Photographer: Brendon Thorne / Bloomberg
Photographer: Brendon Thorne / Bloomberg
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Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said a member of staff involved in “disgusting and disgusting” behavior in parliament was fired in the latest blow to his conservative government, which has already suffered rape charges.
The Ten Network on Monday night transmitted allegations that a group of male government officials had shared images and videos of obscene acts for two years, including photos of one of them masturbating at a lawmaker’s table.
“The actions of these individuals show impressive disrespect for the people who work in Parliament and for the ideals that Parliament is supposed to represent,” Morrison said in a statement. “It is not good enough and it is totally unacceptable,” he said, adding that the official who was at the center of the charges was fired.
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The last incident occurs a week later thousands of women gathered across Australia to protest sexual violence and how Morrison dealt with allegations of rape decades ago and an alleged separate sexual assault in parliament in 2019. Support for the Morrison government dropped to a 13-month low in the latest Newspoll published on March 15 and is now behind the main labor opposition, 48% to 52%.
Demonstrators at the March 4 Justice rally in Melbourne on March 15.
Photographer: Carla Gottgens / Bloomberg
The government is being criticized for refusing to conduct an investigation into allegations that Attorney General Christian Porter raped a colleague on a school debate team in 1988 – allegations he denies.
There has also been growing criticism of Morrison’s treatment of allegations that former government media adviser Brittany Higgins was raped by a colleague in a minister’s office in 2019.
In response, Morrison ordered an independent investigation into Parliament’s workplace culture to be conducted by Commissioner for Sex Discrimination, Kate Jenkins.
Morrison said on Tuesday that he was very distressed that many women believed he had not heard his requests for change.
“These events have triggered, throughout this building and, indeed, across the country, women who have endured this rubbish and cloud for their entire lives, as well as their mothers and grandparents,” said Morrison.
Foreign Minister Marise Payne, the highest-ranking woman in Morrison’s 22-person cabinet, 16 of whom are men, told a parliamentary committee late on Monday that the latest allegations revealed by Ten Network were “terrible” .
“The degrading nature of these actions, which were broadcast in the media, is very disappointing,” she said.
(Updates with Morrison’s comments in paragraphs 8, 9)