PM calls on Alan Tudge and Michaelia Cash to explain circumstances leading to Rachelle Miller settlement

Anthony Albanese has called on the Coalition frontbenchers Alan Tudge and Michaelia Cash to explain the circumstances leading to their former staffer, Rachelle Miller, receiving a $650,000 payment from the commonwealth.

Miller on Tuesday released details of the settlement she received for hurt, distress and humiliation she alleged she suffered while working for the former ministers.

Tudge and Cash have denied any wrongdoing.

Albanese claimed he was “not privy” to the details of the case but called on the Coalition members to provide them.

“This is a significant amount of taxpayers’ money,” Albanese said on Wednesday.

Miller, who worked for Tudge and Cash between 2016 and 2018, filed a complaint with the Department of Finance alleging bullying, harassment and discrimination at work. Tudge and Miller engaged in an affair for part of the time they worked together; he stood down from the ministry frontbench in December 2021, when he was education minister, after Miller alleged he had been emotionally and on one occasion physically abusive to her. Tudge strenuously denied those allegations.

Miller’s deed of release from the finance department, seen by Guardian Australia, said she would be paid $650,000 “in respect of her damage and loss which occurred during the employment but prior to the termination of the employment and in no way connected to the termination of the employment”.

The payment includes $10,000 in respect of past loss of earning capacity; $100,000 in respect of loss of future earning capacity; $28,000 as reimbursement for past medical and like expenses; $62,000 for future medical expenses to be incurred; $300,000 for hurt, distress, humiliation, dislocation of life, loss of professional standing and impairment of personal dignity; and $150,000 for legal costs.

The deed lists Miller’s allegations that she had been subject to discrimination and contravention of workplace safety regulations, but noted that “without admitting liability, the parties have reached agreement on the terms set out in this deed”.

Asked why the money had been paid, Albanese said Tudge and Cash should provide the details.

“I think there is a need for an explanation. And those who are privy to the arrangements, which I am not, should give that explanation,” he said.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Cash noted the payment was signed off in July, under the Albanese government following the May election.

“At no time did Senator Cash have any involvement in the process. She was never spoken to or asked to provide any information about these matters to the Department of Finance. She first knew about the payout when contacted by the media this week,” they told Guardian Australia in a statement.

Guardian Australia has also contacted Tudge’s office, as well as Miller, for comment.

Cash’s office said on Tuesday that she “strenuously rejects claims of any adverse treatment of Ms Miller and strongly disputes Ms Miller’s version of events”.

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“At the time of her employment, between late 2017 and mid-2018, Senator Cash and her office understood Ms Miller’s personal circumstances which is why support, leave and flexible work arrangements were offered to her.”

Tudge told News.com.au on Tuesday: “I categorically reject these latest allegations, just as I rejected Ms Miller’s previous allegations, which I was cleared of by two independent inquiries.

“I was not a party to these matters or any payment sought and have no knowledge of them,” he reportedly said.

An inquiry by the top public servant Vivienne Thom, into whether Tudge had breached ministerial standards, found “insufficient evidence to support a finding on the balance of probabilities” that Tudge had bullied, harassed or been abusive to Miller.

However, Thom specifically noted the inquiry was “limited by Ms Miller’s decision not to participate” and that the ministerial standards “do not specifically address broader integrity and conflict of interest issues” of the type raised by the relationship between Tudge and Miller.

In a letter sent to all federal MPs on Tuesday, Miller asked for the recommendations of the Jenkins report into parliamentary workplaces to be implemented in full, saying parliament had “unacceptably high levels of sexual harassment, discrimination and bullying”.

Describing her experiences of making a workplace complaint, she said the internal parliamentary mechanisms were “broken”.

Larissa Waters, the Greens’ spokesperson for women, agreed the parliament’s complaints process needed reform.

“It has protected politicians, discouraged victim-survivors from coming forward, and traumatised them when they do,” Waters told Guardian Australia.