It is always instructive to listen carefully to politicians on their way out.

It is when they are at their most authentic, no longer fearful of a preselection challenge or of having their career advancement stalled or sabotaged for breaking the line and telling home truths.

Liberal MP Julia Banks's announcement that she will quit and not stand for the marginal seat of Chisholm at the next federal election has hit the Liberal Party like a tonne of bricks.

It is the very definition of the so called "transactional cost" of changing prime minister.

The Liberal Party is learning, for a second time, that you don't get to change a leader without painful consequences. It doesn't work that way.

This is the ugly aftermath of a brutal and badly executed political assassination.

'Bullying and intimidation'

Ms Banks's statement has thrown the party into damage control because she has called out "bullying and intimidation" during the leadership week from hell which has deep and lasting ramifications for the Liberal Party brand, but also raises important questions around its treatment of women MPs.

For a party already low on numbers of women elected to represent it in the Federal Parliament, these allegations are profoundly problematic and point to a bigger cultural problem, according to women in the party who are angry and prepared to speak out.

Ms Banks said last week's Liberal leadership spill was the "last straw" and argued she would always put Australia's national interests before internal political games and certain media personalities bearing vindictive, mean-spirited grudges.

"The people of Chisholm know that I say what I think. They know that I will always call out bad behaviour and will not tolerate any form of bullying or intimidation," she said.

"I have experienced this both from within my own party and from the Labor Party.

"In anticipating my critics saying I'm 'playing the gender card' — I say this. Women have suffered in silence for too long."

I have spoken to several other Liberal women who have backed Ms Banks's version of events.

Julia Banks with Malcolm Turnbull at a morning tea in her seat in June last year. ( AAP: Mal Fairclough )

Last week, during the frenzied period between the first and second leadership spill, I received a text message from one Liberal female MP who said she was too scared to be named but told me about these stand-over tactics and pleaded with me to pursue the story.

The text message was chilling. She was genuinely shaken and worried that if she spoke out her career would be damaged.

Ms Banks has now made the decision to end her own political career without the bullies or even the voters making that decision for her.

'The Liberal Party is likely to lose Chisholm'

Former Liberal senator Judith Troeth, who represented Victoria between 1993 and 2011, is in a state of sadness for her party and for the future pathway for Liberal women.

She warns that this kind of behaviour will send a message to women that it is not worth standing for Parliament.

"Politics is brutal at every level, but bullying and intimidation should not be present in any workplace.”

Loading

She told me that Ms Banks's decision was "very disappointing as numbers of women drop even further".

"The Liberal Party is likely to lose Chisholm when she retires, and the behaviour exhibited last week is hardly likely to encourage more women to stand for Parliament," Ms Troeth warns.

Ms Troeth is delivering a shot across the bow because she fears her party is not only going to get thumped at the next election — particularly in Victoria — but that women's representation will suffer as a result.

Kelly O'Dwyer, the Minister for Women and representing the seat of Higgins, has tweeted her support for Ms Banks — accepting the charge of bullying to be real.

"Julia Banks is my neighbour in the seat of Chisholm. She is a terrific member of the Liberal team and a good friend. Bullying in any workplace, whether on the shopfloor, or in our nation's Parliament, is totally unacceptable."

Liberal senator Linda Reynolds has also told the Senate that she was "deeply saddened and distressed" and that the behaviour of some had "no place in [her] party or this chamber".

State poll is fast approaching

Liberal MP Craig Kelly has said that her resignation is the wrong thing to do and that she should "roll with the punches in this game".

It is a sentiment shared by many of the people who pushed for a leadership change but demonstrates a profound lack of understanding of how the "game" looks to those on the outside.

Ms Banks narrowly won the seat of Chisholm from Labor at the last election, and was the only Liberal candidate in that election to take a seat from Labor.

The multicultural seat had been safe for Labor but things had shifted with Ms Banks as the candidate and Malcolm Turnbull as leader.

Most Victorian MPs I've spoken to now say it will be very hard to retain it again — especially with the disturbing allegations that have now been made.

And with the state poll just 12 weeks or so away, state Liberals are in despair that the federal party's bloodletting will hurt them at a time when they need everything to go their way to defeat Dan Andrews.

Read Julia Banks's full statement

Loading...