>
An outraged Anthony Albanese has rejected to tears in parliament claims that he bullied a female coalition MP.
Michelle Landry, the Nationals MP for Capricornia in central Queensland, claimed she was ‘humiliated’ by Prime Minister Ninister during Question Time on Thursday.
Mr Albanese started a fiery diatribe when he mocked opposition leader Peter Dutton for a geography gaffe during Ms Landry’s question.
After the 60-year-old held a furious press conference along with ten other female coalition MPs, the prime minister insisted his vociferous comments were directed at Mr Dutton.
Coalition MP Michelle Landry posted screenshots of parliamentary footage she claimed showed Anthony Albanese attacking her, looking in her direction, insisting his rant was only aimed at Peter Dutton
‘You will see I have an exchange with Peter Dutton, not the member of Capricornia, about him interfering, yelling at me, confusing… he didn’t know his Yeppoon from his Yeppen – they’re two different places ‘ he told Sky News.
“It was an exchange between me and Peter Dutton and the footage shows Michelle Landry actually laughing at my reaction at the time, which was good humored, a bit of a Queenslander joke, a reference Peter Dutton obviously didn’t know. ‘
Mr Albanese pointed twice at Mr Dutton and shouted ‘Queenslander!’ to mock his mistake about his home state.
This was an obscure reference to the legend of State of Origin, Billy Moore, who lit the Maroons as they took the field for the second half of the 1995 game.
The Sydney-born Prime Minister is a diehard rugby league fan and his reference sparked loud cheers and bangs on tables from the Labor benches, which Ms Landry claimed incited him by bullying her.
Mr Albanese said he had called Ms Landry as a courtesy to explain that his comments were not directed at her as he was concerned she was upset but did not apologize as there was no need to.
‘No, she has my respect. I never said anything to her. Peter Dutton wants to intervene while I answer a question, he can expect an answer,” he said.
Mr Albanese started a fiery diatribe when he mocked opposition leader Peter Dutton for a geography gaffe during Ms Landry’s question
However, Ms Landry later doubled down on Friday morning by posting screenshots of parliamentary footage she claimed showed the Prime Minister attacking her.
“I did laugh at the answer given, but it quickly got bogged down in bullying by the Prime Minister and the PvdA,” she said.
You can clearly see in the screenshots below that he doesn’t focus the rest of his answer on Peter Dutton standing right in front of him. He focuses his anger and vitriol on me.
“For all the local and interstate Labor trolls who have flooded my social media channels with derogatory posts and who have taken screenshots, you have to remember that everyone has a family and I am doing my job by standing up for Capricornia. ‘
Prominent media commentators, even those who were often critical of the government, largely sided with Mr Albanian and said they saw no harassment in his response.
‘What I saw during Question Time yesterday was a rigorous debate between two sides of politics. That seems pretty standard behavior to me,” said 2GB radio host Ben Fordham.
Liberal National Member for Capricornia Michelle Landry (pictured) left parliament on Thursday in tears
The drama started when Ms Landry stood up at Question Time on Thursday to accuse the Prime Minister of breaking a promise.
She said the budget deferred $800 million in Commonwealth funding to build the Rockhampton Ring Road by at least two years.
Mr Albanese’s reply referred to the financing of the Bruce Highway via the Yeppen Floodplain, south of Rockhampton.
Mr Dutton – also from Queensland – intervened over the town of Yeppoon, more than 31 miles away on the coast.
The prime minister took advantage of this geographic error to mock the opposition leader for not knowing his home state well enough.
‘Yeppoon is a different place! And you might ask the member about Capricornia, because Yeppoon is on the coast, north of Rockhampton and Rockhampton to the south,’ he exclaimed excitedly.
“Yeppen Floodplain is to the south, it’s the southern entrance of the Bruce Highway to Rockhampton!”
Mr Albanese received a rousing cheer from the Labor Party benches and twice shook his fist at Mr Dutton as he shouted ‘Queenslander!’ screamed.
