Senate debates

Tuesday, 23 February 2021

Questions without Notice: Take Note of Answers

Members of Parliament: Staff

3:48 pm

Photo of Hollie HughesHollie Hughes (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

This has been an incredibly difficult period for a lot of women, certainly for Ms Higgins, but there have been a lot of women, and I know across the aisle they would understand this, who have experienced abuse, assault, sexual harassment, rape. For a multitude of reasons, a lot of these women determine that they want to keep it private. It's not just one reason why they keep it private; it's for a whole lot of reasons. There are experiences that occur not just in Parliament House, not just through our own political parties but through a variety of experiences in different times of their lives. I find it absolutely and utterly shameful, this politicisation of Ms Higgins's experiences.

The lack of sympathy for her, of an understanding of her, the fact that it has been a number of years since this occurred and things change for people over time—a lot changes for lots of people at different times. Ms Higgins, at the time, decided not to pursue a police investigation that was offered to her. At one stage, Senator Reynolds was being criticised for not respecting her privacy but, as it unfolds, Senator Reynolds actually was respectful of her privacy by maintaining a very dignified silence and is continuing to do so around Ms Higgins' situation.

Now those opposite are somehow claiming that those wishes should have been disrespected, those wishes should have been ignored, that somehow they know best as to what was happening at that specific time and that Senator Reynolds should have just ignored the wishes of Ms Higgins—the wishes that Senator Reynolds respected, that she listened to. She supported Ms Higgins throughout this and offered, at every opportunity she could, her support to go with Ms Higgins, to support her both in a physical sense and in being present in whatever way that she wanted. This was followed up by Senator Cash also offering to go with her to make a police report. This is actual support. By trying to take down one woman whilst alleging to support another, you should be ashamed of yourselves, absolutely and utterly ashamed of yourselves.

I guess one of the things that also upsets me, and I think upsets and confounds a lot of people, is your willingness to attack Senator Reynolds, your willingness—like Senator Gallacher just did, absolutely outrageously claiming Senator Reynolds should have called the police on the night the incident occurred. If you want to be angry with the security guards for not doing it, sure; fair enough. But Senator Reynolds didn't know about it on the night that it occurred. In fact, she didn't learn about it for a couple of days, when she was told about a security breach, is my understanding, not about an incident that occurred. You can't rewrite history because it suits your disgraceful narrative.

During the last election campaign, another woman made some allegations and a lot on the other side of the chamber were pretty quick to dismiss those, pretty quick to diminish that woman, pretty quick to race to the defence of their then leader. I hope you've all had a good hard look at yourselves, with this faux outrage and this absolutely pathetic effort in what you're trying to do to Minister Reynolds. I hope you are reaching out to Ms Sheriff and offering support to her—absolutely abhorrent behaviour, trying to tear down one woman with a rewriting of history—she who did absolutely everything by the book, as required. The minister in charge of defence industry, the minister who was told of a security breach, not of an incident, and now we're rewriting history to suit an absolutely disgraceful agenda.

But I am wondering at what time the Labor Party or anyone else in this chamber might find a little outrage for the alleged perpetrator—perhaps even Ms Wilkinson, who left it to the 29th minute of that interview to even mention him. Perhaps, at some stage, you might realise that there was someone else that inflicted this alleged attack on Ms Higgins. Yet we have silence, a total silence of anger or empathy or any feelings towards the alleged perpetrator in what he allegedly contributed to Ms Higgins— (Time expired)

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