Teal MP Zali Steggall appeared to mock fellow female MP Sussan Ley’s name in a narky social media spat over voting habits

Independent MP Zali Steggall has been called out for apparently making fun of the name of Deputy Opposition Leader Sussan Ley, despite Teals MPs saying the standard of parliamentary behavior needs to be improved, including showing more respect for women.

Ms Steggall on Thursday took issue with a tweet from Ms Ley in which she claimed the Teals – the informal group of independent MPs of which Ms Steggall is a guiding light – always voted with Labor and the Greens.

“A bit sloppy Sussan!”, Ms Steggall shot back on X (formerly Twitter), apparently mocking the conventional spelling of Ms Ley’s first name.

“That division voted against your attempt to silence a minister during QT (Question Time).

“Cheap shot Zali,” Mrs. Ley replied.

‘My name is Sussan, if you have a problem with that, you can keep it to yourself.

“You said you would change Canberra, it seems it has changed you.”

“Maybe you’ll think twice before putting out misleading nonsense,” Ms. Steggall fired back.

An opposition spokesman said Ms Steggall’s joke was “lowbrow stuff”, from an MP who “claims to be someone who cares about raising the standards of the parliamentary workplace”.

“It’s clear she’s had an argument with Sussan about her name and when we confronted her about it she doubled down… including using some quite agricultural language which is quite disappointing,” the spokesperson said.

“We wouldn’t expect our people to crack the names of others. We have to be better than that.’

In the original Tweet, Ms Ley circled Ms Steggall as she sat in the ranks of Labor MPs, while her fellow Teals Zoe Daniel and Monique Ryan sat with the Greens on the floor of the House of Representatives.

“Another day in Parliament and another day of Teals voting with the Greens and voting with Labour,” Ms Ley wrote.

“People in these communities are learning the hard way that if you vote Teal, you go green. The Greens are urging Labor to stand up for your money, raising your taxes is just the start.”

Those commenting on the exchange stood by the two opponents, with some taking issue with what they saw as Ms. Steggall’s juvenile joke.

“Jesus – making fun of how someone spells their name?” one person wrote.

‘You’re really pathetic. You are not fit to be an MP.”

“Making fun of the way a fellow MP’s name is spelled – how grown-up,” another agreed.

Some, however, were keen to follow Ms Steggall’s example.

‘Is Susssann the opposition minister for disinformation???’ one tweeted.

“Imagine how stupid Sussan would be if she didn’t add that ‘s’ to her name because of numerology,” another commented.

Mrs Ley was born Susan Braybrooks, but added a third ‘s’ to her first name after leaving school.

She believed the change would lead to her living an “exciting” life after reading about numerology.

Ms Ley discussed her name change in an interview with The Australian in 2015, where she said: ‘I read about this numerological theory that if you add the numbers that correspond to the letters in your name, you can change your personality.

“I discovered that if you added a ”’, I would have an incredibly exciting, interesting life and nothing would ever be boring.

‘It’s so simple. And once I added the ”s” it was very difficult to take it away.”

Ms Steggall is not the only MP to make fun of the spelling.

Labor MP Julian Hill habitually misspells Ms Ley’s name on social media.

“Well, I guess it makes sense that Susssan Ley is desperately concerned about negative gearing,” he recently tweeted.

‘And she certainly doesn’t want to talk about Labour’s tax cuts for all taxpayers.’

The opposition spokesman said they had also called Mr Hill out on his ‘jokes’.

“Julian Hill is a kind of village idiot from Parliament, so we kind of expect that youthful behavior from him, but it was very surprising to see Zali do it because she is one of those people who claims to be above everything,” the spokesperson said. said.

Last year, Teal Independents demanded more respect for female MPs, labeling parliamentary debate as aggressive and insulting.

North Sydney Teal MP Kylea Tink first raised concerns about the behavior of politicians in Parliament during Question Time in a speech delivered last Thursday.

Ms Tink explains that she feels unsafe because of the ‘hostile’ and ‘aggressive’ behavior in the room and notes that this is not tolerated in any other workplace.

She has since been supported in her position by fellow Teal Independents Allegra Spender and Ms Daniel.

Member for Wentworth, Ms Spender described Question Time as ‘very, very aggressive’.

“Yelling at each other is not a robust debate, that’s actually just abuse,” she said, as reported by News Corp.

Both women branded the questioning and behavior of male opposition MPs as ‘inappropriate’.

“Men hissing at women in the audience and making cutting remarks to women in the audience about what they are saying is completely inappropriate,” said Ms. Daniel, a member of Goldstein.

“I have a 16-year-old son, I’m shocked by what he might observe, the way people behave in that room and the example that is for our children.”

Ms Steggall was contacted for comment.