NSW upper house MP Robert Borsak has been accused of "bullying" after saying a female Independent MP should have been "clocked".
Shooters, Farmers and Fishers MLC Robert Borsak appeared to make the comment about Murray MP Helen Dalton to his colleague Mark Banasiak in the upper house last Wednesday.
His voice was picked up on the audio-visual feed of the chamber before a vote on flood-plain harvesting began.
Ms Dalton had earlier entered the chamber and sat in the president's gallery to watch part of the debate concerning her own electorate.
As a lower house MP, Ms Dalton is not allowed to address the chamber.
One Nation leader Mark Latham took aim at Ms Dalton, saying "she's good at dividing communities".
Ms Dalton then got up and appeared to move towards Mr Latham before being told to stop by others in the chamber.
"Come on step in, come on, have a crack, have a crack, have a crack," Mr Latham said.
Mr Banasiak then criticised the the Legislative Council chair Chris Rath for being "too soft" when trying to defuse the situation between Mr Latham and Ms Dalton.
Mr Borsak then said: "He should have got up and clocked her."
Ms Dalton resigned from the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party in March to sit as an independent on the crossbench.
She told the ABC Mr Borsak's comment was "very unbecoming" of a member of parliament.
"And really, this is bullying," she said.
Ms Dalton said the "unruly behaviour" shows there's still a long way to go in NSW Parliament before "things are really the way they should be".
"Making comments such as 'someone should have clocked her' in parliament sets a very, very bad example to anyone watching and really for the whole of parliament. It's just not professional."
Mr Borsak did not respond to the ABC's request for comment.
Labor's Rose Jackson, who was also in the chamber during the debate, said she supported robust debate but Mr Borsak's comment went too far.
"People have elected you to engage in political debate, they haven't elected you to engage in comments, in jokes that cross the line and laugh or joke about physical assault or clocking someone in the head," Ms Jackson said.
Ms Dalton said she had tried to make a formal complaint about the incident to the new Independent Complaints Officer, Rose Webb, but was told it could not be investigated.
"I telephoned her yesterday ... and she said that her remit is not to look at anything that happens in the chamber," Ms Dalton said.
"There's nowhere for me to go with this complaint so we have a long way to go in parliament before things are the way they should be."
A NSW Parliament spokeswoman told the ABC the independent complaints officer couldn't investigate complaints relating to conduct in proceedings of the Legislative Council, Legislative Assembly or their committees.
This incident comes after the first meeting of a parliamentary committee set up to respond to recommendations from the Broderick review.
The landmark report, by former Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick, revealed allegations of sexual assault, harassment and bullying at NSW Parliament.
It found one in three respondents said they had experienced sexual harassment or bullying in the past five years and 52 per cent of bullying incidents were allegedly perpetrated by members of parliament.
Since the report was handed down, a number of bullying allegations have been levelled.
Labor's Walt Secord faced accusations of bullying from colleagues, and subsequently announced his retirement, and Mr Latham made comments about Shellharbour Labor MP Anna Watson under parliamentary privilege.
Mr Latham, Mr Borsak and Ms Dalton are all on the parliamentary committee tasked with responding to the Broderick review.
Premier Dominic Perrottet, who leads the committee, said he was determined to implement the review's recommendations urgently.
"I appreciate that it could be difficult having the Greens and One Nation and the Shooters all at the same table there'll be different perspectives, but that's OK," he said.
"Where we can find common ground, we should and work across party political lines to implement the recommendations."
Ms Jackson said there was still a lot of work to do.
"In a way, the fact that we're having this conversation shows how far we've come — the progress that we've made, that we're having a kind of open conversation about what the standards are, but it also shows how far we've got to go," she said.
"When we have those types of comments ... it shows there are some people who sadly still don't get it."
