Brittany Higgins backs investigation into Labor nudes complaint

Women’s rights champion Brittany Higgins and Liberal senator Sarah Henderson have joined a chorus of voices calling for PM Anthony Albanese to look into a young woman’s complaints about Labor MP Jerome Laxale.

Liberal senator Sarah Henderson has joined the chorus of voices calling for an investigation of a young woman’s complaints about newly elected Labor MP Jerome Laxale, saying that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese should step in.

“As leader of the Labor Party, Mr Albanese should ensure that this matter is fully investigated,” she said.

“I say to Mr Albanese that the standard you walk past is the standard you accept. Australian women need to know that this issue won’t be swept under the carpet.

“Mr Laxale is now a federal Labor MP and a member of Mr Albanese’s parliamentary team.

“It is incumbent on Mr Albanese to tell Australians what he knew about these complaints at the time; what action, if any, did he take and why this young women was blocked on social media and removed from Mr Laxale’s campaign following her initial complaint.

Senator Sarah Henderson.

Women’s rights advocate Brittany Higgins.

“Mr Albanese must also address why these complaints were not taken seriously and what action he will take in relation to Labor’s failed complaints system.”

Earlier on Thursday, Brittany Higgins also called for a full investigation into allegations that the ALP mishandled a young woman’s complaints about the behaviour of new Bennelong MP Jerome Laxale.

Jerome Laxale on Thursday morning. Picture: John Grainger

Ms Higgins, who has become a champion for better treatment of women in politics since her allegations of rape in a parliamentary office last year surfaced, tweeted that she “hopes the matter is looked into”.

“I hope the matter is looked into and that there are satisfactory outcomes for all concerned,”she wrote on Twitter.

It comes as a young woman is concerned a newly elected Labor MP still has intimate photos of her, and said she felt betrayed by the party, challenging Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to take up her case after she said the ALP tried to brush off her complaints about the alleged behaviour during the recent federal election campaign.

The woman, who has asked The Daily Telegraph not to reveal her identity, claimed she was in an intimate online relationship with Jerome Laxale, who recently won the seat of Bennelong for Labor by a thin margin of just 1500 votes, from October 2020 to November of last year.

Anthony Albanese on the campaign trail with Jerome Laxale.

Newly elected Labor MP Jerome Laxale on Thursday.

She alleges Mr Laxale “asked me for private photos, nude photos, as well as suggestive photos” during the course of their exchanges but that she assumed he would delete them.

While she says the relationship ended amicably, the woman claims that when she went to work for Mr Laxale’s get out the vote effort in April as a friend and member of the union assigned to the campaign, rival Liberals made remarks to her claiming they had “seen the pictures on Jerome’s laptop”.

The Labor MP emerged from a home with a female friend on Thursday morning but was reluctant to discuss the allegations when approached by The Daily Telegraph.

“Dude are you serious, no, no, no,” Mr Laxale said when quizzed.

Holding two empty boxes of washing powder, the MP disposed of the packages before walking away from the North Ryde home in Sydney’s northern suburbs.

Shortly after, the Minister for Planning Anthony Roberts drove past telling The Daily Telegraph that Mr Laxale was in Canberra.

Mr Laxale’s former online flame said that when she raised her concern with the party after the initial incident, she was told “here’s the rule book, here you go”.

No suggestion is made that Mr Laxale inappropriately shared images, only that there are concerns around NSW Labor’s complaints processes.

In a formal complaint made to NSW Labor after the election the woman also claimed that after she raised the issue with Mr Laxale and other officials she was booted from the campaign and blocked from its social media channels.

A text message sighted by this newspaper from a campaign official to the woman read, “I want to ensure that you have all information available so that you can make an informed decision about how your would like your complaints to be dealt with,” and attached a number of Labor Party documents relating to rules and complaints.

It is also understood that the woman’s complaint raised the alarm among senior figures involved with the ALP’s NSW campaign who were concerned that if word of the issue got out it could derail their Bennelong campaign.

Mr Laxale was the subject of controversy during his campaign for Bennelong, with revelations that as Mayor of Ryde he failed to declare his friendship with a woman who would later become his partner after the dissolution of his marriage, and whose environmental charity received a small grant from Ryde City Council.

“They’ve put me in the dark and it really impacts me, not just my emotional wellbeing but my future prospects if those pictures come out,” she said.

“I want Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to look into this personally.

“I feel like it’s sort of a double standard, the party all supported Brittany Higgins but when it comes to one of their own it’s different.”

When contacted by email and text message, Mr Laxale responded: “Please contact NSW Labor.”

A NSW Labor spokesman said: “NSW Labor takes all complaints very seriously and treats them with the utmost confidentiality.”