Former staffer to Australian education minister Alan Tudge, Rachelle Miller, speaks to the media about allegations of abuse. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP Australia news Dog noises, name calling, claims of abuse: a week of shame in Australian politics Despite a review finding one in three parliamentary staffers have been sexually harassed, behaviour inside the building shows no sign of improvement

Allegations of abuse and accusations of widespread sexism. Bullying and harassment particularly of women. A cabinet minister stood aside pending an investigation into claims by a former staffer that their relationship was at times “abusive”. Even by the low standards of the Australian parliament, it was a week of horror in Canberra.

“The MP sitting beside me leaned over. Also thinking he wanted to tell me something, I leaned in. He grabbed me and stuck his tongue down my throat. The others all laughed. It was revolting and humiliating,” one staffer reported.

The tone did not improve. The following day, senator Lidia Thorpe apologised for yelling “at least I keep my legs shut” at another senator in the chamber. Over in the lower house, opposition MPs heckled government MPs to “get a room” in response to a friendly question between a female backbencher and male minister.

While parliamentarians slugged it out over who was worse on issues of respect, Rachelle Miller, a former press secretary to cabinet minister Alan Tudge, came forward on Thursday with allegations of emotional, and in one case physical, abuse she said she experienced while in a 2017 relationship with the then-married minister. Tudge categorically rejected the allegations in a statement later that day.

It was the release of the review into parliamentary culture, along with the public activism of former and current staffers and female MPs, that prompted her to talk, saying her previous attempts at “reaching out” to the prime minister and others had been ignored.

“I was so ashamed, so humiliated, so scared. I was exhausted. I told a small part of the story I was able to manage. It took a long time to face the truth about what happened but the memories are clearly etched in my brain. This relationship was defined by significant power imbalance. It was emotionally, and on one occasion, physically abusive relationship.”

“He continued to kick me until I fell off the side of the bed and ended up on the floor. I searched around in the dark for my clothes,” she said. “He was yelling at me that my phone had woken him up. He needed to get some more sleep. He told me to get the fuck out of his room and make sure that no one saw me.”

“I have accepted responsibility for a consensual affair that should not have happened many years ago. But Ms Miller’s allegations are wrong, did not happen and are contradicted by her own written words to me,” he said in a statement, referring to text messages Miller had pre-emptively suggested in her own statement may be used against her.

Morrison is still to announce his government’s response to the review of parliamentary culture, which recommended more focus on gender parity, independent complaints processes and entire systemic change from the top down, ensuring the issue will follow him into what is shaping up as a difficult election year.

Source: The Guardian

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