Safety for Liberal Party women must outweigh loyalty and silence

When Fiona Menzies (yep, Robert Menzies' great niece) heard Karina Okotel (Liberal Party vice president) talking to ABC's Fran Kelly, she started shouting at the radio so loudly her daughter came running to see if her mum was okay.

What brought on Menzies' fury?

It was the endless repetition by Okotel that the two women at the heart of the Liberal Party's sexual assault scandal should have gone to police, that any women who experience this behaviour should report to police. Chelsey Potter this week revealed a political staffer had pinned her down and ripped off her underpants. She complained but months later, the person she went to with her concerns asked her if she'd make a fuss if the man won preselection. Another woman, Dhanya Mani, who worked in NSW state politics, revealed that in 2015 a political staffer had forced himself on her and was choking her. We know these women complained to responsible people within the Liberal Party. We know the Liberal Party did nothing.

Look I do my best not to refer to women by the relationship they have with men but it shows the way in which Fiona Menzies is deeply connected to the Liberal Party. At 29, she was chief of staff to Peter McGauran in the first Howard ministry. She has the odd story about badly-behaved men, but there has been nothing she couldn't deal with herself and Menzies thinks her name offers her some protection.

But Menzies was furious Okotel repetitively advised women to go to police.

"I was shouting at the radio, 'shut up'. What upset me was that she kept saying, if people are assaulted they've got to go police. It's not how people act. Women are very reluctant to go to police. That's a problem that we as a society have."

Menzies, CEO of government agency Creative Partnerships Australia, wants the Liberal Party to copy the lead of the theatre sector. After their scandals, organisations across Australia worked together to develop standard policies and procedures.

"That's the enlightened way forward," she says. But there is another obstacle which gets in the way of staffers disclosing sexual harassment and assault problems at work, says ANU's Maria Maley, Australia's leading researcher on political staffers. That's loyalty. It can be hard for staffers to make a fuss because these appointments are personal. They have two masters at a federal level, the Department of Finance which pays them and their member, who employed them in the first place.

"People get these jobs because of their skill and knowledge yes but also their personal relationships, reputation and demonstrated loyalty," she says. "A damaging complaint would make enemies of that person's allies and friends if that person was a powerful adviser like a chief of staff. So it could be career-ending and that's why they would prefer a confidential avenue to make complaints within the party.

"Loyalty is a fundamental expectation, which is why staffers often try to solve things by themselves."

Of course, we know that's not possible. The power imbalances are so stark - and so gendered - that it's not possible for staffers to solve these problems on their own. Even those with more power, those women elected to parliament, know how hard it is. Which brings me to comments made by Arthur Sinodinos, whose conversion to progressive causes is impressive. He told Patricia Karvelas that Dhanya Mani and Chelsey Potter did not get the support they deserved or needed. "They were either compelled not to go ahead with [complaints] or action was just not taken, or they were ignored or whatever."

Whatever is right. The Liberal Party is conducting a review after allegations of bullying during last year's Liberal leadership spill. It's not the longest review in history - but it's certainly taken far too long for the women in the party.

I have no idea where the review is up to but one thing should be clear. Women in the Liberal Party are powerless, whether they are staffers or politicians. They get shafted at the first opportunity, sacrificed to male ambition. There's a long list and it includes Julie Bishop. It includes Chelsey Potter and Dhanya Mani. If you don't believe me, just remember that not that long ago, someone asked Potter if she would complain about the man who assaulted her if he managed to win preselection. His career was considered more important than her safety.

People on the conservative side of politics also deserve diversity among their ranks. Those people deserve to be safe at work. And if the Liberal Party devises a code of conduct, it will need to be one it enforces.

Jenna Price is an academic at the University of Technology Sydney.

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