Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When Brittany Higgins said to the women for justice rally on Monday, 'Silence says it's okay to treat people this way,' she was right. Our silence condones appalling behaviour. Women will never be safe in the workplace unless they are safe everywhere. It is on this issue—the safety of one of my colleagues and the highly selective media reporting which supports only some of those who are attacked—that I speak to you today.

While an intelligent hardworking member of parliament has been harassed from politics, those with high profiles, who profess to have women's rights and safety as their motivating force, have barely lifted a finger. I'm speaking of my friend and fellow South Australian Nicolle Flint, who has been found guilty of two crimes: firstly, she is a Liberal and, secondly, she is a conservative Liberal. Where was the outrage when the member for Boothby had 'skank' and '$60 an hour for a blow job' plastered on her electorate office? What gives GetUp and Extinction Rebellion the right to attack and deface her office and terrorise her staff? How it is okay that she is stalked and, when the offender posts hundreds of derogatory attacks, they are liked by people that Nicolle recognises as members of the Labor Party, of GetUp and of the unions? What a despicable pile on! In the shadow of British Labour member Jo Cox's death, Nicolle genuinely feared for her life.

Left or right, it matters not where the attacks come from. They are vile. Our media, as the chief carriers of information, should be enraged. Damningly, in Nicolle's case, most were not. It's not okay for the media or the full political spectrum to be silent in condemning the behaviour of GetUp and Extinction Rebellion. It is not okay for a young, intelligent and articulate woman to be hounded out of a job by abominable and unlawful behaviour. We cannot claim to live in a civil society if we have one rule for left-wing activists and another rule for others.

I have been appalled by attacks by people who should know better, like left-wing media personality Mike Carlton, who unbelievably extracted an apology from the ABC because he did not say that Jimmy Barnes should strangle Nicolle Flint but only that he was surprised that he did not. Really! The mainstream press was rightly and justifiably outraged when Alan Jones said that Julia Gillard should be shoved in a chaff bag and taken out to sea. But where was that support when a conservative Liberal woman was attacked? For the ABC, which vigorously defends its integrity, it seemed to me that an apology to its old friend and employee Mike Carlton came pretty cheap.

Maybe it's too late for Nicolle. But I feel compelled to speak up so that perhaps the next generation of conservative females will not be hounded out of office by this appalling and bullying behaviour. It is not okay for the member of Boothby to be slandered and stalked—and it is definitely not okay for her to feel her life is threatened. For all those that have been silent, and particularly those who provide the information in our lives, the media, they should hang their collective heads in shame. Fairness, balance and calling out of harassment should be afforded to women, not just those whose views align with theirs.