Sky News has apologised to the Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young and suspended a producer after it broadcast “appalling comments” made by the Liberal Democrats senator David Leyonhjelm during a Sunday morning political commentary program.

The comments appeared on a strap at the bottom of the screen during the Outsiders program, which featured Leyonhjelm and Sky News hosts Rowan Dean and Ross Cameron.

Shannon Molloy (@sleemol) This show is disgusting and the once-great channel that bothers broadcasting it should be ashamed. pic.twitter.com/hefHucHeg4

On Sunday afternoon Sky posted a statement to its Twitter account, apologising for the on-screen tag line and promising “an internal investigation”.

When Senator Leyonhjelm told me to ‘stop shagging men’, I had to speak up | Sarah Hanson-Young Read more

“Sky News wishes to apologise to Senator @sarahinthesen8 for broadcasting appalling comments by Senator @DavidLeyonhjelm earlier today, and for highlighting them in an on-screen strap. A producer has been suspended pending an internal investigation.”

Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) Sky News wishes to apologise to Senator @sarahinthesen8 for broadcasting appalling comments by Senator @DavidLeyonhjelm earlier today, and for highlighting them in an on-screen strap. A producer has been suspended pending an internal investigation.

The Australian reported the suspended producer normally worked on Peta Credlin’s show and was filling in on Sunday for another producer who was on holiday leave.

The interview with Leyonhjelm on Sky News followed Thursday’s altercation in the Senate, where the senator – an advocate for free speech – insulted Hanson-Young during a Senate debate about women and violence.

During a division on a motion about arming women with tasers to combat violence, Leyonhjelm told Hanson-Young to “stop shagging men”. Hanson-Young said the Liberal Democrats senator swore at her when she confronted him.

“I asked whether I heard him correctly. He confirmed he yelled ‘you should stop shagging men, Sarah’,” Hanson-Young said.



“Shocked, I told him he was a creep. His reply was to tell me to ‘fuck off’.”



She said Leyonhjelm refused to apologise for the comments, which she described as offensive and sexist.

Play Video 0:44 Sarah Hanson-Young calls out David Leyonhjelm for 'offensive and sexist slur' – video

In a comment piece for Guardian Australia on Friday, Hanson-Young wrote that in the decade she has been in the federal parliament, “the level of nastiness and personal attacks on the floor of the Senate chamber has gotten worse, not better”.

“For years I have winced and tried not to flinch at innuendos about my dress, my face (being told by older men that I don’t smile at them enough) and my apparent sex life. What started as mutterings while I would be on my feet speaking, or during a debate, slowly over the years has become slurs that are now shouted across the chamber floor.”

Hanson-Young wrote that “so most women just shut up and take [abuse], knowing that to acknowledge it would give the satisfaction to the abusers that they landed a blow”.

However, “the #MeToo movement has given women across the world the encouragement to speak out. And like so many others that have come before me, yesterday I decided that I’ve had enough. I’ve had enough of pretending the slurs and taunts aren’t there, enough of pretending that they don’t throw me off my game while I’m speaking”.

“In any other workplace, anywhere in the country, telling a woman to ‘stop shagging men’ would land you in hot water. Here in parliament, it lands you an exclusive with Sky News, where you’re given the opportunity to double down.

“We reward bad behaviour with attention. Men who use sexism to belittle or intimidate women, as I experienced by Senator Leyonhjelm, face no backlash.”