Australian lawmaker David Van suspended amid accusations of sexual assault by female senator

Australian lawmaker, Senator David Van from the opposition Liberal Party was suspended, on Thursday (June 15) by his party members after he was accused of sexual assault in the parliament House by a female colleague. This came after an Australian senator Lidia Thorpe alleged that she was aggressively propositioned and inappropriately touched by another senator in parliament House and said it was “not a safe place” for women to work.

'Not a safe place' for women: Thorpe’s allegations

In a tearful address to the parliament, an independent senator Thorpe, on Thursday said that she had been subjected to “sexual comments”, followed and cornered in a stairwell, “inappropriately touched” and “propositioned” by “powerful men” and went to call the Australian parliament“not a safe place for women”.

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This was a day after the independent senator accused Van of “sexually assaulting” her but was later reportedly forced to withdraw the remark under threat of parliamentary sanction. However, on Thursday, she reiterated the core of her allegations against her colleague and said that she acknowledges “sexual assault” would mean different things to different people and said she would speak about her experience butdid not name Van or say when the incidents occurred.

“What I experienced was being followed, aggressively propositioned and inappropriately touched,” Thorpe told the Senate where her remarks are protected by parliamentary privilege, which means that these allegations would not invoke Australia’s severe defamation laws. However, the independent senator has said Van had engaged lawyers in the matter.

In 2021, as per AFP, Van was forced to move his parliamentary office away from Thorpe’s.However, the reason for this was not mentioned, while both senators have previously acknowledged that it did happen. Thorpe also spoke about how she was “afraid” of walking out of her office.

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“I would open the door slightly and check the coast was clear before stepping out,” said the independent senator, adding that it got to a degree where “I had to be accompanied by someone whenever I walked inside this building".

“I know there are others that have experienced similar things and have not come forward in the interest of their careers and in fear that they would be presented to the world by the media in the same way that I have been today,” said Thorpe.

After Thorpe’s speech,former senator Amanda Stoker from Van’s Liberal Party also accused him of “squeezing my bottom twice” at a party in 2020, as per local media reports. In a statement to the local media, Stoker also said that the alleged incident took place at an “informal social gathering in a parliamentary office”.

‘Scandalous’: Van about the allegations, suspension

In a statement published after Thorpe’s speech, Van denied the allegations calling them “scandalous” and “outrageous”. He also said that would “fully cooperate with the investigators and answer any questions that they may have of me and Senator Thorpe should do the same”.

He also went on to accuse the independent senator of “bringing the Senate into disrepute” and “cowering under the umbrella of parliamentary privilege”. However, Liberal Party leader Peter Dutton has since suspended Van after “further allegations” had been raised against him.

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Notably, Van’s removal from the Liberal Party’s parliamentary caucus does not amount to his ouster from the parliament but rather he would now be an independent. Since 2021, Australian politics has witnessed several high-profile allegations of sexual assault and harassment inside the Parliament House.

Thorpe’s allegations also follow former political aide Brittany Higgins’ accusations against former Liberal Party staffer Bruce Lehrmann of alleged sexual assault and rape which was said to have happened at the former defence minister’s office.

(With inputs from agencies)

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