Ex-MP Kate Ellis ‘knew of Labor sex assault’

Former federal Labor minister Kate Ellis has revealed she was aware of an allegation of serious sexual assault and misconduct by an elected ALP MP during her time in politics.

Former Labor minister Kate Ellis. Picture: Sia Duff

Former federal Labor minister Kate Ellis has revealed she was aware of an allegation of serious sexual assault and misconduct by an elected ALP MP during her time in politics.

The MP has not been named, but Ms Ellis has revealed her knowledge of the incident as she spelled out her experience of the toxic workplace culture for women in Canberra, following a swath of similar allegations in ­recent weeks.

Ms Ellis spent 15 years in federal parliament after being elected in 2004 as the member for the seat of Adelaide when she was 27 years old.

She became the youngest government minister when newly elected prime minister Kevin Rudd appointed her as minister for sport and youth.

She resigned from parliament at the 2019 election.

Ms Ellis said, as a staffer, she heard allegations of what she ­described as “serious sexual assault and misconduct” from an elected Labor MP, adding that she suspected there were hundreds more.

“This is something that isn’t new,” Ms Ellis said in an interview aired on ABC’s Australian Story on Monday night.

“We’ve seen a number of ­stories recently, but I suspect that there are hundreds and hundreds more. But I know of much worse stories. Certainly when I was a staffer and a volunteer, I saw a lot of things but I also heard alle­gations of what I’d call serious sexual assault and misconduct from an elected Labor MP.”

In a new book, Ms Ellis details how she never felt comfortable to speak out about gender issues during her time in federal politics.

Ms Ellis said after a few weeks as an MP in Canberra, she was at a bar when she was approached by a male staffer who told her: “The only thing anyone really wants to know about you, Kate, is how many blokes you had to f..k to get into parliament.”

Soon into her tenure as a minister, she was forced to quash ­rumours about a threesome between herself, former chief of staff Shannon Rees and a male staff member in her office.

She said she and Ms Rees felt they could not speak out about it so as to not cause party divisions or issues for the then government of the day.

“To realise that a senior journalist in the parliamentary press gallery was making inquiries and the story that went around that we were both having a relationship with a gentleman in our ­office … we were really quite shocked it was happening,” Ms Rees told Australian Story.

Ms Ellis said in order to stop the story from being published, her office had to give the newspaper another story: that Malcolm Turnbull had once ­applied to join the Labor Party.

“I knew if that story ran, it would be career-ending for me,” Ms Ellis said.

“This isn’t about feeling sorry for women politicians. Every woman inside that parliament has been treated differently because of their gender.”

Since leaving politics, Ms Ellis has banded together with other female politicians and staffers in order to share their stories and experience of what working in Canberra is like for women.

Karen Andrews, Julia Banks, Tanya Plibersek, Sharman Stone, Natasha Stott Despoja and Sarah Hanson-Young were among some of the women involved.

“It’s time to take a different ­approach. Sitting back and staying silent isn’t working for anyone,” Ms Ellis said.