Karen Andrews Kitchen Cabinet: Female MP reveals what it’s like to be a woman working in parliament and the creepiest thing a male colleague has ever done

The former home secretary has claimed a male colleague deliberately breathed down her neck during parliamentary Question Time.

Gold Coast MP Karen Andrews, who has worked as a mechanical engineer in power stations, said her career in politics was the “first time I ever felt like I had to fight for things simply because I was a woman”.

Andrews has become the latest female politician to speak out about the culture in Parliament House, telling Annabel Crabb, host of ABC’s Kitchen Cabinet, that there was “a lot of alcohol” and “a fair number of people not going home to do their to drink your own alcohol’. own bed’.

Andrews has announced she will retire at the next election and has withdrawn from the coalition’s frontline.

During the interview, Crabb steered the conversation from Andrew’s early career with blokey engineering graduates to her experiences in Canberra.

Andrews said she personally found Canberra more challenging as a woman, especially the late-night socials.

“That’s where I really noticed that it was difficult as a woman,” she said.

‘I wasn’t often invited when my male colleagues got together for drinks, cheese or things like that.

“A lot of strategizing would take place during those meetings, and the women who weren’t invited to that would simply never be part of it.”

Then she remembered a colleague who made her particularly uncomfortable.

“I had one of my male colleagues breathing down my neck during Question Time,” Andrews said when Crabb asked her if she had experienced harassment in Parliament.

‘I was just sitting there minding my own business and started to feel pain in the back of my neck.

“And if I were to ask a question it would be, ‘That was a great question, poignant and probing’… that kind of thing.”

Andrews, who once said she had a ‘gut feeling’ about the treatment of women in the workplace, will retire from politics at the next election

Crabb steered the conversation from Andrews’ technical background to how she navigated the male-dominated halls of parliament

Andrews then said her concerns were dismissed because she was too tense.

‘But you know what the problem is? Well, there would be people who would say, ‘Can’t you take a joke? Can’t she take a joke?’ I mean, really… and sometimes I shout it out, but sometimes I just say, ‘I can’t be at every fight.’

The macho nature of Australian politics was highlighted in late 2021 when a scathing review found the country’s power centers were riddled with heavy drinking, bullying and sexual harassment.

Similar criticism flared up again earlier this year, when two politicians from different sides of the aisle accused the conservative senator of sexual assault.

A wide-ranging survey published in November 2021 found that one in three people working in Australia’s Parliament House had experienced some form of sexual harassment.

The same Australian Human Rights Commission investigation also found there was a boyish culture in the building, fueled by frequent bouts of heavy drinking.

Although Australia has increased the number of women in parliament, the country has so far done so more slowly than other countries.

In 1999, Australia had the 15th highest percentage of women in its parliament, according to a ranking compiled by the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

By 2022, it had fallen to 57th place.