it is doomed, as women voters surely feel tempted to desert the Coalition in droves.

The government's belligerence and isolation is stark, though Farrer MP Sussan Ley, a senior member in its ranks, has faith we will witness genuine change.

While she hasn't felt sidelined as a woman, she accepts the Parliament has fostered a festering culture of abject sexual discrimination for others.

And so, she says, the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins, the allegations made against her colleague Christian Porter, the disgraceful hi-jinks of a staffer egged-on by others might be a "genuine turning point" in the Parliament.

We would hope so, but for now the government hasn't got into first gear.

It's like a learner driver stalling the family car because they don't know the clutch pedal from the brake, yet are too cocky to ask for help.

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