Aussie senator's startling allegation against Parliament colleague

This Australian senator broke down, detailing a crime she alleged took place inside their Parliament House.

Transcript

00:00As all women that have walked the corridors of this building know, it is not a safe place.

00:09One man followed me and cornered me in a stairwell and most of this was witnessed by staff and

00:16fellow members of parliament.

00:30Allegations are covered up and the silence on gendered violence is maintained.

00:52Yesterday I made remarks in relation to another senator.

00:57I then had to withdraw them because the rules of the senate do not allow you to speak about

01:01someone's character, only about something they have said.

01:06So today I will speak about my experience in parliament.

01:12When I started I was a new senator.

01:16As all women that have walked the corridors of this building know, it is not a safe place.

01:26It was an incident public at the time because it was during the time Brittany Higgins was

01:31my new workplace.

01:33This is a workplace women in this building know.

01:37I experienced sexual comments and was inappropriately propositioned by powerful men.

01:48One man followed me and cornered me in a stairwell and most of this was witnessed by staff and

01:55fellow members of parliament.

01:58No one witnessed what happened in the stairwell as there are no cameras in stairwells.

02:05There are different understandings of what amounts to sexual assault.

02:10What I experienced was being followed, aggressively propositioned and inappropriately touched.

02:22I was afraid to walk out of the office door.

02:25I would open the door slightly and check the coast was clear before stepping out.

02:32It was to the degree that I had to be accompanied by someone whenever I walked inside this building.

02:40I know there are others that have experienced similar things and have not come forward in

02:45the interests of their careers and fear they would be presented to the world by the media

02:52in the same way that I have been today.

03:03Senator Thorpe's allegations are concocted from beginning to end.

03:07Nothing that she has alleged about me is truthful.

03:11No such exchange occurred between us.

03:14There is no interaction that could conceivably resemble what she described today.

03:19Making false allegations in the Senate today is disgraceful and brings the Senate into disrepute.

03:25I do not wish this matter to stay in the Liberal Party that I have fought so hard for so I

03:29accept that I will no longer be sitting in the party room.

03:33There should be and must be an investigation into these outrageous claims so they can be

03:38proved to be false.

03:40I will fully cooperate with investigators and answer any questions that they may have of me.