“That says it all!” he added dismissively.
The Prime Minister then explained the history of the road project and, in a consistently raised voice, reprimanded the opposition for not taking it down while in government.
“We will finish this project, as we did the Yeppen Floodplain, as we did the roads to Yeppoon, by the way,” he said.
The increasingly noisy Labor benches responded to the Prime Minister’s boisterous display by cheering, clapping and slamming their tables.
Mr Anthony yells “Queenslander” during Question Time after mocking Peter Dutton
At the same time, Mr Albanese made a dismissive, swishing motion with his hands in the direction of the coalition benches that were in turmoil.
The episode seemed like quite a stretch of Parliamentary theatrical performance at Mr Dutton’s expense, until the end of Question Time, when Deputy Liberal Leader Sussan Ley raised a point of order.
“The member for Capricornia left the room in tears and in great distress,” she said.
She asked Speaker Milton Dick to watch the video and consider the appropriateness of his “tone” during his very garish response. Mr. Dick said he would do that and contact her.
Ms Landry, deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley, and nine other female coalition MPs held a press conference after Question Time, accusing Mr Albanese of “bullying” her.
“I really don’t appreciate being accosted and yelled at by the Prime Minister like I was today,” Ms Landry said.
‘I feel humiliated by him and the PvdA.
“Today we talked about kindness in Parliament, looking after each other and all the beautiful kind words.
“But after he yelled and pointed and yelled at me, all of his MPs — including women — yelled, laughed and screamed.
Ms Landry, Ms Ley and several other women coalition MPs held a press conference after Question Time and accused Mr Albanese of ‘bullying’ her
“This isn’t the first time I’ve had to endure this sort of thing from the Labor Party, from the Prime Minister’s office spreading smear campaigns against me in Rockhampton.
“I think this should be a place where we can all work together, I try to treat people with respect and how I wanted to be treated.
“I want to thank my female colleagues for being here today, because we’ve all had enough.
It’s a bunch of hypocrites if they can say the left is so great. Well, it isn’t.
“They treat us terribly, our female MPs and Senators are treated like absolute garbage by the left all the time and we have had enough.
Michelle Landry said it wasn’t the first time she had been the victim of a Labor smear campaign
“This is about women across Australia. I have two daughters and if I don’t resist this bullying in parliament, they just won’t respect me.’
Ms Ley then quoted a statement from Mr Albanese from months earlier in which he stated that Parliament should do better to eradicate bullying.
“More needs to be done to change Parliament House culture, culture is above policy and procedure and must change,” she was quoted as saying.
‘There is a cultural problem with sexual intimidation and bullying in the workplace in the House of Representatives.’
Ms Ley said the budget spoke a lot about respect in the workplace, as have many members of the Labor Party since she won the government.
“Well, if Mr Albanian doesn’t go back to parliament this afternoon, get up and publicly apologize… she said.
“This was an incredibly painful experience for Michelle, and there were others in the room who heard it, who felt it, and who really, really didn’t like it.”
Sussan Ley quoted a statement from Mr Albanese from months earlier in which he stated that parliament should do better to eradicate bullying
Dick later told the House of Representatives that he had viewed the footage and did not believe that Mr. Albanian disrespected Mrs. Landry.
“I can confirm that the Prime Minister answered the question from the deputy for Capricornia. During the response, the prime minister also responded directly to interjections from the leader of the opposition,” he said.
“When I looked at the footage, I didn’t see the Prime Minister showing any disregard for the Member for Capricornia.
“Since the footage didn’t feature the entire response to the Member for Capricornia, I didn’t see her leave the room.
“From the images of the member for Capricornia that I was able to view, she seemed involved in the Prime Minister’s response.”
Mr Albanese’s office was asked whether the Prime Minister intended to apologize publicly to Ms Landry or make any other comment on the matter.