Michaelia Cash makes a bizarre entrance to Senate estimates following extraordinary rant

TROUBLED Jobs Minister Michaelia Cash has “unreservedly” withdrawn her threat to expose young female staffers, but fell short of saying sorry.

MICHAELIA Cash has withdrawn comments made in Parliament yesterday about female staff members “unreservedly”, but has fallen short of apologising over the remarks.

The Liberal Minister withdrew her threat to “name young women” in Bill Shorten’s office in today’s Senate Estimates hearing, but also took the opportunity to call Labor Senator Doug Cameron a “bully” in the same breath.

“I am more than happy to withdraw the comments unreservedly,” Senator Cash said, before request Senator Camerons’ questions about her own staff which provoked her outburst, to be withdrawn as well.

Senator Cash’s withdrawal follows numerous requests for her to apologise over the threat.

Earlier, she made a bizarre entrance to Senate estimates, hiding behind the shield of a whiteboard in a bid to evade cameras following her controversial rant in Parliament yesterday.

Senator Cash appeared in the corridors of Parliament House in Canberra ahead of a hearing but could only be seen momentarily as she passed a gap between a white screen with wheels and a wall. The whiteboard had reportedly been rolled into the middle of the walkway by security to give the minister privacy as she entered the committee room.

Cameramen can he heard in video footage of the incident asking Senator Cash: “Why are you hiding, minister?” and “Why do you need protection?”

The Senator didn’t respond.

A Senate estimates hearing yesterday was rocked by Senator Cash when she threatened to name young women in Mr Shorten’s office and repeat rumours about them. She was today urged to personally apologise to the staffers she smeared in the extraordinary outburst.

“I think Michaelia Cash should walk down to (Opposition Leader) Bill Shorten’s office and ask to see the female staff in a group,” Deputy Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek told ABC radio.

“And look them in the eye and say, ‘I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to make life harder for you. I slipped up. I’m sorry’.”

A whiteboard was rolled into Parliament to give Michaelia Cash privacy as she walked to Senate Estimates.

Jobs Minister Michaelia Cash makes her way to Senate estimates.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull today defended Michaela Cash saying she was provoked into smearing Labor women.

He accused Senator Cameron of having bullied the Minister for Jobs during a Senate committee hearing. Mr Turnbull told Parliament that Senator Cash has apologised for her heated remarks, although Labor questions that.

In his first public comments on the outburst, Mr Shorten this afternoon said he was waiting for Senator Cash’s call.

The Opposition Leader said he was shocked and angry, on behalf of “the smart, dedicated, hardworking professionals in my office who have been smeared by Michaelia Cash”.

“I’m honestly shocked she hasn’t said sorry. I’ve been waiting for her to ring up my office and organise it,” Mr Shorten said in a statement.

“It’s this sort of nonsense that turns people off politics. We should be focusing on the things that matter to Australians, not hurling insults and making up stories about people who can’t defend themselves.

“The Prime Minister said a few weeks ago that the parliament needed to be a more respectful workplace for women. I agree with him. Maybe he should.”

Australian Jobs Minister Michaelia Cash speaks during Senate estimates at Parliament House in Canberra, Thursday, March 1, 2018. Picture: AAP /Lukas Coch.

But it’s unlikely Senator Cash would be welcomed into Mr Shorten’s office to apologise.

“The anger in here this morning is real,” said a source.

Last night the women in Mr Shorten’s office went to dinner together as a show of solidarity.

The government is claiming Senator Cash was the victim in the exchange with Labor’s Doug Cameron.

The suggestion is Senator Cameron was inferring a Cash staff member had been moved from a minister’s staff because of an office romance.

This related to the transfer of Vikki Campion from the office of then Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce.

“There was implied innuendo the whole way along about staff movements between Liberal staffers’ offices,” Liberal MP Craig Laundy told Sky News this morning.

“The unspoken reality was they were attempting to sling mud looking back to a couple of weeks ago, linking it to the movement of staffers around the Nationals’ offices.”

Labor sources said Senator Cameron had suspected Senator Cash had been stacking her office with personnel from industrial relations tribunals.

That’s why he asked where “he or she” — a new staff member — had come from.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton doubled down on the “rumours” Senator Cash mentioned when speaking to 2GB.

“I think we’ve sat here taking a morals lecture from Bill Shorten in relation to Barnaby Joyce over the last few weeks and people know that there’s a history of problems in Bill Shorten’s personal life, Tony Burke’s personal life. And to be lectured by the Labor Party really sticks in the craw,” he said.

OPINION: The real problem with Michaelia Cash’s outburst

HOW THE DRAMA UNFOLDED

After being asked by Senator Cameron where her new staff member had come from Senator Cash exploded in fury.

“If you want to start discussing staff matters be very, very careful,” she said during the Senate estimates hearing yesterday.

“Because I’m happy to sit here and name every young woman in Mr Shorten’s office of which rumours in this place abound.

“You want to go down that path today, I will do it.”

Deputy Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek says Senator Cash must say sorry to the women she referred to.

Senator Cameron replied: “Take what young people call a chill pill. Then you might be OK?”

Labor’s Senate Leader Penny Wong sped from her office to the hearing room to demand Senator Cash withdraw “the disgraceful slur”.

The minister eventually did. “If anyone has been offended by my remarks, I withdraw,” she said.

The heated threat is being seen as a product of pressure on Senator Cash over leaks from her office on a police raid on the Australian Workers’ Union last October.

And it is seen as a reflection of political tensions raised by the scandal around former Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce’s relationship with a former Nationals staffer, Vikki Campion.

Today host Ben Fordham said on air this morning that “two wrongs don’t make a right” and that Senator Cash “went a step too far in publicly accusing these women without a shred of evidence”.

“Minister, let me appeal to your good sense and decency. You have withdrawn your claim but you should also apologise to these young women and set an example about owning mistakes,” he said. “You don’t have to apologise, but you should.”

"Minister, let me appeal to your good sense and decency. You have withdrawn your claim but you should also apologise to these young women and set an example about owning mistakes." @BenFordham has spoken out about Jobs Minister Michaelia Cash's angry outburst yesterday. #9Today pic.twitter.com/14ZHRel7m1

— The Today Show (@TheTodayShow) February 28, 2018

Education Minister Simon Birmingham today accused Labor of playing up the incident for political purposes and said, “Everybody ought to move on.”

“I know that that was a pretty robust lot of questioning and a lot of things being thrown at her by Labor senators at the time,” Mr Birmingham told Nine News today.

But former prime minister Tony Abbott is among those critical of Senator Cash: “I don’t know what was going through her head at the time.”

“It is bad when it comes from the Labor Party, it is bad when it comes from the Liberal Party and it is particularly bad when it comes from a minister of the crown,” he told 2GB.

Ms Plibersek said she had been a junior political staffer in an overwhelmingly male workplace and knew how tough it was.

“Having someone sort of intimate that these young women are somehow less than the fine professional, hard working, dedicated professionals they are is really disappointing, very unfortunate,” she said.

And she drew in Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull who banned relationships between ministers and staff, in part to improve workplace atmospheres.

“I think Michaelia Cash’s outburst completely undermines the Prime Minister’s stated effort to make this a better workplace for women,” she said.