High-profile MP Georgie Purcell has revealed she was sexually harassed in the Victorian parliament.
In a bombshell admission, the Animal Justice Party MP told the upper house on Thursday she had reported someone, understood to be a fellow MP, after he made inappropriate sexual advances, including sending her late night messages and turning up to her office uninvited.
“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.
“And the demands to meet us under the guise of work.”
It is understood the alleged harassment occurred some time ago.
Ms Purcell, who previously worked as a stripper, said she had “naively” thought she would be safe as an MP in parliament but that it “really doesn’t matter” how senior a woman is or how successful.
“One thing I have learned is that men will always see us as up for grabs,” she said.
Ms Purcell said when word got around that she had complained about the person her colleagues began “slut shaming” her in the halls.
“What did she expect? Look at how she dresses,” Ms Purcell recounted others saying.
“You can’t sexually harass a stripper.”
She said there was a “litany of examples” of sexual harassment within the walls of parliament, noting she had been sexually harassed when she worked as a staffer as well.
Ms Purcell said while she was a staffer 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”.
Ms Purcell said she was also sexually harassed by a colleague when she was 20 years old working in the legal profession.
And that when she reported the harassment, he lost his job, prompting him to complain that he was jobless ahead of Christmas.
She also spoke about being groped and pulled onto men’s laps while she worked at a bar as she cleared glasses during happy hour.
Ms Purcell revealed her experience during a debate over Australia-first legislation to restrict the use of nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) in the workplace.
When the same legislation was debated in the lower house last week, senior minister Natalie Hutchins revealed she was groped by Essendon Football Club players when she worked as a waitress in Melbourne as a young woman in the ’90s.
She was one of three MPs to tell their stories of sexual harassment and assault in the workplace.
In the lower house on Thursday, two Nationals MP’s also gave emotional speeches as they revealed they had been stalked.
It came amid debate on expanding the definition of stalking to better respond to family violence.
Nationals MP Emma Kealy shared shocking details of a stalker who followed her outside her home and her children’s school.
Ms Kealy said the experience “scared the life” out of her.
“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.”
Ms Kealy said that she hid behind cars and trees with her children, just to not be seen by the stalker.
“This is an unfair and unsafe situation.”
Mildura MP Jade Benham gave an emotional speech that moved fellow Coalition MP Wayne Farnham to tears.
“I will not lie; I tried to avoid speaking on this today, but it is one of those things,” she said.
“I talk about normalising these conversations often, so it is only right that I do.
“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.”
Ms Benham, who revealed her experience of domestic violence in the Herald Sun last year, choked back tears as she spoke about the violation she felt.
“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.”
Under the reforms, 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.
