Jenna Price | The culture of Parliament House is cooked

There was David Van, criticising how the Brittany Higgins case was handled by the Albanese government. It's laughable really since it was the Coalition who totally ballsed it up in the first place. Whatever Labor did and when it did it is pretty irrelevant considering it had no power. Sure, it makes for a momentary Katy Gallagher gotcha but that will blow over. She will survive although it will hang around for a while. And politicians weaponise whatever they have to hand, don't they?

I'm not writing this because I am devoted to Gallagher - she's a politician so no. But because if we measure one evil against another, any of her perceived misdemeanours are mild in comparison to the behaviour of the Coalition when in power.

And on Wednesday and Thursday, we learned exactly how bad Parliament House was and still is.

Wednesday afternoon. Independent senator Lidia Thorpe has just accused Liberal senator David Van of sexual assault. A few hours later, she withdraws her comments, at the request of the President of the Senate. On Thursday, she cried as she addressed the Senate and said there were different understandings of what sexual assault was. Let me translate that for you. Men, some men, think it is perfectly OK to slap women on the arse or grab their boobs. Not that I'm accusing Van of doing that. He's denied it and we have to presume he is innocent. But for some, the definition of sexual assault is violent penetration. Believe me, it starts well before that. Thorpe said she was followed, "aggressively propositioned and inappropriately touched".

Do you understand how that freaks women out?

Thorpe said on Wednesday Van had to move offices after her complaint. Turns out he did move offices. Van denies all of it, except the moving of offices. Says his lawyers have written to Thorpe. Now Peter Dutton says he has advised David Van he will no longer sit in the Liberal party room after receiving further allegations about the Victorian senator.

Five minutes later, former senator Amanda Stoker said she too had a very unpleasant experience with David Van. (Note how everyone calmly accepts the words of a white woman?)

Here we are, back at Parliament House, where the culture is cooked.

"In my experience the culture promotes underhanded behaviour, manipulation, backstabbing for reasons of political gain, deceit, discourages calling out troubling behaviour for risk of career-based ramifications, a 'work hard, play hard' mentality, a culture that prioritises male careers and perspectives over female ones and an expectation of silence among victims."

If you read the submissions to the Kate Jenkins inquiry into the culture in Parliament House, you'd come away knowing the place is stuffed (sure, some submissions were gloriously happy. I wonder if they were all written by men?). The quote above is from one of the individual submissions. Wherever you are now, individual, I hope you are getting some help.

The place is still clearly in trouble. When I last spoke to the former Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins, she said after her report those who worked in Parliament House said there had been a real change in the culture. I'd be happy to believe that was true - but real, underlying change takes time. People grieve about the past for a long time.

I can't claim to know what happened between Lidia Thorpe and David Van (and there were no recordings in the stairwells) - all I can say is false accusations of sexual assault are rare and it's important to keep receipts. Moving offices is not an actual receipt. I remember when Bridget McKenzie moved offices. Was it to avoid bumping into sportsrorts investigators or some other thing?

Keeping receipts. Years ago now, a friend secretly recorded a conversation she had with her immediate supervisor. She played it to his immediate supervisor and ended up with a new and far better boss. Keeping receipts pays off time and time again.

While the Thorpe revelations played out, Brittany Higgins tweeted excerpts of conversations with Michaelia Cash she secretly recorded. Cash's office says: "The issue of when Senator Cash became aware of the allegations was the subject of evidence given under oath and has been tested in the ACT Supreme Court."

Secretly recording a conversation is against the law in most states and territories in Australia unless it is about protecting your lawful interests. I'd argue ensuring you work in a safe workplace is protecting your lawful interests. Surely we all have the right to that.

I bring this up only because of what's going on in Parliament right now. Two sets of recollections. Nah, scrap that, multiple sets of recollections of events ranging from 2019 to now regarding an alleged sexual assault in Parliament House. Bruce Lehrmann denies he raped Brittany Higgins. He continues to maintain his innocence. She continues to say it happened. And, unless a miracle happens and video turns up, we will never know. But we do know this. The Coalition did an utterly shocking job of dealing with a staffer who alleged she'd been sexually assaulted. It is also clear Higgins was not in a good place then and continues to struggle.

Jason Bosland, associate professor at Melbourne Law School and an expert in media law, says although secretly recording conversations is illegal in most states and territories in Australia, there are definite exceptions. "Given the circumstances, one exception could be that Higgins is protecting her own lawful interests in recording that conversation," he says.

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Is it OK for Higgins to then broadcast the contents of a secret recording on Twitter? Bosland says communicating the transcript is OK when protecting those lawful interests but as far as he knows, Higgins is not involved in any further legal proceedings so it gets a bit muddy. Maybe Higgins thinks she is communicating the information to those who have an interest in knowing who lied and when - the entire public. This probably wouldn't, under the current law, excuse disclosure. Bosland suggests maybe the law needs a little rewrite to allow public interest disclosures. Or maybe - and this is just me - we should just accept that secret recordings are OK.

Is this the worst of what's happened this week? The leaking of Brittany Higgins's text messages is wild. Of course I read every single word and wonder what the entire tranche looks like because this appears to be selective publication of some of those texts to paint a particular picture. And I'm looking forward to knowing who leaked Higgins's messages and wondering if they will lose their licence to do whatever it is they do.