Nationals MP resigns after ‘sugar baby’ claims

A married Nationals MP has resigned from his senior position after a bombshell sex scandal emerged today.

Nationals MP Andrew Broad has resigned from his position as Assistant Minister to the Deputy Prime Minister over sordid allegations published in New Idea this morning.

The site reported Mr Broad had been using the “sugar baby” website SeekingArrangement to meet younger women on work trips.

Nationals leader Michael McCormack told reporters that he had been informed about the allegations about two weeks ago and there was now an Australian Federal Police (AFP) investigation into the matter.

Earlier he issued a statement thanking Mr Broad for his service and said the resignation was appropriate due to the nature of the allegations made.

He also stressed the matter may also be subject to future investigation and further media comment on such detail was not appropriate.

The New Idea story suggests the married politician used the “seeking arrangements” website to meet younger girls while he was away on work trips.

New Idea reported that Amy, who uses the online alias “Sweet Sophia Rose”, told the magazine how she met up with Mr Broad at the expensive Aqua restaurant in Hong Kong.

A woman who New Idea says is called named Amy and who uses the pseudonym "Sweet Sophia Rose". Source: New Idea.

Andrew Broad at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: Kym Smith

Despite putting in her profile that she would not be intimate on dates, Amy claims Mr Broad suggested he had booked a room for them.

“He kept grabbing my hand and putting it on his leg, so I excused myself and went to the bathroom and when I came back I told him I was leaving,” she reportedly told the magazine.

Amy also suggested Mr Broad lied about his age and kept referring to himself as James Bond.

“I don’t think someone like that should be in a position of power and making decisions for the country,” she said.

“I think it’s pretty strange and risky of him to send me photos of him on the news. It appears he wanted to show off and told me he was a very important person.”

I took this photo of Deputy PM Michael McCormack at an event about 10 minutes before Andrew Broad resigned over “sugar baby” scandal . Suspect he and his adviser might have been reading New Idea article about the scandal? #auspol pic.twitter.com/9G34GTj2Se

— Sarah Gerathy (@sarahgerathy) December 17, 2018

A screenshot from the website Mr Broad allegedly used.

In response to New Idea’s story, Mr Broad said Amy “may have engaged in criminal activity” and he had reported the matter to the Australian Federal Police.

Seeking Arrangement is a notorious website that aims to match men with younger women. The men then spend money on the women in exchange for their company.

Earlier this year, news.com.au reported that more than 100,000 Australian university students had signed up to the site. It explicitly targets students, offering “relief” to those with large debts or HECS payments.

RELATED: How SeekingArrangement targets young, female uni students

RELATED: What life is like as a $75,000-a-year sugar baby

Nationals MP Andrew Broad shock 'sugar baby' secret: https://t.co/ALVWjUlT80 pic.twitter.com/U48M5XqTZk

— New Idea magazine (@NewIdeamagazine) December 16, 2018

Andrew Broad in Question Time in the House of Representatives Chamber at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: Kym Smith

Mr Broad had only been in his position as assistant minister since September and Mr McCormack said a replacement would be made and announced in due course.

He will continue in his role as the member for Mallee, in Victoria’s north, a position he has held since 2013.

Mr Broad made headlines in 2016 after opposing same-sex marriage and comparing the relationships to those between frisky rams.

“I think a bicycle is not a tricycle, and relationships can have different names,” he reportedly told the Sunraysia Daily.

“I can put the rams in a paddock and they might mount one another, but no lambs will come out.”

He also among the first to call for former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce to resign his position after it was revealed the MP was expecting a baby with his former staffer.

At the time Mr Broad said: “I need to know as a member of parliament that the person who is going to be the acting prime minister has got their mind on the job,” he said.

“At this point in time it is not fit for Barnaby to … step up as acting PM”.

A former cereal and lamb farmer, Mr Broad won the Nuffield Scholarship in 2006 to study agriculture in more than 40 countries. The 43-year-old is a former president of the Victorian Farmers Federation and former director of the National Farmers Federation.