Victorian senator David Van will take leave from parliament this week as more of his former Coalition colleagues call for his resignation from parliament altogether.
Van resigned from the Liberal party on Saturday after he was dropped from the federal party room by leader Peter Dutton and stripped of organisational support in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations being raised against him.
Van has denied the allegations and said he was “deeply distressed and hurt that I have not been afforded procedural fairness in relation to these claims”.
Dutton called for Van to quit the parliament on Friday. On Sunday, in an interview with the Nine network, Nationals leader David Littleproud agreed.
“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 said.
That call came as Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie has defended Lidia Thorpe’s use of parliamentary privilege to raise allegations against Van.
McKenzie also said on Sunday there would have been “cheers” at how swiftly the Liberal leader, Peter Dutton, acted in addressing the allegations and removing Van from the party room.
The Nationals senator said she disagreed with her former leader Barnaby Joyce, who lashed out against Thorpe’s use of privilege to name Van as the senator she alleged had harassed and “inappropriately touched” her in a parliamentary stairwell in 2021.
Van immediately denied the allegations and has continued to assert his innocence.
In an interview with ABC’s Insiders program, McKenzie said Thorpe was “absolutely within her right” to use parliamentary privilege “to raise those issues as she did”.
“When we do discuss sexual assault in the way that we have in the recent past, it can be incredibly traumatic for those people who have been through those types of incidents,” McKenzie said.
“And whether it’s our staff, our colleagues or indeed the broader community, this time, just like the last time, there have been quite visceral responses, which I believe hers was.”
McKenzie said she had been aware of “rumours” regarding Van but had no first-hand knowledge and did not listen to gossip. She said she believed there would have been celebrations at how quickly Dutton took action once he was aware of allegations being made against one of his colleagues.
“I think there was a lot of cheers silently across parliamentary offices with such decisive action being taken by a leader,” McKenzie said.
“We know that both the Labor party, One Nation, the Greens, the Liberal party, all political parties have faced these type of internal challenges over the recent past and for a leader to be so decisive, I think was a testament to his strength of feeling around these matters, though.”
Dutton said he had not acted “on the back of” Thorpe’s allegations but, when his Queensland Liberal National party colleague and former senator Amanda Stoker subsequently came to him alleging Van had “inappropriately touched” her at a social function in 2020, he had made the decision to expel Van from the federal Liberal party room.
The opposition leader said a third woman had come forward to allege inappropriate behaviour by Van, but he did not go into detail and called for the senator to resign from the parliament.
Thorpe raised allegations in the Senate on Wednesday, which she withdrew later that evening. She then gave a fuller statement on Thursday.
The Victorian Liberal branch withdrew organisational support for Van while considering his future with the party. Van announced his resignation from the party on Saturday evening.
“I cannot remain a member of a party that tramples upon the very premise on which our justice system is predicated,” he said. “This is a travesty of justice and I reiterate that I deny the allegations against me.”
Van will now sit in the Senate on the crossbench.
Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html
