Julia Banks lashes the Morrison government, Liberal Party behaviour
Julia Banks #JuliaBanks
Former MP Julia Banks has delivered a brutal take-down of the federal government, accusing Scott Morrison of “menacing” behaviour and slamming the “bully boys” in the Liberal Party.
Ms Banks left the Liberal Party to become an independent in November 2018, three months after then-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was ousted and replaced by Scott Morrison.
She lost her seat after challenging the federal health minister, Greg Hunt, at the 2019 election.
Speaking on ABC’s 7.30 tonight, Ms Banks explained what Canberra politics were like for her three years as an MP.
Already an established businesswoman and lawyer, Ms Banks was used to navigating male-dominated workplaces and culture, but Parliament House was a completely different experience.
“It was very much like, it was stepping back in time. I had worked my entire life in pretty much blokey cultures, male-dominated cultures in both the legal and corporate sector. I had seen a transformational change over the years in the corporate world. But then when I entered politics it really felt like I was going back to the 1980s,” she told the program.
“It was extraordinary.”
Ms Banks is releasing a book next week on her time in Canberra called Powerplay: Breaking through bias, barriers and boys clubs, where she discusses the toxic behaviour she experienced in Canberra.
In her book, she describes one particularly horrific situation where a cabinet MP, who was part of Malcolm Turnbull’s government at the time, slid his hand up her leg.
“I was sitting on a couch talking to another MP and then a cabinet minister sat on my right and he did that sort of flippant, ‘How are you?’ And put his hand on my knee and ran it up my leg, on the upper part of my leg and then walked away. I momentarily froze and then sort of walked away from that seat,” she said.
“He certainly turned around and looked at me to see if I was going to stay there. I walked away. Went over to where the drinks and snacks were and said to this other female MP, ‘Can you stay talking to me because he made a move on me?’
“What disturbed me the most about that – and I’m sure, I know, worse things have happened to other women in the workplace, certainly they have to me – but what disturbed me about that was here I was, a 50-something corporate lawyer, member of parliament, and that move was made on me which would classify as an unwelcome sexual advance or inappropriate touching.
“And I thought if that’s happened to me, where there’s pretty minimal power disparity, you can only imagine what happens to people who don’t have that sort of power parity.”
When Ms Banks announced she was going to serve the rest of her term as an independent, she alleges Mr Morrison became “very angry” with her.
“I was under real pressure with reprisals, retribution. There was gaslighting going on,” she said.
“It was quite incredible and this narrative that was being created about me. And I had called Morrison to get his ‘bully boys’ to back off of me. I said something along those lines.”
Ms Banks said she decided to leave because of Mr Morrison’s alleged behaviour.
“I realised Morrison, the most powerful man in the country, I describe him as like a menacing, controlling wallpaper. He was either doing it through others or directly,” she said.
“He wanted me silenced. He wanted me to be quiet. He wanted me out of the parliament. He wanted me out of the country. And I felt at that time I thought ‘I’m challenging him and that was his response.’ His response was to sort of drag me through this sexist spectrum narrative, that I was this weak, overemotional woman.
“That narrative was played all the way through that three months. I had planned … to go quietly … but because of these attempts to silence me, either by sending me overseas or to convey this narrative about me, I thought ‘I’m not going to limp out of this parliament’.
“It was definitely the most gut-wrenching, distressing period of my entire career.”
In a statement to 7.30, a spokesman for the Prime Minister’s Office said Mr Morrison was “not aware of any allegations of sexual harassment” against Ms Banks.
“Any such behaviour is completely inappropriate. Everyone has a right to feel safe in their workplace and work, currently underway by Kate Jenkins, will continue to improve Parliament’s workplace culture,” the spokesman said.
The spokesman also said the Prime Minister was “disappointed” in Ms Banks’ decision to quit the Liberal Party and had several conversations with her to understand what she was going through to see what support could be offered before she made her decision.
“The Prime Minister absolutely rejects claims about the nature of those conversations,” the spokesman said.
Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull earlier said he was not aware of the alleged incident involving the cabinet minister until after he had left office.