Australian senator expelled from party over sexual misconduct allegations

Senator David Van from Australia's Liberal Party has been expelled from the party after two female lawmakers accused him of sexually harassing them.

Liberal Party leader Peter Dutton said he expelled Van from the party on Thursday following accusations made in the Parliament on Wednesday night by a wet-eyed independent, Senator Lidia Thorpe, who accused Van of sexually harassing and groping her.

Thorpe's accusations were followed by allegations by former Liberal Party Senator Amanda Stoker that he had touched her inappropriately.  

“Since the airing of Sen. Thorpe’s allegation yesterday, further allegations in relation to Sen. Van have been brought to my attention overnight this morning,” Dutton told reporters.

Dutton said he was not making any judgments and the allegations needed to be addressed by the Parliament's special service department.

“I’m not making any judgment on the veracity of allegations or any individual’s guilt or innocence. I make that very clear.

"Obviously, there’s an independent process with the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service to get under way,” Dutton said.

Van dismissed all the "scandalous" allegations raised against him, insisting the claims were "outrageous." 

In a statement to the Senate, he maintained his innocence, but said he did not wish for the “matter to stain the Liberal Party” and accepted he would “no longer be sitting in the party room."

Van, who had denied the allegation in the chamber, then released a statement later saying Thorpe had made “unfounded and completely untrue allegations against me that I immediately and unequivocally denied and continue to deny." 

He said the allegations were “concocted from beginning to end," accusing Thorpe of “cowering under the umbrella of parliamentary privilege to make her claim." 

Van said he had acknowledged publicly that he had moved offices after an earlier allegation from Thorpe that he made her feel uncomfortable.

“That was what was put to me, an allegation that I denied then and I deny today,” he said, adding that to reduce confrontation walking to and from the Senate “I agreed to move offices to ensure the avoidance of this.”

He said he also did so to protect himself against Thorpe’s “irrational concerns and ensure the effective and smooth running of the parliament”.

Thorpe’s choice not to go to the police with her allegation was evidence that what she had said was false, he said.

He called for an investigation into Thorpe’s “outrageous claims so they can prove to be false and [I] will fully cooperate with investigators and answer any questions that they might have”.

Australian lawmakers have garnered a degree of notoriety for the prevalence of bullying, harassment and sexual assault inside Parliament House over the decades.

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In 2019, a staffer claimed she was raped while drunk by a colleague of hers in a minister’s office. 

It prompted the national sex discrimination commissioner to launch an investigation into the matter.

The staffer accused the then-Conservative government of treating her rape as a political matter and trying to dissuade her from complaining to the police.

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