David Van moves to the crossbench after Thorpe’s Senate accusations

Liberal senator David Van has been removed from the Liberal party room after a meeting with Opposition Leader Peter Dutton following accusations of harassment made by Lidia Thorpe in the Senate.

Dutton said he had met with the Victorian senator on Thursday morning after further allegations had been brought to him overnight.

David Van has been removed from the Liberal party room after accusations of harassment from Lidia Thorpe.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“A short time ago I advised Senator Van of my decision that he should no longer sit in the Liberal party room. At the outset, I want to make clear, very clear that I’m not making any judgement on the veracity of the allegations or any individual’s guilt or innocence. I make that very clear,” Dutton said on Thursday afternoon.

The Liberal leader said he has spoken to the parliamentary workplace support service on Wednesday night and again on Thursday morning, which will independently “conduct their considerations of these matters”.

Van maintained his innocence in a statement to the Senate, but said he did not wish for the “matter to stain the Liberal Party” and accepted he would “no longer be sitting in the party room”.

In the Senate on Wednesday, Thorpe accused Van of “harassment” and “sexual assault”, a statement Van strongly denied at the time and she later withdrew the comments to comply with Senate rules.

On Thursday, the Greens-turned-independent senator made another statement to the Senate, where she alleged she was cornered by a man in parliament in a stairwell, which was witnessed by staff and other MPs. She did not identify the man.

“No one witnessed what happened in the stairwell as there are no cameras in stairwells,” Thorpe told the Senate.

In a tearful address, she said there were different understandings of what amounted to sexual assault, and that she had also experienced being followed, “aggressively propositioned and inappropriately touched”.

She did not identify any person as being responsible for that conduct.

She said she had made her remarks the day before in the context of Van making a speech in which he accused the Labor Party of disgraceful behaviour in its handling of the Brittany Higgins sexual assault allegation.

This prompted Thorpe to interject, and in an exchange with Senate Deputy President Andrew McLachlan, she said of Van, “this person harassed me, sexually assaulted me and the prime minister had to remove him from his office [to relocate Van’s office within Parliament House].”

Van rejected the allegation in the chamber, then released a statement later saying Thorpe had made “unfounded and completely untrue allegations against me that I immediately and unequivocally denied and continue to deny”.

Thorpe said in her statement on Thursday she didn’t go public at the time “because it was during the time Brittany Higgins had made her experience in this building public” and she didn’t want to detract from that.

She said she was afraid to walk out of the door of her office, would “check the coast was clear before stepping out”, and was supported by her then-colleagues in the Greens by being accompanied by someone “whenever I walked inside this building”.

“At the time, I was convinced that the government believed me,” she said. “Moving the person’s office reassured me that they understood the seriousness of what I experienced.”

Thorpe said she chose not to go to the police or pursue legal action, but would speak out against abuse and harassment occurring in parliament.

“I want to focus on making this place safe for everyone,” she said. “And I call on the government to immediately increase the number of security guards in the building and cameras in the corridors and to consult women who work here on what measures and can and should be taken,” she said.

Van stood to make a personal statement after Thorpe’s tearful speech, describing Thorpe’s allegations as “concocted from beginning to end”.

He accused Thorpe of “cowering under the umbrella of parliamentary privilege to make her claim”.

Van said he had acknowledged publicly that he had moved offices after an earlier allegation from Thorpe that he made her feel uncomfortable.

“That was what was put to me, an allegation that I denied then and I deny today,” he said.

“I agreed to move offices to ensure the avoidance of this.”

He said he also did so to protect himself against Thorpe’s “irrational concerns and ensure the effective and smooth running of the parliament”.

He said Thorpe’s choice not to go to the police with her allegation was evidence that what she had said was false.

He called for an investigation into Thorpe’s “outrageous claims so they can prove to be false and [I] will fully cooperate with investigators and answer any questions that they might have.”

Dutton said he wasn’t aware of the detail of Senator Van moving offices until Thorpe made her allegation on Wednesday, and he then made enquiries about the matter.

“I’m advised that the action at the time that was taken was to the satisfaction of both Senator Thorpe and the Greens Senate leadership team.”

If you or anyone you know needs support, you can contact the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service on 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732), Lifeline 131 114, or Beyond Blue 1300 224 636.

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