Scott Morrison’s attempts to drag his government out of crisis over the treatment of women have been obliterated by the disturbing behaviour of disgraced backbencher Andrew Laming.
Laming will not contest the election but will remain in the coalition party room after admitting to bullying, stalking and harassing several women.
The Queenslander is also under fire for taking a photo up a woman’s skirt with her underwear exposed at her workplace, which is a criminal offence punishable by up to three years in prison.
Laming claims the photo attempted to show someone trying to fit an impossible amount of stock into a fridge.
“The purpose of the photograph was to show sometimes at work you have these Herculean tasks put to you and she was playing a game of Tetris trying to get every possible can in the fridge,” he told ABC radio.
Despite being on taxpayer-funded medical leave to seek counselling and empathy training, the MP hit the airwaves to defend himself.
Laming said he didn’t know what he was apologising for in parliament last week when he fronted the chamber ahead of revelations he harassed female constituents online.
He insists he was asking tough questions in his role as an MP.
“If they don’t answer those questions you’d expect those questions to be asked again and again,” Laming said.
“It’s much easier sometimes to provide an answer to the question. That wasn’t happening and now of course it’s been reinvented into harassment.”
Senior ministers have described his behaviour as disgraceful and completely unacceptable.
But with the government clinging onto power by a threadbare majority, the Coalition has resisted calls for him to resign immediately.
Liberal senator Sarah Henderson has broken ranks to call for Laming to be booted from the coalition, which would plunge the government into minority.
“It’s a matter for him as to whether he wants to leave the Liberal Party. I am uncomfortable about him sitting in the party room,” she told Channel 7’s Sunrise on Monday.
Social Services Minister Anne Ruston would not say whether she would be happy for the disgraced MP to return to the coalition.