The Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young has denied comments she made on the Senate floor during a heated debate about women’s safety last year were referring to “all men”.

Hanson-Young returned to the witness stand for the third day in her defamation trial against the former Liberal Democrats senator David Leyonhjelm on Wednesday.

The Greens senator is suing Leyonhjelm over interviews he gave between 28 June and 2 July to Sky News, Melbourne radio station 3AW and the ABC’s 7.30 program, and a media statement posted on 28 June.

The interviews followed a feud in the Senate in June last year which began after a debate about women’s safety following the rape and murder or Eurydice Dixon’s in which Leyonhjelm told Hanson-Young to “stop shagging men”.

Leyonhjelm said he made the comments in response to an alleged claim by Hanson-Young that “all men are rapists”, which she denies.

Hanson-Youngsays she was defamed by Leyonhjelm because the comments made her out to be a hypocrite and misandrist. Leyonhjelm is relying on a truth defence, among others.

Hanson-Young has given evidence that during the debate she interjected to say words to the effect of “putting tasers on the streets won’t make women safer from men”.

Leyonhjelm’s barrister, Peter Morris QC, pushed Hanson-Young on why she did not refer to “some” men, or “men who are a threat to women”.

“Because I didn’t,” Hanson-Young responded.

But Hanson-Young denied she was referring to men generally.

“No I did not [mean that],” she said. “Not all men, not men in general.”

Outside of court, Hanson-Young had accused Leyonhjelm of “slut-shaming” her but that is not included in the imputations in this case.

After a gruelling three days on and off in the witness stand, the Greens senator broke down late on Wednesday afternoon while explaining why she did not include the term.

“I know its not a nice term … I know it’s an awful term,” she said.

“[But] it’s not defamatory to suggest that a woman has had sex with more than one man ... that’s why it’s not in the imputations.”

Earlier she told the court she “made an assumption” the person responsible for defacing a memorial to Dixon was a man because the graffiti in question included a painting of a 25-metre-long penis.

Morris used the morning session to press the senator on comments she made about men in the media following Dixon’s murder, grilling her on an interview on the Channel 7 program Sunrise in which she said the people responsible for graffiti on a memorial the Melbourne comedian were “morons” and “pigs”.

The comments were made before Andrew Nolch, 29, was arrested in relation to the graffiti, and Morris accused Hanson-Young of assuming a man was responsible because “you assume that when something evil is done that you take to be anti-women, it must be a man who did it”.

“No,” Hanson-Young replied. “This specific attack on this raped and murdered woman’s memorial was, from memory, graffiti of a man’s penis, and I made the assumption that [it] would have been done by a man, or at least that a man was involved.”

In the same interview Hanson-Young also made the comment that women were sick of being made to feel responsible because “men cannot control themselves and deal with their own issues”.

Morris pushed Hanson-Young on why she did not confine her statement to “some” men.

“Did you consider it appropriate to say publicly that men cannot control themselves and deal with their own issues,” Morris asked.

“I was referring to men who rape women or men who think it’s funny to graffiti and vandalise a woman’s memorial after she’s been raped and murdered, that of course, sir, is not all men, I’m talking about the men who behave like that,” Hanson-Young replied.