This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Sarah Hanson-Young has accused David Leyonhjelm of “slut-shaming” her in an emotional interview on ABC radio.

The Greens senator said her fellow senator’s behaviour was “designed to bully” and “designed to intimidate”, and called on Malcolm Turnbull to condemn Leyonhjelm for repeatedly refusing to apologise for using innuendo about her sexual life to attack her.



The prime minister later denounced the Liberal Democratic party senator’s remarks as offensive and said he should “withdraw and apologise”.

In the interview, Hanson-Young said Leyonhjelm had proved he was unfit for parliament, having made a sexual slur against her in the Senate last week, repeating the slurs and innuendo in numerous media interviews since, and even naming someone, incorrectly, whom he suggested she had had sex with.

A clearly upset Hanson-Young said she had watched another one of Leyonhjelm’s controversial interviews on Monday night and she was “over it”.

This is Australian-style sexism, aided by a senator and Sky | Gay Alcorn Read more

“David Leyonhjelm is suggesting, because he can’t win an argument … that I am sexually promiscuous,” she said. “He is, for lack of a better word, and I really apologise for this and I’m thankful that my daughter is home in bed still and not up for school, he’s slut-shaming me.

“Women right around this country know it. Men, decent men, know it. And I’m not prepared to sit here and be intimidated and bullied. It’s offensive, it’s inflammatory and he has shown over and over again that he’s unfit to be in parliament.”

Between deep breaths, Hanson-Young recounted her experience of what it had been like as a woman in Parliament House.

She said the use of sexual slurs and innuendo by some men in the building had been ever-present since she became a senator 10 years ago at the age of 25.

“It started as mutterings in the corridors, lining up in the coffee line, it started as very quiet to see how far they would get. I ignored it. I hoped it would go away.

“It has now got to the point where the slurs are not just yelled across the chamber, they are now put on national television. They’re used in interviews.

abc730 (@abc730) 'He's brought the entire parliament into disrepute.' @sarahinthesen8 hits back at @DavidLeyonhjelm's comments about her. #abc730 #auspol @LaTrioli pic.twitter.com/Q26I3eapTu

“David Leyonhjelm went on Sky News and said these things. He also went on 3AW. He named somebody that he suggests I’ve had sex with, which I haven’t. He named somebody.

“It’s designed to intimidate. It’s designed to bully. And this happens to women more often than anyone wants to admit, and it’s time it ended.”

Hanson-Young said women were often punished in this way for speaking up. She said she had a stronger resolve to stand up to Leyonhjelm after watching his interview on Monday evening.

Earlier on Monday she said she was taking legal advice, and followed this up by announcing on The Project that she had retained Rebekah Giles of the law firm Kennedys to act for her.

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Leyonhjelm then went on the ABC’s 7.30 program on Monday evening and doubled down on his remarks.

Hanson-Young said: “We cannot accept this. We cannot accept this in our broader society and we certainly cannot accept this in our parliament. The standard you walk by is the standard you accept.

“I call on Malcolm Turnbull. It is time for him to come out, it is time for him to condemn what is going on.



“He takes this guy’s vote, he often relies on this bloke’s vote in parliament. His vote is tainted. He is an unfit member of parliament and he must resign.”

abc730 (@abc730) .@DavidLeyonhjelm says he's justified in making his controversial comments about @sarahinthesen8. #abc730 #auspol @LaTrioli pic.twitter.com/crt5yOfJUH

Speaking after Hanson-Young’s interview, Turnbull stopped short of saying Leyonhjelm should resign, saying it was a matter for the senator himself.

But he condemned the marks as “offensive” and said they “should have been withdrawn the moment they were uttered”.

“He should have apologised and it is not too late to withdraw and apologise,” the prime minister said. “That type of language has no place in parliament and it shouldn’t have a place in any workplace.

“We have to treat each other with respect, we must do that. And respect for women, in particular, is one of the highest priorities that we should be focused on.”

Turnbull returned to what has become one of his familiar refrains when calling out violence against women, in explaining why he believed Leyonhjelm’s remarks were so damaging.

“We often talk about domestic violence and our concerns there and all the measures we are taking to address it,” he said. “I just want to say this as a reminder to everybody – not all disrespecting women ends in violence against women, but that is where all violence against women begins.

“We need to have respectful workplaces where we treat each other with respect, where we disagree, we disagree with respectful language, and that is why, as far as Senator Leyonhjelm is concerned, the remarks, he should not have made those remarks, they were offensive, he should have withdrawn them, he should have apologised for them. It is not too late to do so.”

Turnbull said he could not “recall remarks like that being uttered in parliament before”.

While profanity has been recorded in previously in the hansard, it was the “slut shaming” nature of Leyonhjelm’s remarks, which he then expanded on as a guest on Sky News, and his refusal to apologise, which have been condemned.

Leyonhjelm told the ABC’s 7.30 program on Monday evening that he had made his original comment to Hanson-Young in the Senate because she’d said something like “all men are rapists”.

“It was in the context of a one-minute statement by Senator Janet Rice to the effect that men are collectively responsible for the violence and it was Senator Hanson-Young called out words very similar, if not identical to, ‘If only men would stop raping women,’ or ‘All men are rapists,’ or words to that effect,” he said.

Virginia Trioli, who was hosting 7.30, said they were not the same thing.