Scott Morrison warns journalists to ‘be careful’ with questions as he publicly airs media harassment claim

Scott Morrison has warned media to be “careful” as it probes the government’s handling of the latest revelation of sexual misconduct at Parliament House, while outing details of a harassment claim at a media organisation.

In a press conference on Tuesday, the prime minister said he had been listening to the lived experience of women over the past month and wanted to “take responsibility” for the cultural state of parliament, vowing to “get this house in order”.

But when challenged on whether he had “lost control” of his ministerial staff following reports that Coalition staffers had shared images of a lewd sex act on a female MP’s desk, Morrison attempted to turn attention to the media.

The Sky News reporter Andrew Clennell had asked Morrison if his “job would be in jeopardy” if he was in charge of a business where “there had been an alleged rape on your watch”, prompting the retort from the prime minister.

“If anyone in this room wants to offer up the standards in their own workplaces by comparison I would invite you to do so,” Morrison said.

Clennell responded: “Well, they’re better than these I would suggest, prime minister.”

Morrison then said: “Let me take you up on that.

“Right now, you would be aware that in your own organisation that there is a person who has had a complaint made against them for harassment of a woman in a women’s toilet and that matter is being pursued by your own HR department,” he said.

“So let’s not all of us who sit in glass houses here start getting into that.”

Morrison was later challenged by a female News Corp journalist who asked how he knew about an alleged incident that had happened in the media or among journalists, but had not known about the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins in a ministerial suite.

She also asked why he had “aired that publicly despite that maybe being against the wishes of the victim”.

“That was brought to my attention late last night, and the issue of Brittany Higgins was only brought to my attention on 15 February as I have said,” Morrison said.

“The suggestion was made by a member of the press gallery that things like this do not happen in the media and I think that would be unfair.”

However, Sky News confirmed the alleged incident Scott Morrison referred to in the press conference did not involve the broadcaster.

“The prime minister’s communications director, Andrew Carswell, has confirmed to Sky News political editor Andrew Clennell the matter Mr Morrison raised during his news conference today does not pertain to Sky News,” a spokeswoman told Guardian Australia.

It is unclear whether the alleged claim of harassment relates to another branch of News Corp, which also owns the Australian, the Daily Telegraph and the Herald Sun.