“I wonder why they haven’t, I think in order to deny allegations you would need to know the substance of the allegations or at least the detail of the allegations,” she said.
Asked about the separate case of Brittany Higgins, the former Liberal staffer who has revealed in the media that she was raped by a fellow staffer in the Parliamentary office of their boss – Ms Reynolds, Ms Bishop criticised the Defence Minister’s response.
Ms Higgins asked the Minister not to take the rape any further at the time but has since criticised the government’s response. Senator Reynolds’ was last week forced to apologise to her former aide after calling her a “lying cow”, although the reference was not questioning Ms Higgins’ account of her sexual assault but instead the way the minister was being subsequently portrayed in the media.
But Ms Bishop said as an employer Senator Reynolds had a duty to report the case to the police while at the same time conveying Ms Higgins’ wishes.
“As somebody who has employed many people over many, many years, if someone had come to me with an allegation of rape that occurred, as it turned out in my office, but in a workplace for which I’m responsible, I would have felt a duty not only to that person but to others in the workplace to inform the police,” she said.
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“If the person making the complaint wanted privacy, didn’t want to press charges, wanted to maintain utmost confidentiality, then that was a matter the person should raise with police – or their lawyers and in a discussion with the police.”
Ms Bishop said sexual harassment and discrimination against women was “embedded” in Parliament House because the culture had developed when there were few women in parliament.
She said that the entertainment industry and the media were two other sectors that were similar. Ms Bishop also confirmed knowing of a plot by a group of male MPs seeking to block her career path.
“I believe it was a [a group of] big swinging dicks – so there was an obviously over-excited imagination on the part of some I would suggest, nobody self-identified to me, thank goodness for that.”
But she said they had failed as her only ambition was to be the foreign minister.
Ms Bishop also ran for the leadership but received just ten votes, and none from any of her Liberals colleagues from her home state. She quit the cabinet, the deputy Liberal party leadership and eventually federal politics and afterwards hit out at the treatment of women inside her own party.
For help in a crisis call 000. If you or anyone you know needs support, you can contact the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service on 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732), Lifeline 131 114, the Suicide Call Back Service (1300 659 467) or Beyond Blue 1300 224 636.
