Former Victorian minister Heidi Victoria blasts ‘creepy, revolting’ behaviour

Heidi Victoria has spoken out against sexism in politics and is backing calls for MPs to undergo mandatory alcohol and drug testing.

Former Victorian Arts Minister Heidi Victoria.

A former Victorian Liberal minister has spoken out against alcohol fuelled sexism in politics and is backing calls for MPs to undergo mandatory alcohol and drug testing.

Heidi Victoria, the member for Bayswater between 2006 and 2018 and one-time arts minister, said on Sunday morning that poorly behaved politicians should be given a “whack” and “sin binned”.

She said one time when she was acting speaker at an after dinner parliamentary sitting at Victorian Parliament when a senior Labor MP drunkenly approached her.

“He leaned on the side of the wooden panelling and he just kept staring at me and I was very, very uncomfortable,” she told 3aw.

“I turned around to him and said ‘Can I help you?’’ and he said ‘you’re so beautiful’.

“It was so creepy and so revolting … I ended up going to the speaker and just saying this cannot happen, because that’s not only disrespectful to me but its disrespectful to the chair of speaker.”

Ms Victoria said she complained and received a written apology from the MP.

Her comments come as political culture is intensely scrutinised after former federal Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins went public with allegations she was raped by a fellow ministerial staffer.

CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA NewsWire Photos, MARCH 15 2020: Brittany Higgins at the Women's March 4 Justice Rally in Canberra. The Women's March 4 Justice Rally at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Ms Victoria said poor behaviour on Spring Street wasn’t limited to the men, saying one time she was heckled by a drunk female Labor MP during a debate on child killing laws at a post dinner parliamentary sitting.

“She walked in and she screeched across the chamber ‘You’re a disgrace, you’re in favour of child murderers’,” she said.

“Now I had a four year old and I can tell you that devastated me.”

“I think in every workplace we have federal laws, we have state laws against bullying [and] they need to be enacted in the highest law places in the land.”

Ms Victoria said quotas for female MPs would not make politics a better place for women, saying there needed to be ramifications for parliamentarians who misbehaved.

“There are a lot of members from all sides of politics who just don’t think that the rules apply to them,” she said.

“If there’s anywhere where these rules should be applied its where the laws are actually made.”

Ms Victoria said she supported calls for MPs to be drug and alcohol tested, saying what was accepted in parliament would

“I never drank in parliament that was my choice because I don’t believe you should ever drink in your workplace,” she said.

“Self regulation would be good but some people in there really don’t have any self regulation.”