Emma Husar claims ‘slut-shaming’ ended her career in politics
EMMA Husar has claimed that she was “slut-shamed” out of federal politics, describing it as the “oldest trick in the book to bring down a woman”.
National
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EMMA Husar has claimed that she was “slut-shamed” out of federal politics, describing it as the “oldest trick in the book to bring down a woman”.
In an interview with ABC 730 host Leigh Sales, the Federal Labor back bencher recalled what brought her career in politics to an end after she faced 44 complaints from 22 people of alleged workplace bullying and sexual harassment.
“What brought my career in politics to an end was being slut-shamed so viciously, with no ability to come back and stand up for myself,” she told the ABC.
“I guess slut-shaming is the oldest trick in the book to bring down a woman. It’s almost used as a method of torture.”
Ms Husar was also accused of exposing herself to fellow Labor MP Jason Clare by using a Sharon Stone move from the movie Basic Instinct while he was playing with his daughter on the floor in front of her.
The allegation was made by her former staffer, Jeremy Anderson. He has made 20 of the 44 complaints against her.
In reference to her alleged Sharon Stone move, Ms Husar told Sales: “It’s utter garbage. You’ve had both me and Jason Clare on the record saying it didn’t happen.”
Before Sales went through the allegations made against Ms Husar, she asked her if she had “done anything wrong”.
Ms Husar replied: “Look, there are certainly things that I have done better. In the absence of having a — you know, a boatload of experience before I walked in there, two years in, sure, there are things that I could have done better.
“I didn’t quit or I didn’t say I wasn’t going to recontest because of the allegations. I said I wasn’t going to recontest because of the extraordinary media attention and quite frankly the slut-shaming that went along with that.”
Sales asked her if she had a turnover of more than 20 employees in her office. Ms Husar said she had seven full-time staff in a two-year period, not 20.
Ms Husar also said she never told staff they were “stupid” or “not up to standard”.
When asked if she swore at staff, she said she swears a lot, but she doesn’t swear at people.
“I don’t swear at people. I would never call somebody a name like has been described. But certainly swearing-in frustration or — you know, saying it’s a day or whatever — yes, absolutely I swear,” she said.
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On the allegation that her nanny was employed in her electoral office to top up her salary, Ms Husar told Sales: “She came to be in my office at a time where I think the plague had gone through our office, we had no staff and it was kind of, ‘Can you just come in and answer the phones?’ And when she worked in the office, if she was working in the office and then say going to care for her kids, the timesheets would reflect she finished at that time.”
Sales also asked her if she expected staff to walk her dog and pick up after it if it needed to go to the toilet.
Ms Husar’s dog is an eight-year-old Labrador assistance dog that helps her son who has autism.
“If I was in a meeting, or detained and she wanted to go to the toilet, they would take her,” she said.
“Nobody raised that as an issue at the time either. In the absence of saying something to me, quite difficult to actually correct it.”
She also denied sexually harassing a member of her staff, and when asked if she “often” talked about sex in the office, she said: “I would talk about the rumours that swirl around the corridors of Parliament House about a young single female being there and unfortunately — as disappointing as it is to say and to the rest of the country — they are fast and furious and they are non-stop.
“They have been happening since I walked through the doors of the Labor Party in 2014. The first one that went around about me was — you know, I think that was an initial shock. I would talk to my staff about those rumours. I would be like, hey, this is the next rumour. As a way of kind of batting it off and brushing it off and showing that I’m still fierce and I’m still tough in the face of it, even though internally, like, it kills you.”
Ms Husar’s future is unclear now that she will not recontest the Sydney seat of Lindsay at the next federal election.
She told Sales she doesn’t have a plan.
Two days after Ms Husar announced her decision to quit, Labor released the results of an internal investigation clearing her of allegations of lewd conduct and sexual harassment of employees, finding there was no need for her to resign.
But the report, which has never been publicly released, found she behaved unreasonably towards staff and there were grounds for a further investigation into the alleged misuse of entitlements.
Her travel expenses from the last two years are still being reviewed by the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority.
She has been accused of misusing office funds and entitlements, including transferring money into her personal bank account and using a Commonwealth car for personal business.
She has claimed she has done nothing wrong.
Mr Anderson has denied all allegations made by Ms Husar.