Pauline Hanson has laughed off claims she sexually harassed United Australia Party Senator Brian Burston, saying "I'm not that desperate".
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But it was no laughing matter for Senator Burston who was involved in a physical clash with her One Nation adviser James Ashby in Parliament House in Canberra on Wednesday.
Pictures published by News Corp show the pair grappling with each other after Senator Burston, who spectacularly left One Nation last year, accused Senator Hanson of sexually harassing him in the past.
Senator Burston, a former Cessnock councillor and deputy mayor, claims Mr Ashby approached him as he and his wife were leaving a function. He claims he was injured when he tried to grab a phone Mr Ashby was waving in his face.
"I told him to f*** off," Senator Burston told News Corp.
"I lost it.
"I grabbed him and I pushed him up against the wall."
Senator Burston said he later reported the incident to Australian Federal Police.
An image published by News Corp and supplied by Senator Burston showed his hand with blood on it.
The furore erupted after Senator Hanson on Tuesday night used parliamentary privilege to accuse an unnamed senator of sexually harassing at least six staff.
"This gutless wonder we call senator should hang his head in shame," Senator Hanson told the upper house.
On Wednesday Senator Burston outed himself as the person she was referring to, telling News Corp it was "bull***", and went on to claim he had left One Nation after being sexually harassed by Senator Hanson.
"Right back when we had our first One Nation AGM at the Rooty Hill RSL (in Sydney in 1998), that was the first time she hit on me," he said.
He claimed Senator Hanson had once "rubbed her fingers up my spine" while listening to the national anthem and propositioned him after he was elected in 2016 at her home in Queensland and in Canberra.
Senator Hanson denies this.
"I can't stop laughing about it," Senator Hanson told Sky News on Wednesday night.
"I might be 64 ... but I tell you what I'm not that desperate.
"These are allegations that have been made up. There is no truth to it whatsoever."
Mr Ashby also denied Senator Burston's version of events saying he had been trying to take pictures of Senator Hanson leaving the same function when Senator Burston attacked him.
Australian Associated Press
