Female Liberal members who worked for senior politicians claim they were sexually assaulted

One of the Liberals’ most senior women has taken aim at her own party after two former staffers levelled disturbing allegations of sexual assault.

The Liberal Party is reeling from allegations that members of staff sexually assaulted two women who were working for senior politicians.

Senator Michaelia Cash, who once served as the government’s minister for women, called the staffers’ claims “serious” this morning, but denied her party had a problem with women.

“These are serious allegations. I would say to the parties concerned that they should be referred to the appropriate authorities,” Ms Cash said.

“No, we do not have a problem with women,” she replied when asked that question directly.

Two women have come forward with allegations, first reported in Nine newspapers yesterday afternoon.

One is Dhanya Mani, who worked for the speaker in the New South Wales parliament and said a NSW Liberal parliamentary staffer came to her house in 2015, forced himself on her and started to masturbate.

At one point he put his hands around her Ms Mani’s neck and started to choke her.

“A man who I didn’t want to be in my home came to my home uninvited and was on top of me choking me and achieving sexual gratification from that, while I couldn’t move and couldn’t speak,” she told Nine News.

When she approached senior members of the party, Ms Mani alleges they said she “should kiss him (to) give him some sort of consolation prize”.

A senior Liberal woman advised her she should “just go along with it”, suggesting she would be slut-shamed and her reputation ruined if she made a complaint.

The other woman, Chelsey Potter, said she was working for a minister when a man restrained her at her home and removed her underwear.

“It was very quick and very sudden and quite forceful,” she said.

“It wasn’t until I started to really yell that he stopped and left the room.

Dhanya Mani.

Chelsey Potter. Picture: Emma Brasier

Ms Potter also raised her incident with a senior member of the party. While initially supportive, he called a few months later to tell her the alleged perpetrator was being considered for preselection.

He asked whether she would feel “compelled to speak out” if he became a candidate.

Neither woman raised the alleged assaults with the MPs they were working for, and neither went to the police.

Speaking to Sky News this morning, Liberal Party Vice President Karina Okotel echoed Ms Cash’s line that the allegations should be handled by the authorities.

“They’re absolutely horrific allegations. The first I heard of it was last night, with the rest of the public. They are allegations that certainly need to be dealt with,” Ms Okotel said.

“I don’t know whether the alleged perpetrators are members of the Liberal Party or any political party, but regardless of that, these are allegations that should be investigated by the authorities, by the police. And if they are found guilty, they need to be taken off the street.

“If they are guilty of gross misconduct where it should be a jailable offence. They do need to be taken out of our community and put into jail.

“It’s not enough that it be just dealt with by an internal process. In fact, I would say that’s sweeping it under the carpet, to just hush it up and not let the appropriate authorities, who are the police, deal with allegations of sexual assault.”

The party is in the process of developing an official code of conduct. There is a meeting of the federal executive on Friday, where the issue will be discussed.

A review into how the Liberals deal with bullying is due to be finalised in September.

.@KarinaOkotel on Liberal sexual assault allegations: They are allegations that certainly need to be dealt with. If they are found to be guilty, they need to be taken off the street.

MORE: https://t.co/ykweMevBOK #firstedition pic.twitter.com/f8uNsvhFNi

— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) July 30, 2019

Another senior party figure, businesswoman Kathryn Greiner, struck a different tone on ABC radio this morning, saying the suggestion that women should go to the police was a way to shut them up.

“What did we get out of the royal commission? It starts at the top. That is what I am about,” said Ms Greiner.

“If we want to bring transformative, conclusive change into the Liberal Party, which we clearly need to do, then it starts with the Prime Minister. And saying to women, ‘Go to the police,’ is simply another way of shutting people up, so it’s not good enough.

“To my view, the Liberal Party has got a cultural issue and it needs to address it.”

Ms Greiner also spoke to Nine newspapers, saying the Liberal Party “had not kept pace” with broader Australian society with its treatment of women.

“Young men in particular, with very little experience of the real world, they are on the up, and they will knock over anyone who gets in their way.”

The government has urged both women to contact the police, saying their allegations are “deeply concerning and distressing”.

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