Scott Morrison, Anthony Albanese face up to cultural problems in Parliament House
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has declined to punish two ministers embroiled in sex scandal allegations - here’s why.
Victoria
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Scott Morrison says no government staffers have complained to him about the behaviour of their ministerial bosses, as Anthony Albanese sidesteps questions about cultural issues in Labor offices.
The Prime Minister on Tuesday declined to punish Attorney-General Christian Porter and Urban Infrastructure Minister Alan Tudge after they were embroiled in a sex scandal reported by the ABC.
Mr Morrison said families had been “broken” because of the actions of his ministers, but that the issues had been dealt with by his predecessor Malcolm Turnbull.
As Mr Morrison turned up the heat on the Opposition Leader over his failure to ban shadow ministers from having relationships with their staff, the Herald Sun can reveal Labor advisers were promised tough new policies to fix a culture that was “too boozy and too blokey”.
On Tuesday, the Herald Sun sent questions to Mr Morrison and Mr Albanese asking whether they had been made aware of any issues about how their ministers and shadow ministers treated women.
“Every staff member has the right to feel safe in the workplace but no issues have been raised with me since I became Prime Minister and I would expect any of those issues to be managed through the established processes,” Mr Morrison told the Herald Sun.
“I continued the strengthened statement of ministerial standards to address the power imbalance that can come from relationships between Ministers and their staff. I call on all parliamentary leaders to apply those standards to the behaviour of their frontbench.”
Mr Albanese did not directly answer the questions, issuing a statement which said: “I expect all shadow ministers, MPs and senior staff to treat staff with respect and I have established formal and informal avenues for people who wish to raise issues of concern.”
Several Labor figures told the Herald Sun they believed the party’s caution in responding to the claims against Mr Porter and Mr Tudge reflected concern that allegations would be made against their own MPs.
On Tuesday morning, Mr Albanese’s chief of staff Tim Gartrell told Labor staff that new policies and programs were being developed to combat sexual assault, sexual harassment and bullying.
Several sources present said Mr Gartrell said the changes would be designed to make sure bad behaviour did not slip through the cracks.
Deputy Labor leader Richard Marles’s chief of staff Lidija Ivanovski also addressed the meeting, with Labor sources saying she told them no one should get a leave pass for behaving badly.
The Herald Sun understands Ms Ivanovski acknowledged that the internal culture needed to be less boozy and less blokey, and more reflective of modern workplaces.
She also warned of a stigma that saw some people who raised issues treated as not team players.
Mr Porter said on Tuesday that he was “desperately sorry” to his wife, but that their separation was “not about this sort of stuff”.
He rejected claims aired on the ABC about him kissing a staffer in a Canberra bar in 2017, and that they were in “somewhat of a relationship”.
Mr Porter said he had not breached the ministerial code of conduct but avoided answering when asked whether he had ever been in a relationship with a staffer.
“I haven’t conducted myself in a way that would lead people to provide that sort of complaint about me,” he said.
Several male Coalition backbenchers told the Herald Sun they felt it was wrong for women to feel pressured into sexual relationships with their bosses, but did not think consensual relationships were problematic.
Mr Morrison said the issues raised on the ABC were “very important” and that he took it “extremely seriously”.
Asked whether he would order an investigation into Mr Tudge and Mr Porter, he dismissed the need for that, saying: “Those matters were addressed by my predecessor at the time.”
But Mr Morrison said his ministers were “in no doubt about what my expectations are of them”.
“There is considerable cost and hurt, and we are all accountable for our own behaviour,” Mr Morrison said.
“There are a number of families that have been broken and there are some people who are really hurting over this.”
Grilled over whether the conduct of his colleagues passed the pub test, Mr Morrison said they were “just as human as anyone else” and that Australians understood “human frailty”.
PM TAKES SWIPE AT ABC
A stoush has erupted between the national broadcaster and the federal government, following the airing on TV on Monday night of allegations of ministerial infidelity.
Scott Morrison slammed the ABC investigation as “absurd” and one-sided, after Attorney-General Christian Porter and Urban Infrastructure Minister Alan Tudge were named.
The PM alluded to similar issues in other political parties that were not addressed.
“It only focused on one side of politics, and if anyone who has had any experience around this place thinks that issues in the past are limited to one side of politics — well, honestly, you reckon? You really reckon?” Mr Morrison said.
“What I found interesting … was the dismissal of the idea that there should have been no investigation into anyone other than government members, government ministers.”
Mr Morrison said he expected there would be “a lot to write about” if every politician's history was examined.
“The suggestion that is implied … that there are no matters of this nature that are potentially subject to investigation by an independent report outside of the Liberal Party, is absurd,” Mr Morrison said.
Nationals senator Matt Canavan said did not see the public interest in the report.
“Human lives are complex,” he said. “None of us are saints.”
Mr Porter insisted there was a “substantial basis” if he wanted to take legal action against the ABC, but said he did not want it to become a distraction.
He told Perth radio the allegation he was kissing a staffer he was in a relationship with in a Canberra bar in 2017 was baseless.
“The other person — the subject of that story about a bar — was contacted by Four Corners and the journalist has acknowledged that fact and that other person categorically denied the description provided by Four Corners regarding the bar or that it indicated any relationship,” he said.
Four Corners executive producer Sally Neighbour hit back: “This is wrong. It was based on six corroborated eyewitness accounts.”
She said her team sent Mr Porter five emails over a fortnight, setting out the allegations in “explicit” detail and asking 21 questions, of which he answered only one.
“Rest assured, our work on this story is not yet finished,” she said.
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