We’re not a sorority, crossbenchers tell Husar

As Emma Husar contemplates crossbench move, the rebel Labor MP is warned she’ll need ‘maturity’ and ‘a different mindset’.

Emma Husar (right) is weighing up whether to join (left, clockwise) Kerryn Phelps, Julia Banks, Cathy McGowan and Rebekha Sharkie on the crossbench.

Centre Alliance MP Rebekha Sharkie has declared the crossbench is “not a sorority group” and the role requires “maturity”, as Labor’s Emma Husar decides whether to join the growing number of independent women in the House of Representatives.

Ms Sharkie said she and ­fellow independents Cathy McGowan, Kerryn Phelps and Julia Banks were centrist or right-leaning politicians while Ms Husar was from the Labor Left.

“It’s important to know it’s not a sorority group,” Ms Sharkie told The Australian. “We are all women either in minor parties or independents where it just happens to be the four women on the crossbench have a number of ­issues they’re quite aligned on.

“We’re not out there campaigning for other women. I have no choice over who joins the crossbench.

“Emma will make her own decisions but they are a world away from my role as a member of the crossbench and the team I’m in.”

(Crossbenchers (from left) Kerryn Phelps, Julia Banks, Rebekha Sharkie and Cathy McGowan abstain from a division during Question Time last year. Picture: AAP

Divisions between Ms Husar and her party have deepened in recent days, with the rogue MP saying on Monday that her senior colleagues were making her position in the party “untenable”. She is using the summer break to consider her options ahead of the scheduled resumption of parliament on February 12. Crossbench sources told The Australian there was “no enthusiasm” for Ms Husar, who represents the western Sydney seat of Lindsay, to join their ranks.

The electorates of Mayo, Indi, and Wentworth were held by Liberal MPs before Ms Sharkie, Ms McGowan and Ms Phelps were elected, while Ms Banks — who represents the Victorian marginal seat of Chisholm — defected from the Liberal Party to the crossbench in November.

Ms Sharkie said being a member of the crossbench was “very challenging” because they did not have a “huge party machine” behind them.

All independent MPs receive three extra staff to assist them on top of four electorate staffers available to backbenchers.

“You need to have the ­capacity and dare I say maturity to ensure you develop a position on every piece of legislation,” Ms Sharkie said. “It’s a very different mindset with respect to representation. It’s about your communities first, long before anything else.”

Labor member for Lindsay Emma Husar is weighing up her future. Picture: AAP

Days after several female Liberal MPs made a concerted effort to defend their party against claims of being anti-women, Ms Husar accused Labor of failing to give her a “fair go” when she was embroiled in controversy over her behaviour towards staffers.

Ms Husar said the Liberal Party was far from the only political organisation to have “issues with women”.

Ms Sharkie agreed federal parliament was “quite blokey” but said she had not been dis­advantaged because she was ­female. “Even the furniture in your room is quite big and bold and blokey but I haven’t found my gender has inhibited me from doing things. I don’t think I’ve had that experience,” she said.

“There is a high proportion of men in the workplace but I don’t experience that within my own party or within my working ­relationships.

“I take everybody on face-value irrespective of gender.”

If Ms Husar moved to the crossbench, Bill Shorten’s numbers in the House of Represen­tatives would be reduced to 68.