Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Albanese government claims to champion the victim, but as time goes by it's becoming more and more evident that this Prime Minister and his colleagues in both chambers have been up to their necks creating victims for their own political gain. I congratulate the Australian newspaper for continuing to pursue honest reporting on the Brittany Higgins case, which has demonstrated how this Prime Minister and his government pursued a political outcome rather than a proper judicial conclusion. Not only has it brought the Labor Party's behaviour into further disrepute; we're now getting a taste of how questionably the ACT's Director of Public Prosecutions acted in the matter as well.

Sadly, this isn't out of character for Prime Minister Albanese. You see, the PM covertly plays the man, not the ball. We're seeing that play out with his attacks on those who speak out against his Voice to Parliament as well as those involved in the Higgins case. We saw it play out in the case of Peter Slipper, who, without question, sexually harassed James Ashby. The Prime Minister picks winners and losers based on politics. If you're on the wrong side of his political agenda, prepare to get whacked. The price tag for a political scandal is now set at a minimum cost of $2 million, and the Prime Minister picks young, vulnerable targets.

It's the exact same behaviour he exhibited as Leader of the House under Julia Gillard. Desperate to keep Peter Slipper in as Speaker, the member for Grayndler helped change management liability insurance arrangements for MPs and senators that effectively gave Peter Slipper a blank cheque to defend himself against multiple sexual harassment claims brought against him. Just like in the Higgins matter, Prime Minister Albanese picked his winner, then set about deliberately annihilating the credibility and reputation of James Ashby in an attempt to save Peter Slipper, instead of allowing the court process to play out. Despite a successful appeal by Mr Ashby, Labor continued to torch the victim by allowing Peter Slipper to run James Ashby's legal bills up to $4.5 million.

This was the first time a staffer had had the courage to publicly fight, instead of the long history of staff who have been mistreated and then encouraged to quietly go away. The Jenkins and Foster reviews have confirmed this very fact in black and white. Let me read you some of the text messages Peter Slipper sent to his staff member. On 10 October 2011 he sent:

Funny how we say that a person is a cunt when many guys like cunts!;)

In a follow-up message that same day, the Speaker wrote:

They look like a mussell removed from its shell. Look at a bottle of mussel meat! Salty Cunts in brine!

These are text messages from the former Speaker of the House, handpicked by the now PM, Anthony Albanese, and defended by then prime minister Julia Gillard. Despite the nature of these messages, Labor had the gall to claim Mr Ashby's case was politically motivated. The sexual harassment got worse, from punishment for not accepting sexual advances—again in text messages—to asking Mr Ashby why he didn't shower with the door open when the two shared an apartment on a trip to Canberra. While it might be common practice for parliamentarians to share apartments with staff or other politicians in Canberra, it's highly abnormal for them to ask their roommate why they shower with the door closed.