Abuse of women must stop: Scott Morrison

Scott Morrison says he is open to gender quotas for women and has called for an end to the ‘crap’ endured by women.

Scott Morrison says he is fully committed to stopping women being talked over by men, being overlooked and belittled and being afraid to walk to their cars. Picture: Gary Ramage

Scott Morrison has backed gender quotas in the Liberal Party and called for an end to the “crap’’ ­endured by women, as he ­acknowledged many voters were unhappy with his ­response to the rape and sex scandals engulfing the government.

In an emotional news conference after revelations on Monday that government staffers performed and filmed vulgar sex acts in parliament, the Prime Minister demanded structural reforms to improve the treatment of women as he called on the Liberal Party to lift its female representation.

Mr Morrison’s attempt at a ­circuit-breaker turned sour when he incorrectly claimed News Corp, publisher of The Australian, was investigating a complaint against one of its journalists for harassing a woman in a female ­toilet.

News Corp Australasia executive chairman Michael Miller said there had been a “verbal exchange” between two employees over a workplace issue but it was not of a sexual nature, did not take place in a toilet and neither person made a complaint.

The verbal exchange involved two women.

The Prime Minister late last night issued an apology for making an “anonymous reference to an incident at News Ltd that has been rejected by the company” during his press conference.

He said he had no right to make the allegation without the permission of the woman involved and expressed deep regret for the comments. He also acknowledged that News Corp had rejected the claim. “I accept their account. I was wrong to raise it, the emotion of the moment is no excuse,” he said.

Mr Morrison earlier on Tuesday revealed he was studying advice from the ­Solicitor-General on the continuing role of Attorney-General Christian Porter, who has taken leave until the end of the month after being accused of raping a woman 30 years ago. Mr Porter strenuously denies the allegations.

Liberal MPs including Karen Andrews, Sussan Ley, Marise Payne, Melissa Price, Alan Tudge and Katie Allen seized on Mr Morrison’s support for increased ­female representation, calling for a debate on quotas and other ­options to achieve greater female representation in the party.

Ms Andrews, the Industry Minister, said she had had an “absolute gutful” of men mistreating women and warned her “conscience will not allow me to remain quiet”.

“For all those women who have been treated poorly in a workplace, who have been disrespected by men, I will speak up for you,” Ms Andrews said.

“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 … (But) our processes to attract more women into my party and into the parliament have not been as successful as they need to be.”

The government has faced political fire and a loss of its two-party-preferred lead in Newspoll over its handling of the alleged rape in Parliament House of ­former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins and the allegations surround­ing Mr Porter.

Mr Morrison said he had not intended any offence when he ­invoked a discussion with his wife and two daughters while expressing sympathy for Ms Higgins and he acknowledged he had struck the wrong chord when he described last week’s March4justice rally outside parliament as a ­triumph of democracy because protesters in other countries were facing bullets.

Calling for better treatment of women, Mr Morrison said he was fully committed to stopping women being talked over by men, being overlooked and belittled and being afraid to walk to their cars. “I want women to have at least the same opportunities and the same voice and the same safety as men in this country,” he said.

“I have the deepest of vested interests. Criticise me if you like, for speaking about my daughters, but they are the centre of my life. My wife is the centre of my life. My mother, my widowed mother, is the centre of my life.”

Amid growing internal and external criticism of his handling of sexual assault claims, Mr Morrison endorsed quotas and said the status quo was not delivering the Liberal Party results.

Despite growing support from Liberal MPs for quotas, including senior cabinet ministers, he faces an uphill battle as he advocates ­internally among state branches.

MPs are divided, with some saying it would be “crazy” and the party must oppose  Labor’s “unpalatable” quota system.

Later, Mr Morrison told ­Coalition MPs in a partyroom meeting that it was time for them “to stand up like they’ve never stood up before”.

He said he was “shocked’’ and “disgusted’’ by revelations on Monday that government staffers had performed and filmed sex acts in parliament — including over a female MP’s desk — which led to the sacking of an adviser.

It has also been claimed sex workers were brought into the building for a former minister.

“We must get this house in order. We must put the politics aside of these things and we must recognise this problem, acknowledge it, and we must fix it,” he said.

“These events have triggered, right across this building, and ­indeed right across the country, women who have put up with this rubbish and this crap for their ­entire lives, as their mothers did, as their grandmothers did.”

On the Porter matter, Mr Morrison said he had received advice from Solicitor-General Stephen Donaghue over conflict-of interest issues in relation to his remaining as Attorney-General.

Mr Porter has already had his responsibilities for the ABC and Federal Court carved out because he launched defamation proceedings against the public broadcaster over a report on the issue.