The former political aide tells 60 Minutes Christopher Pyne promised him a lawyer and political job when he asked for advice about Peter Slipper

Christopher Pyne promised James Ashby – the staffer who made a sexual harassment claim against former speaker Peter Slipper – that he would receive a lawyer and an ongoing job in either state or federal politics after the young man sought advice about his situation, Ashby has claimed.

Pyne, now the education minister, has always denied prior knowledge of Ashby’s explosive 2012 allegations and has said “the first time I knew about the unfortunate federal court application was when I read about it in the News Ltd press”.

But in an interview on Channel Nine’s 60 Minutes on Sunday night, Ashby claimed he did discuss the issue with Pyne, after confiding his concerns about the speaker’s behaviour to another Coalition MP, Wyatt Roy.

“I sat down at his desk and I said to [Pyne], ‘Wyatt’s discussed my situation with you.’ He didn’t really acknowledge the question. He sort of just allowed me to continue talking. And I said to him, “I just need to know that my job is safe and that a lawyer will be provided.” And he said they would. He did say to me, though, that I may never want to come back to Canberra, that I may choose to take up a job within state politics instead,” Ashby alleged.

“I think what he was trying to do is pre-warn me that things are gonna get hot. And I remember the conversation didn’t last too long at all. We literally got up from his table, he walked me towards the door, he said to me, “You’re a braver man than I am,” as we exited and said, “If you discuss or tell anyone we’ve had this discussion, I’ll be forced to come out publicly and call you a pathological liar.”

Ashby said he had gone to see Pyne under the guise of picking up a bottle of wine, in order to double check Roy’s claim that he had been discussing Ashby’s situation with the then shadow minister.

After Ashby lodged his legal claim and allegations were raised that he had met Pyne, the then shadow minister issued a statement saying; “In the course of my work ... I have had cause to meet Mr James Ashby three times – twice in the Speaker’s office and once when he came to my office to collect wine being given to a former Coalition staffer as a farewell gift.



“On no occasion did he raise the matters canvassed in the federal court action that have subsequently come to light with me. I have had no telephone contact with Mr Ashby at any time. Attempts by the Labor Party to suggest a political conspiracy are fanciful.”

In the interview, Ashby insisted that he had discussed the matter with Pyne, and that the assurances about legal help and a job had been made, but he said by the time he lodged his claim, it had been “made very clear to me there would be no jobs, no lawyer, no preferential treatment ... it was made very clear to me there was no offer.”

Late on Sunday night Pyne issued a statement to say: “I had no specific knowledge of the allegations made by Mr Ashby and the first I knew that he was suing Mr Slipper was when I read it in the newspapers.

“This is a dispute between two individuals – not a dispute that includes me or any other member of the government.” He said all the matters “have been aired over and over again for the last three years”.

Sexually explicit emails revealed in the course of Ashby’s subsequent legal action forced Slipper to resign from the speaker’s position, which he had controversially taken up after defecting from the Coalition in a move that bolstered Labor’s precarious position in the hung parliament and angered his former colleagues.

In June, Ashby dropped his legal case against the former speaker two years after he first alleged Slipper had sexually harassed him.

The case was first thrown out of court as a “scandalous” abuse of process. Justice Steven Rares found Mal Brough, who at the time was the LNP’s candidate for Slipper’s Queensland seat of Fisher, had acted “in combination” with Ashby and a second Slipper staffer “to cause Mr Slipper as much political and public damage as they could inflict upon him” in a bid to advance Brough’s political interests and those of the LNP.

After initially denying it, Brough admitted he had also met Ashby at least three times in March and April 2012, shortly before Ashby lodged his sexual harassment claim, and had urged him to go to the police and get legal advice regarding his allegations.

Brough said it “would have been a poor reflection on my values as a human being” if he had not talked to Ashby about his sexual harassment claim or helped him get legal advice.

On Sunday night’s program Brough refused to say whether he had discussed Ashby’s case with anyone else in the government.

“If you were making an allegation that I or anyone else worked with anybody to make this happen, then I can tell you quite categorically, zero – no. I supported James Ashby, and James Ashby went off and got his own legal advice and the rest is history,” Brough said.

In February an appeal found that the case should be heard, and at that time Ashby said he would pursue his claim because of the “offence, humiliation, distress, anxiety and stress … and dislocation to life” due to the alleged “unwelcome sexual advances, unwelcome sexual comments and unwelcome suggestions of a sexual nature” that he had suffered.

Then in June, shortly before the case was to be heard, Ashby said that “after deep reﬂection and consultation” he had decided not to proceed with the case after all, in part because of the government’s decision to pay Slipper’s legal fees and in part because of concern for Slipper’s health.

At that time Slipper said in a statement, “the allegations brought by Mr Ashby have caused enormous personal stress which has required ongoing psychiatric and psychological treatment and many weeks of inpatient hospital care. My mental illness is both ongoing and debilitating.

“The impact of these allegations on me personally and everyone close to me is both immeasurable and irreparable. That the allegations have been withdrawn is vindication for myself, my wife and my family.”

On Monday the environment minister, Greg Hunt, said Ashby’s claim contradicted an affidavit he had presented in the court proceedings against Slipper.



“I can’t imagine someone would say one thing to the court and another thing privately,” Hunt told ABC radio. “I back Christopher’s view of this 100%.”