Peter Dutton says he has no regrets after suspending David Van from the Liberal party room, confirming he was aware of another allegation levelled against the senator.
The Opposition Leader sent Senator Van to the crossbench after former Liberal senator Amanda Stoker alleged he groped her by “squeezing my bottom twice” at an incident at Parliament House three years ago.
It followed a statement from Lidia Thorpe on Wednesday in which she accused Senator Van of “harassment” and “sexual assault”. Senator Van denied the allegations and Senator Thorpe later withdrew the comments to comply with senate procedure.
Speaking with Nine, Mr Dutton said another person had also come forward with an allegation against the senator.
“I think every leader in the parliament needs to act and act swiftly if allegations are brought to his or her attention … I heard further information that caused me considerable concern,” he said on Friday morning.
“I raised those with Senator Van and ultimately I made the decision he would not sit in our party room.
“I thought this was the appropriate course of action to take and I hope it sends a strong message to anyone else who is conducting themselves in a way that is not acceptable to our party or our nation.”
Mr Dutton declined to provide further details on the allegation or comment on the veracity of the claims.
“This is an issue in any workplace and I think any boss would be remiss not to act … It is unacceptable behaviour, the thought of sexual assault against any woman in the workplace is not something that I would tolerate,” he said.
Senator Van flew back to his home state of Victorian on Thursday night after Mr Dutton expelled him from the party room. Speaking at the airport, he said the allegations made by Senator Thorpe were “disgraceful”.
Senator Van said while he recalled a conversation with Ms Stoker, he had no recollection of the accusations and claimed it was something he would never do.
Mr Dutton said he had referred the claims made to the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service.
On Friday, Senator Thorpe expressed frustration it took a white woman coming forward with similar allegations for her to be taken seriously
“I became the perpetrator. I became the person that was demonised for speaking truth and I had a media pile-on that day,” she told ABC’s RN.
“And it wasn’t until a white woman stood up and said, ‘Yeah, this happened to me, too’, that the media took notice. And I think that is a great example of the media landscape in this country and that is systemic racism. I was not believed.
“I was questioned. I was absolutely demonised that day, by everybody. And you wonder why women don’t speak out. You wonder why we are silenced. It’s because of that kind of behaviour.”
Greens senator Larissa Waters, who supported her former colleague when the incident she raised in parliament allegedly occurred, said it had been an “unedifying week”.
“It feels like we’re back to square one and it breaks my heart … and I just hope that we can continue with the reforms that we’ve started to make with the Set the Standard report and hope we can have a safer workplace going forwards,” she told ABC News Breakfast.