Fringe Victorian politician Georgie Purcell has detailed bombshell allegations that she has been sexually harassed by unidentified colleagues since joining parliament.
The Animal Justice Party MP on Thursday said she’d ‘naively’ believed she’d be safe from sexual predators in the halls of parliament after working as a topless waitress and stripper during her uni years.
However, her colourful past was thrown back in her face when it was revealed she’d filed a complaint against a fellow MP.
During a debate over proposed Australia-first legislation to restrict the use of non-disclosure agreements on Thursday, Purcell told the upper house she’d been the alleged victim of inappropriate sexual advances, unwanted late night messages and uninvited visits to her office.
‘For me, in my experience, with someone in this place, it was the late night messages, the harassing phone calls, the harassing texts, the bombardment of digital contact, the knocks on our doors when you can’t see who is on the other side,’ she said, the Herald Sun reported.
‘And the demands to meet us under the guise of work.’
It is understood the alleged misconduct occurred some time ago.
Having worked in bars, the legal field, unions and communications, Purcell said it ‘really doesn’t matter’ how high a woman rises in her career – she can still be a target.
Animal Justice Party MP Georgie Purcell (pictured) alleged she’d been sexually harassed several times while working in parliament
Purcell (pictured) was the alleged victim of ‘harassing phone calls, the harassing texts, the bombardment of digital contact’
‘One thing I have learned is that men will always see us as up for grabs,’ she said.
After the rumour mill spread word she’d reported coworker, understood to be an MP, Purcell said she became the victim of ‘slut shaming’ in parliament.
‘What did she expect? Look at how she dresses,’ she recalled others saying.
‘You can’t sexually harass a stripper.’
Purcell added she had a ‘litany of examples’ of the sexual harassment she’s allegedly faced since she first entered politics as a staffer – including one incident when she bent over to get something out of a fridge and was told, ‘If you do that again I won’t be responsible for what happens next’.
The proposed NDA legislation has had an emotional journey through parliament with senior minister Natalie Hutchins last week revealing her own history with sexual misconduct to the lower house.
During a discussion, Hutchins claimed she was groped by members of the Essendon Football Club when she worked as a waitress in Melbourne in the 90s.
The lower house also heard from two Nationals MPs on Thursday during a debate over proposed reforms to family violence laws.
Mildura MP Jade Benham (pictured) described the feeling of finding a letter from her stalker in her mailbox
The changes would see the definition of family violence expanded to include stalking, systems abuse and the mistreatment of animals as well as a
young people would not automatically age out of Family Violence Intervention Orders, boosting protections for children.
The definition of family violence will also be expanded to include stalking, systems abuse and the mistreatment of animals, and change the system that automatically ages young people out of Family Violence Intervention Orders.
Nationals MP Emma Kealy said she had a stalker who’d ‘scared the life out of her’ by following her home and to her children’s school.
‘I have had somebody who has taken an escalating amount of interest in my activities and my location,’ she said.
‘I received a phone call from my partner that the person who had been sending me relentless emails was waiting on the side of the road between my home and my child’s school.’
‘I have been walking down the street with one of my children and seen this person.’
She recalled hiding behind cars and trees with her children to avoid being seen by her stalker.
Nationals MP Emma Kealy (pictured) recalled hiding behind cars and trees with her children to avoid being seen by her stalker
‘This is an unfair and unsafe situation,’ she said.
Mildura MP Jade Benham also shared her own experience with a stalker in a speech that moved Coalition MP Wayne Farnham to tears.
‘I talk about normalising these conversations often, so it is only right that I do,’ she said.
‘Survivors of stalking… know that feeling of going to the letterbox, for example, and this is just one example, and finding an envelope with no postmark, no stamp, with whatever it might be.’
‘But knowing that there is an intervention order in place and that someone has come to your letterbox – you cannot define that in legislation,’ she said.
‘But that feeling that the blood has rushed out of your body and your stomach has dropped – you cannot describe it.’
‘Thankfully, legislation and what we do in this place can give language to that.’
Daily Mail has contacted Purcell for further comment.
