‘Senator sixpack’ David Van used official Instagram to chat up women

The former Liberal senator being courted by Labor for his crossbench vote used official email and Instagram accounts to flirt with women and pitch the services of his private PR business, leaked screenshots and emails show.

This masthead and A Current Affair, both owned by Nine, can reveal Senator David Van’s use of his official social media accounts to message women – using terms like “babe” and “hon” – raised alarm in then-prime minister Scott Morrison’s office in 2021, prompting senior government figures to counsel Van to behave appropriately.

Former Liberal senator David Van is flexing his newfound clout as a crossbench senator on key Labor agenda items including the Murray-Darling Basin Plan and industrial laws.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Coalition leader Peter Dutton pressured the Victorian out of the Liberal Party in June and referred him to parliament’s workplace watchdog after independent senator Lidia Thorpe and former Liberal senator Amanda Stoker accused him of inappropriate touching and harassment. He has consistently denied the allegations, rejected repeated requests for an interview and did not respond to detailed questions sent to him for this story.

The 59-year-old is flexing his newfound clout as a crossbench senator on key Labor agenda items including the Murray-Darling Basin Plan and industrial laws.

In a message to a cooking influencer with 21,000 followers in 2021, Van wrote: “Hey darling here is my Senate page. Appreciate it if you can push it hard to your friends.. especially the shot of me in the shorts and give it the hashtag #senatorsixpack”.

Six days later, he messaged the same woman: “Hey doll can you put a comment on that post of mine with the hashtag #senatorsixpack.”

In a separate private conversation on Instagram in 2020, a woman wrote to Van: “You are a hot looking man … Hehe did you just have a stalk of my profile?”

Van responded: “Not a stalk was just trying to follow you back. Call me if you like and I will see if I can help.”

Three women who exchanged messages with Van were contacted by this masthead. Two confirmed the correspondence and the third declined to comment.

One of at least five witnesses involved in the six-month parliamentary watchdog probe into Thorpe and Stoker’s allegations regarding Van said last week they had heard nothing from investigators for months.

An undated shot that appeared on the senator’s social media accounts. Credit: Nine News

A former lead prosecutor at the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption, Geoffrey Watson, SC, said after reviewing the material obtained by this masthead and A Current Affair, his view was that it was improper for a parliamentarian to use government resources for personal endeavours.

A code of conduct for MPs introduced this year states parliamentarians should “act respectfully, professionally and with integrity” and “recognise your power, influence or authority and do not abuse them”.

Watson, a director at the Centre for Public Integrity, said: “When you look at these things ... they demonstrate that this is a man who should be better schooled or educated in the way one goes about using power given to him by the Australian people.”

Liberal insiders also previously raised concerns about Van’s use of his official email account to discuss his private business, PR firm The De Wintern Group.

The code of conduct for ministers prohibits them from running companies or acting as a consultant. However, these rules do not apply to Van because he is a backbencher.

In September 2019, several months after he was elected, the senator was pitching reputation management and media management services to cleaning firm GJK Facility Services at a cost of thousands of dollars a month. The pitch to GJK included reimbursement of business-class flights.

GJK owner George Stamas confirmed Van worked as what Stamas called a “PR adviser” in April 2019, the month after the Liberal Party selected Van as a Senate candidate for the election held in May. Stamas insisted the work stopped before Van entered the Senate.

The same firm later appointed Van’s de facto partner, who this masthead has decided not to name, to its board. This masthead does not suggest this appointment was inappropriate.

Stamas said Van’s partner had a “wide experience in corporate governance and all areas of commercial law” and “this background and experience were the sole basis of her appointment to the advisory board”.

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