This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Outgoing minister and Malcolm Turnbull supporter Craig Laundy says he has heard complaints have been made to the prime minister’s office about bullying during last week’s vicious Liberal party leadership fight.

Scott Morrison said on Thursday he was dealing with allegations raised about improper behaviour by “reaching out” to colleagues in a “process of healing” and he said the party whip, Nola Marino, had not raised any specific complaints with him.

But Laundy said on Thursday: “I’ve heard about complaints and the prime minister’s office received them.”

He said be believed complaints had also been received by Marino, and he was confident she would investigate them. “I’m sure Nola Marino has received them and I know she will deal with them through any process she puts in place.”

Earlier on Thursday, a spokesman for Marino told Guardian Australia that “no complaints have been raised with the whip”.

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Claims of intimidation and bullying surfaced last week during the frenzy of number crunching ahead of the second leadership ballot last Friday.

The Victorian Liberal MP Julia Banks announced on Wednesday she would not re-contest at the next election because the tumultuous events last week proved to be the last straw. In confirming her plans Banks issued a statement blasting the “cultural and gender bias, bullying and intimidation” of women in politics.

At the height of the chaos last week, the Western Australian Liberal Linda Reynolds told the Senate chamber she was “distressed and disturbed” by the some of the backroom behaviour.

“In fact, some of the behaviour is behaviour I simply do not recognise and I think has no place in my party or this chamber,” Reynolds said. “I cannot condone and I cannot support what has happened to some of my colleagues on this side, in this chamber, in this place”.

Morrison said no inappropriate backroom behaviour last week was carried in his name, or with his authority.

“I have no truck with intimidation. I have no truck with any of that sort of stuff. I mean, we are going to bring Australians together.

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“We’re dealing with the issue as a team and setting a very high standard about what I expect as prime minister.”

Morrison also paid tribute to the minister for women, Kelly O’Dwyer, “who has done a great job, I think, in bringing everyone together”.

The prime minister also thanked Marino. “I mean, we’re a team and sometimes your teams go through difficult phases,” he said.

Another former frontbencher, Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, and the president of the federal women’s committee, Helen Kroger, both said on Thursday that any claims of improper conduct should be properly investigated.

But Kroger said she didn’t believe there was a bullying culture in the Liberal party and Fierravanti-Wells appeared to blame Turnbull. She said “the insistence on the petition [as a prerequisite of spilling the party leadership] brought undue and unnecessary escalation of tensions”.