April 21, 2012
SMH
The government says allegations of sexual harassment by Speaker Peter Slipper should be tested in court without political interference.
Mr Slipper has denied claims published in News Limitednewspapers on Saturday that he sexually harassed a male staffer and misused Cabcharges.
The civil claims against Mr Slipper, made in court documents obtained by the newspaper, allege he recruited 33-year-old James Ashby to pursue a sexual relationship with him.
The application filed to the Federal Court reportedly says Mr Slipper allegedly made unwelcome advances toward Mr Ashby and sent him explicit text messages making his sexual intentions clear.
Mr Slipper took to Twitter early on Saturday morning to deny the claims. He is currently overseas.
"The allegations in News Ltd papers are denied!" he tweeted, later adding they were "a surprise to me".
Later he repeatedly told media at Los Angeles airport: "All allegations are denied."
He refused to say anything else, including whether he had spoken to the prime minister about the matter.
Mr Ashby is being represented by Harmers Workplace Lawyers, which represented Kristy Fraser-Kirk in a settled harassment suit against former David Jones boss Mark McInnes.
A spokesman for the firm said it had no present plans to make a public statement about the case filed against Mr Slipper.
The Government Leader of the House, Anthony Albanese, said he knew nothing about the allegations before reading of them in the media.
"It isn't appropriate to comment on the detail of legal proceedings of which obviously I would have no knowledge," he told reporters in Sydney on Saturday.
"It's important that we recognise the separation between the judicial arm and the political arm of the state."
Opposition leader Tony Abbott called for Mr Slipper to step aside from the Speaker's chair while the matter was heard in court.
"Yes, the Speaker is entitled to the presumption of innocence, but he does have quite a lot of explaining to do," he told journalists in Hervey Bay in Queensland.
"These are of a vastly more serious and substantial nature than anything that has been alleged against Mr Slipper in the past."
Tasmanian independent Andrew Wilkie backed these calls, saying Mr Slipper should sit on the crossbench until the matter was resolved.
"Let's not forget the government only thrust Peter Slipper into the Speaker's role in a cynical move to head off meaningful pokermachine reform," Mr Wilkie said in a statement. That poker machine reform is his pet project.
"If he's found guilty of these allegations it will be a disaster of the government's own making."
Mr Albanese said any question of stepping aside was one for Mr Slipper to decide.
"There aren't allegations against anyone in the government," he said.
He believed Mr Slipper had done "a very good job" as Speaker.
"That's been something that's been acknowledged across the spectrum including by his former coalition colleagues," he said.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard is not expected to comment on the matter on Saturday.
The newspaper reports said court documents showed the Howard government was aware of other allegations of sexual harassment against Mr Slipper as far back as 2003.
But Liberal Senator Arthur Sinodinos, who was John Howard's chief of staff at the time, said on Saturday he could not recall specific allegations of that type.
"I cannot recall particular circumstances that I think are referred to in the News Limited report," he told ABC TV.
"But in a sense now that is ancient history and we're faced with a series of fresh allegations."
The reports also raise allegations that taxpayer-funded Cabcharges were misused.
The Australian Federal Police said on Saturday they were aware of these.
A spokeswoman told AAP police were assessing the information they had about the allegations but it would not be appropriate to comment further at this stage.
Mr Slipper became Speaker on the last day of parliament in 2011 after the Labor speaker, Harry Jenkins, resigned.
The Sunshine Coast MP resigned from the Liberal National Party to take over the job.
His defection effectively gave the minority Labor government two extra votes, a wider buffer than previously
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