Stefanie Jones: Former staffer blasts Labor’s sexism in wake of the Jamie Clements scandal

FORMER Labor candidate Stefanie Jones has detailed the alleged sexual harrassment by NSW Labor kingmaker Jamie Clements and explained why she agreed to drop an AVO application against him.

Former Labor staffer Stefanie Jones at home in Wolli Creek. She has blasted sexism in the Labor Party. Picture: Justin Lloyd

• COMMENT: Jamie Clements must go and go quietly
• Labor boss tried to kiss me, says staffer

FORMER Labor candidate Stefanie Jones has broken ranks to expose the misogynistic culture in the party, claiming it is full of “filth” and has a “disgusting” attitude to women.

In an emotional interview with The Daily Telegraph, the 27-year-old yesterday revealed the reasons she agreed to drop an application for an apprehended violence order against NSW Labor kingmaker Jamie Clements after an incident in a parliamentary office, citing a lack of support from the party’s leadership and ongoing victim-shaming from some of her colleagues.

“I think if I had my time over again I would just run (away),” Ms Jones said of her decision to come forward with the complaint against NSW ALP general secretary Mr Clements. “I would never want to go through this again. It’s been soul-destroying. Everybody wants it under the carpet.

Jamie Clements released a statement yesterday stating he was please the matter had been resolved.

Stefanie Jones leaving the Downing Centre with fiance David Latham.

“There’s such a lack of support (and) as long as the party has people like (that in it), the filth ... the continuation of disgusting treatment of women will continue.”

Ms Jones claims Mr Clements, a married father of three, snapped last June after she revealed she was going to tell her fiance, Labor organiser Dave Latham, about a one-night stand they shared in 2013.

“(Mr Clements) turned, grabbed the side of the chair I was sitting on (in the parliamentary office in which she works) and said, ‘If you do that, it will destroy everything for all of us. Dave will leave you, that’s a terrible idea’,” Ms Jones said.

Shocked by his response, Ms Jones said she agreed to keep the fling a secret and Mr Clements left the room — only to return moments later and allegedly lock the door and demand: “ ‘I want a guarantee. I want a guarantee (that you won’t tell Dave)’ and stood over me and said ‘I want a guarantee, kiss me. Kiss me. You know you want it’.

Ms Jones said she agreed to keep the fling a secret. Picture: Justin Lloyd

“I got out from under his arm, tried to open the door, he held it closed and kept going with ‘You know you want it, I want a guarantee, kiss me’ ,” she said.

“I physically put my hands up and said ‘no this isn’t happening, this is not happening Jamie’.

“He then went into this moment of Zen and looked at me ... and then stomped out the door.”

Mr Clements denies the incident took place, but he admits he was in Ms Jones’ office twice at that time.

Ms Jones said she was asked by her boss, Campbelltown MP Greg Warren, what was wrong after he returned from Question Time later that day and she told him about the encounter. “He said, ‘what do you want me to do?’ I said, ‘can’t do anything’,” Ms Jones told The Daily Telegraph.

“I didn’t have anywhere to go and didn’t know what to do. It’s Jamie Clements, what are you going to do?”

“I think if I had my time over again I would just run (away). I would never want to go through this again. It’s been soul-destroying. Everybody wants it under the carpet.” - JONES

Since the Jones-Clements allegations were revealed by The Daily Telegraph in August, the party has been in disarray, with pro and anti-Clements factions at Labor’s head office and emerging in the caucus.

Ms Jones yesterday agreed to drop her application for an AVO after Mr Clements signed a formal undertaking that he would not approach her for 12 months, sparing both the Labor Party and its general secretary from a potentially damaging hearing.

Jamie Clements signed undertaking

The Labor candidate for Cronulla in the 2011 election said she made the call in part because she could not bear the thought of spending two harrowing days on the stand, and out of respect to Mr Clements’ young family.

“(The undertaking) is basically the same as the AVO,” Ms Jones said of her decision.

“If he does something that breaches the undertakings, we go to court and we’re guaranteed the AVO. This is about me being safe.

“Quite frankly, as a human being I feel for his wife and his kids, mostly his kids. They’re quite young still. I (also) didn’t want to face two days of cross-­examination from his lawyers.”

But, ultimately, she said she was disillusioned by the way the party’s “spineless” leadership had treated her, and that since coming forward she had been harassed by some of her own colleagues.

“I would say if you’re a woman in the Labor Party be careful,” she said. “It’s heartbreaking when you come forward; when you’re the person who has not done anything wrong and you have people openly calling you a ‘slut’; it could not be further from the truth.”

Shockingly, Ms Jones alleged a senior party official even called her fiance and asked what it would take “to make this go away”.

“There’s such a lack of support (and) as long as the party has people like (that in it), the filth ... the continuation of disgusting treatment of women will continue,” says Stefanie Jones / Picture: Justin Lloyd

A leaked internal party review by former NSW Bar Association president Jane Needham SC commissioned in the wake of the incident condemned the NSW Labor Party’s culture and treatment of women.

The report was ordered by NSW Labor president Mark Lennon after complaints about the treatment of women in the state branch.

But Ms Jones said it took Mr Lennon “four months to meet with me and when he met with me he (was) with two lawyers and in that meeting he couldn’t give me any answers as to why nothing had happened”.

“The fact (Opposition Leader Luke) Foley has stayed quiet says worlds about him when you see how Turnbull handled (the Jamie Briggs issue). (Mr Foley) never wanted to meet with me, I never heard anything from him,” she said.

She said Mr Foley’s chief of staff Pat Garcia offered to help her get a job outside politics after he learned of the incident. Mr Lennon and Mr Garcia declined to comment yesterday. Mr Foley was on leave and could not be contacted.

In a statement, Mr Clements maintained his innocence, saying he “welcomed the decision to discontinue AVO proceedings against me”.

“I am pleased it has reached a resolution which allows all involved to move forward.

“I have always contested the version of events which has been publicly reported and the agreement reached today is without admission on my part,” he said.

HISTORY OF A KISS AND TELL

June 25: Campbelltown MP Greg Warren’s staffer Stefanie Jones claims
there was an incident between her and NSW ALP boss Jamie Clements.

August 3: Ms Jones reports the alleged incident to police and applies for an AVO against Mr Clements. He denies the allegations.

August 7: The Daily Telegraph breaks the story.

August 24: Police decline to press charges over the allegations but proceed with the AVO application.

September 4: The NSW ALP administrative committee decides to hold two inquiries into Labor head office.

January 13: Mr Clements makes an undertaking not to approach Ms Jones without admission, meaning the AVO application is dropped and both parties avoid a hearing