The minister for women has semi-apologised on behalf of the prime minister for “smutty” comments he made about Pamela Anderson, as she attempted to advocate on behalf of Julian Assange.

Kelly O’Dwyer said she stood by her comments in the wake of the Liberal party leadership spill, when she backed female colleagues who made complaints of bullying and intimidation and said she was taking a “very active and personal interest” in the complaints process.

But it was also left to O’Dwyer to explain Scott Morrison’s comment to a Gold Coast FM radio station that he had “plenty of mates who’ve asked me if they can be my special envoy to sort the issue out with Pamela Anderson”, after the actor and activist called on him to assist the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange.

Assange has remained in the Ecuadorian embassy in the UK since 2012, after claiming political asylum to avoid extradition. Anderson, who counts Assange as a friend, advised Morrison to “defend your friend, get Julian his passport back and take him back to Australia and be proud of him, and throw him a parade when he gets home”.

Morrison responded by saying he would not be taking her advice, adding his envoy comments, which Anderson targeted in an open letter released over the weekend. She accused the prime minister of having “trivialised and laughed about the suffering of an Australian and his family”.

“You followed it with smutty, unnecessary comments about a woman voicing her political opinion,” she wrote.

Morrison has not yet addressed Anderson’s comments.

Following O’Dwyer’s address to the National Press Club on the first women’s economic security statement, she said she believed Morrison to be repentant.

“I think the prime minister probably regrets the comments that he made and I certainly know from a discussion that he didn’t mean to cause any offence,” she said.

“And I can certainly say from personal experience, the prime minister has been incredibly supportive of the women’s economic security statement in actually focusing a floodlight on these issues around women being able to build their financial security.”

O’Dwyer, who had also pushed internally for a “formal, independent, rigorous” complaints process within each division of the party organisation, said she had recently asked about its progress and had “been informed that that is precisely what is occurring”.

“I don’t resile for one moment from the statements that I made about that time,” she said, adding that the process was “obviously under the management of the party organisation”.

But O’Dwyer said “bad behaviour” was evident across the political spectrum.

“I mean, only in recent weeks, we have seen misogynistic comments about women by Greens members … we have also seen some appalling allegations made about sexual assault as well,” she said.

“And yet, we haven’t heard that condemned. And I think we need to hear that condemned.

“Equally, you’ve got the opposition leader [Bill Shorten] who has seen a member of his own political party in Victoria, Jane Garrett, who has been bullied as a result of simply doing her job. Bullied by the union movement that he relies on in order to get funding and support.

“And again, he has been silent. So I think that we all need to step up and we all need to lead and I think it’s important for each of us to play their part.”

O’Dwyer said she would continue to take an interest in the outcome of the complaints process, and how women were treated in workplaces, but said she should not be alone.

“Frankly, I would also say this: I mean it should be for everyone, men included, to take an active personal interest in this,” she said. “It’s not just for women to stand up on these issues. It’s men and women together.”



