Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer to his previous answers. What does it say about his government and his own office that no-one thought the Prime Minister—if he's to be believed—would want to know about the reported sexual assault of a Liberal staffer 50 metres from his own office, and that, in spite of repeated requests from a News Limited journalist about the office manager for the member for Hughes, no-one advised him of that either?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As usual, the Leader of the Opposition makes a range of assertions. Every time he gets up to speak, asserting various things about what the response has been, I think Australians see through it. On the matters that the member has raised, whether it's on the very difficult issue that the parliament has been dealing with over the course of this last week and a half or the multiparty approach to having an inquiry put in place so we can report on it, I've answered these questions. I've answered questions—openly and honestly, each and every day—about when this this matter was raised with me and when it was raised with the office. Australians know that I have been very open about when I knew about these matters and when they were brought to the attention of my office. I've also been very open about my displeasure that I was not advised, over the course of that weekend, until the Monday. I've made it very clear to my office that that was a totally unsatisfactory response. I've been open and plain about that matter.

I believe there is an issue to address here regarding the culture of the workplace of this parliament. I believe that is true. I also believe that one of the most important things we have to address is why, whichever side of politics they work on, a staff member may feel inhibited about raising a matter with the police. That is the matter we have to come to terms with, including how we deal with the privacy of staff members in those situations. Where people have sought to provide that support based on the advice they received, then clearly that has not enabled those matters to be raised and a complaint to be lodged. But I do know this: the appropriate way for matters of sexual assault or anything else to be dealt with is by the police and in the courts. That is the proper way investigations should be undertaken, and that is the process that I support.