Greens leader Richard Di Natale has been suspended from the Senate after refusing to withdraw remarks about Liberal National Party senator Barry O’Sullivan — the first suspension from the Senate in 15 years, according to the Senate’s researchers.
Based on a search for standing order 203 in the Senate Journals, it was March 2003 https://t.co/iHgR0ODTTD
— Australian Senate (@AuSenate) November 27, 2018
The suspension came after Di Natale called O’Sullivan a “pig” for comments that O’Sullivan made about Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young in the chamber today, making reference to her having sex with former senator Nick Xenophon: “There’s a bit of Nick Xenophon in [Hanson-Young]. I don’t mean that to be a double reference, but there’s a bit of Xenophon in her.”
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Di Natale responded by saying that the Greens had “endured on this side days of sexist filth coming [O’Sullivan“, adding that O’Sullivan is a “pig” and should “consider and reflect on the standards he is adopting in this chamber”. When Di Natale refused to withdraw the comments, he was ejected from the chamber.
“We have endured, on this side, days of sexist filth coming from that man, he is a pig,” Greens leader Richard Di Natale on Nat senator Barry O’Sullivan #auspol pic.twitter.com/dqryo09rxy
— Brett Worthington (@BWorthington_) November 27, 2018
Hanson-Young responded in her own right, thanking Di Natale for standing up for her and singling out Barry O’Sullivan in addition to fellow fuckwit senators Fraser Anning, David Leyonhjelm and Cory Bernardi for their behaviour:
As the person in this chamber whom the reprehensible and disgusting comments were directed to by Senator O’Sullivan, I want to make it very clear that I am thankful to Senator Di Natale for standing up and calling them out. That is what real men do, real men don’t insult and threaten women and they don’t slut-shame them and they don’t attack them and make them feel bullied in their workplace.
I have sat in this chamber for weeks and weeks — months — and heard the disgusting slurs and attacks coming from a particular group in this place, and I for one am sick of it and I know many of my female colleagues on all sides of politics are sick of it too. And I will name you, because you are not fit to be in this chamber, you’re not fit to represent your constituents, and you’re not fit to call yourselves men.
Barry O’Sullivan made headlines recently for jokingly declaring himself to be coming out as a transgender woman, under the odd belief that that would make him immune to criticism for his anti-abortion stance.
I’ve had enough. Real men don’t harass and bully women in their workplaces or their homes, in the bar or on the street. I won’t sit by and be a punching bag for these bully boys any longer. https://t.co/2z7cxnj0f2
— 💚🌏 Sarah Hanson-Young (@sarahinthesen8) November 27, 2018
