Karen Andrews says male MP used to ‘breathe on the back of my neck’ in parliament

Former home affairs minister Karen Andrews has alleged a male colleague “used to breathe on the back of [her] neck in question time” and subject her to innuendo about “thrusting and probing” questions.

Andrews, the Liberal MP for McPherson, described the alleged conduct in an interview with the ABC’s Kitchen Cabinet to air on Tuesday evening. The Labor frontbencher Julie Collins has denounced the “appalling” incident.

Asked by the ABC’s Annabel Crabb if she had been subjected to sexual harassment, Andrews replied: “I did have one of my male colleagues who used to breathe on the back of my neck in question time.

“Yes, breathe. I’d just be sitting there minding my own business and I would have the back of my neck breathed on.

“And if I asked a question, it would be ‘that was a great question – thrusting and probing’ and, you know, that sort of stuff.”

Andrews said the comments were “not really” funny but “there would be people that would say: ‘Can’t you take a joke? You know – can she not take a joke?’”

Andrews said that sometimes she did call out behaviour like that but “sometimes I just go ‘I can’t, I can’t be in every fight’”.

It is unclear whether Andrews made a complaint about the conduct – which allegedly occurred in the House of Representatives – to the Liberal party leadership, parliament or other complaints processes.

Andrews was first elected to the lower house in 2010 and served as a cabinet member from 2018 to 2022. In April Andrews quit the shadow front bench and announced she would retire at the next election.

On Tuesday Collins, Labor’s housing minister, said she “was not aware” of the alleged conduct but was “very sorry that that has happened”.

“It shouldn’t happen to anybody in any Australian workplace,” she told ABC TV. “And the Australian parliament should be setting the [standard].

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“We need better from everybody that works in that building. And that’s why we’re so determined to improve the conditions for the people that work in the Parliament House. But we shouldn’t have that type of behaviour. That is just appalling.”

Simon Birmingham, the shadow foreign affairs minister, Liberal Senate leader and a former finance minister, said this was “literally” the first he had heard of Andrews’ complaint.

“I, first and foremost, urge people across the parliament to use appropriate processes,” he told reporters in Canberra.

“If there are issues that people need to discuss with the leadership within their own parties or otherwise, of course, they should feel free to do that as well.

“But we acted on the recommendations of the Jenkins review to put in place the new structures to provide precisely for the type of complaints mechanism to address situations that may arise from time to time.”

Birmingham said the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service “has been established to provide for an independent, impartial, credible and confidential process for any improper actions that occur”.