‘Stop hiding, stand up, get out’: Karen Andrews says more staffers should be sacked over lewd video

Industry Minister Karen Andrews has demanded the removal of Coalition staff who shared images of a man who was sacked on Monday night for filming himself performing a sex act on a Liberal MP’s desk.

In a furious call for more action, Ms Andrews said the government advisers who shared the mobile phone video should resign or face an investigation to name them and sack them.

Industry Minister Karen Andrews said on Tuesday morning she had had “a gutful” of the stories about mistreat of women in Parliament House.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

“Those people know who they are, so stop hiding, stand up, get out of the building. Time to go,” she said on Tuesday morning. “But that can’t be the only response. Quite clearly, we do need to look at what the avenues are to identify who those individuals are.”

The government has sought to contact the whistleblower who revealed the videos but Ms Andrews said she was disappointed they had to be revealed by a whistleblower.

“I actually think that if that behaviour has happened over a number of years that it should have been willing truly made public before now,” she said.

“And I really do think that those individuals who have been involved actually need to show a bit of integrity and walk themselves out the door.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the adviser had been terminated immediately for the “totally unacceptable” conduct, which was revealed on the Ten Network on Monday evening.

The sacked man had worked for Coalition MPs in opposition and government over the last decade, triggering sympathy for him from Assistant Minister Michelle Landry, a Nationals MP.

“The young fellow concerned, you know, he was a really good worker and he loved the place and I feel bad for him about this,” Ms Landry said. “But it’s unacceptable behaviour.”

Visibly angry in brief remarks to the media on Tuesday morning, Ms Andrews dismissed the idea of sympathising for the man.

“I don’t feel bad at all for him. The behaviour was appalling,” she said.

Ms Andrews, a mechanical engineer before she entered Parliament in 2010, said she was open to a debate about using quotas to increase the number of Liberal women in Parliament despite being against the idea in the past.

“I’ve always been quite anti-quotas, because I felt that it was a disadvantage to women because they would be perceived as only getting promoted, only getting a job, because they were a number,” she said.

“The point that I’m at now is that our processes to attract more women, to my party and into the Parliament, have not been as successful as they need to be. And we can’t continue doing the same thing and expect a different outcome. So I’m certainly open to a discussion about quotas.”

She also said she was sick of the workplace culture inside Parliament House.

“I’ve had a gutful. I have had an absolute gutful and my conscience will no longer allow me to stay quiet,” she said earlier to ABC Radio National breakfast radio.

Foreign Affairs Minister and Minister for Women Marise Payne condemned the actions of the man soon after they were revealed on Monday night.

“As a senator for NSW, as a minister in this government and as a human being it is appalling. The degrading nature of those actions, which were shown in the media this evening, is beyond disappointing,” she said.

Senator Payne said the behaviour would only stop if all members and senators in Parliament made it stop, and she said the review of the workplace by Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins would help make that happen.