Embattled Senator David Van is expected to leave parliament after he resigned from the Liberal Party amid accusations of sexual harassment.
The Liberal senator recently came under fire after independent Senator Lidia Thorpe and former Liberal Senator Amanda Stoker alleged he had inappropriately touched them. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton also revealed there was another individual who also accused Van of sexually harassing them.
On June 16, Dutton called on Van to quit parliament altogether. But before a committee could discuss the allegations, the Victorian senator quit the party.
In a letter to Victorian Liberal Party president Greg Mirabella, Van criticised the Liberal Party for trampling upon “the very premise on which our justice system is predicated.”
“Given the Liberal Party’s wholesale disregard for due process and natural justice in relation to allegations made against me, I write to resign my membership effective immediately,” he wrote on Saturday.
‘This is a travesty of justice, and I reiterate that I deny the accusations made against me."
“I resign also acknowledging the cruel irony of doing so amidst public discourse about the weaponisation of allegations and the role of the rule of law which has at its centre the presumption of innocence.”
The Victorian senator added that he was “deeply distressed and hurt” and had not been afforded procedural fairness in the sexual harassment claims.
“I will continue to fight for what I thought were the Party’s values—just not under its banner.”
Labor And Nationals MPs Back Dutton’s Decision
Agriculture Minister Murray Watt also called on Van to “seriously consider his position,” saying the allegations against him were “very serious.”
“It is a matter for David Van and the Liberal Party as to how they handled these allegations when they were first raised and what efforts were undertaken,” he told AAP.
“I’m not going to pretend the parliament is a perfect workplace. There’s always work to be done.”
Nationals leader David Littleproud also echoed the sentiment.
“He was elected on the Liberal party [Senate ticket] [if] he wants to remove himself from the Liberal party, then he should probably also remove himself from the Senate,” Littleproud told Nine Network in an interview on Sunday.
Nationals Senator Bridge McKenzie said on Sunday the rumours had been circulating in parliament about Van, but she didn’t know the details of the allegations.
McKenzie backed Dutton’s decision by Dutton to expel Van from the party room in the wake of the allegations.
Van will now sit in the Senate on the crossbench.The situation spiralled after Independent Senator Thorpe interjected when Van was speaking in the upper House about the rape allegations of former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins. Thorpe said she felt “really uncomfortable when a perpetrator is speaking about violence.”
She called Van a “perpetrator.”
“I can’t because this person harassed me, sexually assaulted me, and the prime minister had to remove him from his office.
“And to have him talking about this today is an absolute disgrace on the whole party.”
Stoker’s Allegations
Meanwhile, Stoker said in her media statement that Van inappropriately touched her during a social event in 2020, reported Nine News.
“In November 2020, Senator Van inappropriately touched me at an informal social gathering in a parliamentary office,” Stoker said.
“He did so by squeezing my bottom twice. By its nature and by its repetition, it was not accidental.”
“That action was not appropriate. It was unprofessional and uninvited.
“I raised the matter with Senator Van at a meeting the following day. I described the action, told him it was unacceptable, and that it was not to be repeated. He apologised and said he would never do it again.
“I accepted his apology and his undertaking. Contemporaneous notes of the meeting were taken, and it never happened again.”
AAP contributed to this report.
