Australian minister denies rape complaint and will remain in office

Photographer: Mark Graham / Bloomberg

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the government minister investigated by the police over an alleged rape in the 1980s denies the allegation and will remain in the cabinet amid growing concerns about a toxic culture in the Australian parliament.

The Australian Federal Police said over the weekend that it had received a complaint regarding a historic sexual assault and that it would contact the relevant state authorities. The alleged victim killed himself in June last year, and details of the allegations were sent by his friends to two senators and the prime minister’s office.

Morrison talked to the police about the matter on Wednesday after receiving documents about the sexual assault report, he told reporters in Sydney on Monday. The Cabinet member, who was not publicly identified, “absolutely” denied the allegations, he said.

Although “these are very distressing questions that have been raised,” Morrison said “the proper place for this to be dealt with is by the authorities, who are the police – this is how our country works.” He said he did not read the documents sent to him, but was informed of their content and would not initiate an investigation into the allegations.

Before the allegation emerged, Morrison was already under pressure on workplace culture at Parliament House after a former government media adviser, Brittany Higgins, said last month that after a night drinking with colleagues in 2019, she was raped by a co-worker in a minister’s office.

The latest claims and the way the Prime Minister has dealt with them will intensify the focus on his judgment on women’s issues, which was questioned after he said he realized the seriousness of Higgins’ claims after discussing them with his wife, who asked to consider the matter as the father of two girls.

Some lawmakers have complained about a male-dominated culture and empowerment in the national capital, Canberra. Mistreatment of women in parliament made headlines worldwide in 2012, when Australia’s first female prime minister, Julia Gillard, accused opposition leader Tony Abbott of misogyny.

Green Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, who received the documents detailing the alleged attack, told ABC radio on Monday that failing to properly address the issue would create “a serious problem for this government of integrity and trust”. She asked the Cabinet Minister to stay aside while the matter was being investigated. Morrison’s sixteen The 22-member Cabinet is male.

Anthony Albanese, leader of the main opposition labor party, said the matter was a test for Morrison and was until him to judge whether the minister should remain in the Cabinet. “We need to make sure that these serious allegations are properly investigated and that these issues are not managed politically,” he told ABC on Sunday.