MPs and staff member implicated in despicable behavior as Duluk allegations escalate

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Parliamentary processes to deal with serious harassment in the workplace have once again been in the spotlight amid new allegations of events in a Liberal Party office in which women were allegedly subjected to obscene or abusive behavior by the government. from several MPs and their staff, with subsequent complaints almost ignored.

Sam Duluk in court last month. Photo: Tony Lewis / InDaily

The allegations focus on several new allegations, many of which second or third hand were made yesterday as part of parliamentary privilege by Greens MLC Tammy Franks against struggling liberal exile Sam Duluk.

However, Waite’s MP fought back, calling Franks a long-term political opponent by using salacious demands designed to cause maximum political damage.

I am amazed that Mrs Franks found it appropriate to exploit parliamentary privilege in an attempt to destroy my personality and I invite her to make these assertions without the protection of parliamentary privilege, he said.

Duluk, who has suspended his party membership since being indicted, was acquitted last month of common assault against SA Best MLC Connie Bonaros, an allegation arising from an incident in which he touched her buttocks at a Christmas party in the hall of parliament in December 2019.

The event and numerous allegations regarding his behavior prompted former President Vincent Tarzia to open an independent investigation into what happened, but current President Josh Teague ruled this week that the stalled investigation will not resume.

The move prompted Franks to break her silence in an extraordinary speech late yesterday, in which she brought to Parliament several previously undisclosed allegations regarding Duluks’ behavior at night, largely centered on a Liberal Party Christmas feature. simultaneous held elsewhere in Parliament.

This bad behavior also happened during the Liberal Christmas party, she said under the privilege of the Legislative Council.

That these have not yet surfaced in the media and that attempts have been made to urge party processes to tackle what I would characterize as illegal and unacceptable behavior is, indeed, deeply distressing.

Franks said she heard various accounts of what happened in the Liberal Party that night.

I believe there is a video of the MP for Waite calling a female staff member a frosty bitch, she said.

I believe a staff member who was accompanying and with the MP for Waite at the time urinated in a corner of an MP’s office before turning around with his penis still exposed, waving his appendix in the breeze with his arms in the air, calling out: touch it, touch it.

Franks also alleged that a detailed case study in a damning report by equal opportunities commissioners on harassment in the South African parliamentary workplace, released in March, directly referred to the Party’s Christmas function. Liberal, saying: This complaint came from tonight and the behavior of the member for Waites.

The case study detailed several alleged cases involving sexual harassment and assault with the alleged incidents occurring during a social function at work. One case involved alleged (low-level) sexual harassment by two MPs which then escalated into alleged sexual assault by an MP, according to the commissioners’ report.

Separately, another incident of alleged sexual harassment occurred which was carried out by a staff member towards the victim (and others).

The alleged incidents were reported by the victim to several sources. This included immediately or shortly after the incident.

The review learned that the victim reported the case to colleagues, and then over the following weeks and months to the senior leadership of the political party, the relevant president and two senior positions in the public service.

The review was told that the response to the victim from colleagues was that you will be a rat if you say anything and do not report MPs, interpreted by the victim to mean endure and not stir up trouble.

The party’s response was to present the option to report to the police and offer strategies to avoid contact with the stalker.

The victim felt that the party was otherwise seeking to manage him in a closed circle with minimal information shared with the victim. This was seen by the victim as an emphasis on handling the case to avoid fallout or minimize disruption to the party and the political process.

The report stated that the victim viewed all of these responses as inappropriate and absent from any process.

In raising the incidents, the victim wanted an internal investigative process that recognized what had happened and the impacts on her, a management / investigation with a level of independence, the protection of her integrity, her career and his privacy and that appropriate consequences be applied to stalkers, the report found.

The victim reported to the Examination that none of these results had been achieved.

Franks noted that with the end of the Presidents’ investigation, this case and these victims now have nowhere to go.

They lacked parliamentary processes, she said.

Party processes are all they have left but, in my opinion, so far they have also failed.

Franks also detailed a series of allegations regarding Duluks’ behavior during the hallway drinks event that she co-hosted with Bonaros, which she said the MP for Waite crashed after she followed a liberal employee downstairs from the party function on the first floor.

The staff member, she said, appeared to be in a rush to reach her desk and escape her [and] when she got to that corner office, she slammed the door behind her.

Franks suggested that she was taken to detail the allegations because they would no longer be recorded by the closed Speakers investigation, saying: So let’s record some of what I understand are the actions that the Speakers investigation did. will hear more.

These included Duluk participating in a game of charades with two young staff members, in which he allegedly pushed his hand towards his groin, standing right next to their head, and mirroring the cat-grabbing gesture that we know to be associated with the former president of the United States [Donald Trump].

Franks also detailed homophobic remarks allegedly directed at an employee of the House of Parliament, claiming that Duluk said behind the man’s back: Better not to walk too fast and get ahead of him or we could get on top.

She claimed he stood up and threatened a woman who took a photo of him drinking spirits straight from the bottle, and made racist remarks against another MP, claiming that he had said about a parliamentarian: He is not a true Native. My grandmother was raped in Mildura, so maybe I’m part native.

Franks said Duluk asked another staff member if she was having sex with me [Franks] and I further asked this worker if me and this woman were lesbians.

He told a woman in this workplace our workplace, her workplace You’ve got a bad word for boobs, then he said, I’d like a word starting with F, with four letters, has t she said.

He told a woman in this workplace our workplace and her workplace, I know you f-ing him so you can fuck me too.

And when his advances were turned down, he said to a woman in this workplace, our workplace and his workplace, I might not fuck you tonight but I’m going to fuck you, as he left.

She claimed that much of the behavior was observed by many other Liberal staff who migrated to the lower party.

They looked. They knew. We asked them as staff to maybe advise her to leave, calm down, settle in, she said.

There were four or five who were interviewed and everyone’s response was to shirk that responsibility. As one of them said, he’s not from my faction. I hope he died in the toilet.

Franks said we’ve all had to come here for the past 90+ weeks after being humiliated and harangued for a long period of time that evening and, in fact, disappointed with parliamentary and political processes since.

Duluk, however, fought back forcefully although he did not address the specific claims made under the privilege.

However, he objected to Franks doing them under cover of parliament.

This afternoon I have been the subject of outrageous demands from the Hon. Tammy Franks MLC in a speech under parliamentary privilege in the Upper House, he said in a statement last night.

The statements of Ms. Franks, a longtime political opponent, are salacious and designed to cause maximum political damage.

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I am amazed that Ms. Franks found it appropriate to exploit parliamentary privilege in an attempt to destroy my personality, and I invite her to make these assertions without the protection of parliamentary privilege.

Duluk said he was charged with assault and found not guilty by a court because Ms Bonaros’ detailed account of this alleged assault could not be considered credible and reliable given that the only eyewitness she suggested had observed it and would corroborate it. , directly contradicts each of its elements.

I am disappointed that after the court proceedings have concluded and my acquittal, as well as the President’s decision not to conduct a parliamentary inquiry, my political opponents are seeking to exploit this case, Duluk said.

Prime Minister Steven Marshall had previously been under intense pressure to decide whether Duluk would be readmitted to the Liberal hall and shortlisted to run for Waite, and had previously reported that he spoke to Franks before his speech about it.

A spokesperson for the Prime Minister said only last night that he maintained his position that [Duluks] behavior was offensive and unacceptable.

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