Former Liberal MP says party members tried to ‘silence’ her with an offer to go to New York for a three-month UN secondment

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Julia Banks said she felt “devastated” when Scott Morrison emerged as the new prime minister and saw attempts to send her to New York for a three-month secondment as an attempt by her party to silence her.

In an interview with the Australian Women’s Weekly, the member for Chisholm said she moved to the crossbench after the leadership spill as she believed it would be “disingenuous” to stay.

She said the entire leadership spill was “driven from Tony Abbott’s opposition”, placing the blame directly on “Tony Abbott, Peter Dutton, Greg Hunt [in a] whole program to knife Malcolm” she said was “driven and led by them”.

“We got the direction to move our votes from Julie [Bishop] to Scott,” Banks said of what Liberal moderates were told during the spill.

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“I said no, I’m voting for Julie in the first round and then I had people sent to me and phone calls, trying to move my vote … the thing that happens with bullying is people were afraid. They started becoming really concerned that Peter Dutton was seriously going to win.

“Men and women were being harassed and bullied.”

Banks told the magazine that if Turnbull was not going to lead the Liberal party, she believed Bishop to be the only choice.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Julia Banks (left) said she told fellow Liberals she was voting for Julie Bishop in the leadership spill. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

“She’s 20 years in the parliament, lauded as the best foreign minister in the world, communication skills of a genius, and a woman,” Banks said.

“Seriously a true Liberal, and we knew Julie Bishop was Labor’s worst nightmare. I thought if it loses by one vote and it’s Peter Dutton then I’ll quit straight away.”

Bishop was knocked out in the first round, achieving just 11 votes. After the second round, Bishop’s vote largely went to Morrison, giving him the numbers to defeat Dutton.

“I felt devastated,” Banks said.

Less than three months later, she quit the party in a bombshell speech to the parliament on 27 November.

Play Video 2:26 Julia Banks quits Liberal party to serve as independent – video

That same day Morrison had attempted to reset his government’s narrative, announcing the budget, with an expected surplus, would be handed down in April, confirming the May election.

Morrison and Josh Frydenberg finished taking questions just as Banks stood in parliament to announce her move to the crossbench in a searing speech which took aim at members of “the reactionary right wing … aided by many MPs trading their vote for a leadership change in exchange for their individual promotion, preselection endorsement or silence”.

“The Liberal party has changed, largely due to the actions of the reactionary and regressive right wing who talk about and to themselves, rather than listening to the people,” Banks told the chamber last month.

Banks had not been silent in the months leading up to her move, speaking out about the “bullying and intimidation” she said occurred during the leadership spill, as well as the Liberal party’s treatment of women, and it’s policy positions, particularly offshore detention.

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She told the Australian Women’s Weekly the party attempted to talk her out of quitting, asking her to delay the move until closer to the election “so there would be the cliche of I’m leaving for personal reasons”.

Banks said her disillusionment with the party was greeted with claims she was not cut out for politics.

“I’ve seen it in the business world,” Banks told the magazine. “Where the woman is either a liar or she made it up or she’s doing it for publicity or notoriety.

“She’s emotional or she’s overemotional.”

In the weeks following the leadership spill, Banks was offered the Coalition’s United Nations secondment, a three-month placement in New York, which would have taken her out of the country for the remaining parliament sittings. The position eventually went to Ann Sudmalis after she announced she would be stepping down from politics at the next election, after a tough preselection battle, which saw her lose the confidence of her branch.

“I saw that for what it was,” Banks said of the offer.

“It was definitely to silence … I actually said ‘will you tell the bully boys to back off or I’m headed to the crossbench’.”

Since moving to the crossbench, Banks has formed an alliance with fellow independents Kerryn Phelps, Cathy McGowan and Rebekha Sharkie, helping to push the government into announcing a federal anti-corruption commission.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The crossbench team (L-R): Rebekha Sharkie, Julia Banks, Kerryn Phelps and Cathy McGowan. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

It was Banks and the crossbench’s support, along with Labor and the Greens, for Phelps’ medical evacuation bill which saw the last sitting of parliament descend into chaos, with the government filibustering in the Senate for hours to stop the bill from reaching the House.

But the numbers for the bill remain, meaning the government faces a legislative defeat when parliament resumes in February. The last time a sitting government lost a legislative defeat in the House was in 1929. The Stanley Bruce government called an election the next day.