Top Australian Lawmaker Says She’d ‘Kill to Be Sexually Harassed’

A young woman recently came forward to allege that she’d been raped in the Australian parliament, a lawmaker quit because he took a sly photo of a woman’s backside, and a whistleblower exposed the existence of a parliamentary masturbation dare club—but the sex harassment scandal in Australia’s Parliament House still seems to be a joke to some. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the governing Liberal Party’s federal vice-president Teena McQueen said in a closed-door meeting last Friday: “I would kill to be sexually harassed at the moment.” McQueen denied that she’d made that exact comment, but admitted she’d “made a throwaway line, that when women reach my age, we don’t have to worry about being sexually assaulted... It was an attempt at humour about myself.” Attendees at the meeting also claimed McQueen said: “Let’s talk about women not getting drunk at work,” in what was reportedly understood to refer to former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins, who recently came forward alleging she had been raped in Parliament House. McQueen said her comments on workplace drinking had “absolutely no reference to anyone.”