David Leyonhjelm (NSW, Liberal Democratic Party) Share this | Hansard source

What exactly is the Senate being asked to censure? On the afternoon of 28 June, Senator Hanson-Young made an interjection. I made an interjection in reply. Senator Hanson-Young then approached me and made a face-to-face comment. I then replied. So there were four statements in the Senate. We should know which of these four statements the Senate is being asked to censure. Let's start with the original interjection. Senator Hinch, no supporter of mine on this issue, tweeted in reply to Peter FitzSimons at 11.36 PM on 2 July that Senator Hanson-Young said something like, 'Women wouldn't need pepper spray if men weren't rapists.' If you don't think those words are objectionable, insert a reference to another group of people instead of men and consider what it sounds like. Would it be okay to say, 'Women wouldn't need pepper spray if blacks weren't rapists'? Would it be okay to say, 'Women wouldn't need pepper spray if Muslims weren't rapists'?

Interrogation of Senator Hanson-Young's original interjection has been sadly lacking. Senator Hanson-Young has not acknowledged what she said, and not one journalist in this country has asked Senator Hanson-Young what she said. All we've had is Senator Hanson-Young denying my claim that she said something to the effect that all men are rapists. The failure of journalists to ask Senator Hanson-Young what she actually said is a sad indictment on modern journalism and modern culture. Senator Hanson-Young's failure to outline what she said also reflects poorly on her. It indicates an unwillingness to stand by her comments and be a person of her word. To inform this censure motion, I request that Senator Hanson-Young finally outline her original interjection. Let's not rely on my recollection of what Senator Hanson-Young said, nor on Senator Hinch's recollection. That would be mansplaining. Let's hear it from her. I was scorned in the media for not recounting Senator Hanson-Young's words verbatim. If Senator Hanson-Young is unable to recount her words exactly, I trust she'll be held to the same standard.

Let's move on to my interjection. In response to Senator Hanson-Young's interjection about men as rapists, I interjected to the senator that she should stop shagging men, then. This interjection was a relevant rebuttal to Senator Hanson-Young's interjection, as it makes no sense to consider men in general as rapists yet to still choose to associate with them. The Senate should note that my interjection made no reference to the frequency of sexual partners and that the term shagging has never been considered unparliamentary. The Senate should note that if relevantly pointing out that someone is heterosexual is a personal reflection, it is a particularly benign personal reflection. If such a comment is considered out of order, then much of the debate in the Senate will be out of order.

The Senate should also note the context for Senator Hanson-Young's interjection and my interjection in response. Senator Anning had just moved a motion calling on the Senate to support the right of women to have access to pepper spray if they choose, and Senator Rice from the Australian Greens had been given leave to make a short statement. In that short statement, Senator Rice said:

The last thing that women in Australia need now is another man in power telling us that we are responsible for violence against us.

As an aside, I would ask Senator Rice to reflect on her comment directed to Senator Anning suggesting that he is another man in power telling women that they are responsible for violence against them. Senator Anning did no such thing. It was around the time of Senator Rice's short statement that Senator Hanson-Young doubled down on the hyperbolic anti-male rhetoric with her interjection about man as rapists. This surely is relevant context.

Let's move onto the third statement in the sequence. Senator Hanson-Young came and stood close to me at my desk, where I was seated. She sought and obtained confirmation of my interjection and then called me a creep. Oddly, the Senate is not being asked to deem this stand-over comment as intimidating or to censure this clearly unparliamentary personal reflection. Instead, we moved to the fourth statement, in which I responded by telling the senator to 'eff off' in a quiet voice that nobody else heard. Such language is also unparliamentary, but it is not a personal reflection, and it would be a departure from practice for the Senate to attempt to regulate face-to-face conversation in the chamber unheard by any third party and unrecorded in Hansard.

Senator Hanson-Young spent July saying to friendly media outlets that I had slut-shamed her, that she would see me for defamation because of this and that her legal action was for women everywhere. Yet in August, when I received the statement of claim from Senator Hanson-Young's lawyers, my supposed slut-shaming and sexism was nowhere to be seen. Instead, this statement of claim, which limits what the defamation can be about, is accusing me of calling Senator Hanson-Young a hypocrite and misandrist. So Senator Hanson-Young has misrepresented her legal case and has accumulated significant donations based on this misrepresentation.

This censure motion prejudges my comments as defamatory and in so doing violates the separation of powers. Moreover, this censure motion continues to incorrectly imply that supposedly sexist comments by me are the subject of defamation action. They are not, and the Greens should come clean to their supporters on this misrepresentation.