Luke Foley digs in his heels over harassment allegation

Luke Foley has challenged the Liberal Party to “put up or shut up” on allegatio­ns he harassed an ABC journalist in 2016.

Luke Foley denies the accusations made against him. Picture: AAP

NSW Opposition Leader Luke Foley has challenged the Liberal Party to “put up or shut up” on allegatio­ns he harassed an ABC journalist at a Christmas function in 2016, saying he is going nowher­e, no matter what an ABC investigation finds about his conduct.

“There is no complaint — all there is is a smear under parliamentary privilege,” Mr Foley said yesterday. He was “absolutely convinced” he would be Labor leader at the March state election and would win the election.

At a union event at the Tradies Club in Gymea in Sydney’s south yesterday, Mr Foley defiantly told journalists he remembered every minute of the night in question at the Martin Place Bar after the parliamentary press gallery Christmas party in 2016. He staunchly denied an accusation made by Corrections Minister David Elliot­t in parliament a fortnight ago that he had too much to drink and harassed the journalist.

Under pressure in Senate estim­ates hearings last week, the ABC’s acting managing director David Anderson undertook to investiga­te the “serious allegation” and report back.

Since then, there has been speculation within Labor about Mr Foley’s future.

“I have challenged Mr Elliott to repeat this smear outside (the parliament),” Mr Foley said.

“I have said all I wanted to say on this. I staunchly deny what Mr Elliott said.”

Asked if he had sought to contac­t the ABC journalist — who has declined to comment on the alleged incident — to see if she had concerns, Mr Foley said: “I have said all I am going to say.

“I strenuously reject what Mr Elliott said.”

Asked why the journalist was declining to comment if nothing happened, Mr Foley said: “I have said all I’m going to say.

“We don’t live in a country where someone smeared under parliamentary privilege has to prove their innocence … of what?”

Asked if he believed women should make complaints if they were harassed, Mr Foley said he did.

Asked if a woman concerned about an interaction with him should make a complaint, Mr Foley said: “I’m unaware of any such example.”

Mr Foley’s office had originally attempted not to hold a press conferenc­e and instead to just take questions at the launch of a campaign against penalty rate cuts he was speaking at, but they finally acquiesced to journalists’ requests to question the leader. Asked why Mr Anderson had told Senate estimates the ABC staff member was being “supported” if nothing had happened, Mr Foley said: “I have said everything I’m going to say on this.

“If there is more than a smear, I challenge the Liberals to put up or shut up without the protection of coward’s castle.”

 

He said the attack on him had come shortly after Premier Gladys Berejiklian suffered a large defea­t in the Wagga Wagga by-election and her office had briefed a newspaper that the government was going to come after him.

Mr Foley declined to answer whether he remembered drinking at the Martin Place Bar on the night in question with the ABC journalist concerned and another journalist.

Sources say that the aggrieved female journalist is still weighing up whether to make a formal complaint.