Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young has made good on her threat to sue Liberal Democrat David Leyonhjelm for defamation over a series of comments she says held her up to “public shame and disgrace” by accusing her of hypocrisy and misandry. Late on Wednesday Senator Hanson-Young became the first sitting Australian politician to file defamation proceedings against a fellow parliamentarian under substantially uniform national defamation laws, which commenced in the states and territories in early 2006. Senator Leyonhjelm said he would "strenuously" defend the claim. Sarah Hanson-Young filed defamation proceedings against David Leyonhjelm in the Federal Court on Wednesday. Credit:AAP The Greens senator is suing Senator Leyonhjelm over a series of comments made between June 28 and July 2 on Sky News, the ABC's 7.30 program and Melbourne radio station 3AW, along with a media statement posted on Medium.com. The comments followed a heated Senate debate about violence against women, during which Senator Leyonhjelm told Senator Hanson-Young she should "stop shagging men".<doc-sep>Sarah Hanson-Young has accused David Leyonhjelm of “slut-shaming” her in an emotional interview on ABC radio. The Greens senator said her fellow senator’s behaviour was “designed to bully” and “designed to intimidate”, and called on Malcolm Turnbull to condemn Leyonhjelm for repeatedly refusing to apologise for using innuendo about her sexual life to attack her. The prime minister later denounced the Liberal Democratic party senator’s remarks as offensive and said he should “withdraw and apologise”. In the interview, Hanson-Young said Leyonhjelm had proved he was unfit for parliament, having made a sexual slur against her in the Senate last week, repeating the slurs and innuendo in numerous media interviews since, and even naming someone, incorrectly, whom he suggested she had had sex with. A clearly upset Hanson-Young said she had watched another one of Leyonhjelm’s controversial interviews on Monday night and she was “over it”. “David Leyonhjelm is suggesting, because he can’t win an argument … that I am sexually promiscuous,” she said. “He is, for lack of a better word, and I really apologise for this and I’m thankful that my daughter is home in bed still and not up for school, he’s slut-shaming me. “Women right around this country know it. Men, decent men, know it. And I’m not prepared to sit here and be intimidated and bullied. It’s offensive, it’s inflammatory and he has shown over and over again that he’s unfit to be in parliament.” Between deep breaths, Hanson-Young recounted her experience of what it had been like as a woman in Parliament House. She said the use of sexual slurs and innuendo by some men in the building had been ever-present since she became a senator 10 years ago at the age of 25. “It started as mutterings in the corridors, lining up in the coffee line, it started as very quiet to see how far they would get. I ignored it. I hoped it would go away. “It has now got to the point where the slurs are not just yelled across the chamber, they are now put on national television. They’re used in interviews. “David Leyonhjelm went on Sky News and said these things. He also went on 3AW. He named somebody that he suggests I’ve had sex with, which I haven’t. He named somebody. “It’s designed to intimidate. It’s designed to bully. And this happens to women more often than anyone wants to admit, and it’s time it ended.” Hanson-Young said women were often punished in this way for speaking up. She said she had a stronger resolve to stand up to Leyonhjelm after watching his interview on Monday evening. Earlier on Monday she said she was taking legal advice, and followed this up by announcing on The Project that she had retained Rebekah Giles of the law firm Kennedys to act for her. Leyonhjelm then went on the ABC’s 7.30 program on Monday evening and doubled down on his remarks. Hanson-Young said: “We cannot accept this. We cannot accept this in our broader society and we certainly cannot accept this in our parliament. The standard you walk by is the standard you accept. “I call on Malcolm Turnbull. It is time for him to come out, it is time for him to condemn what is going on. “He takes this guy’s vote, he often relies on this bloke’s vote in parliament. His vote is tainted. He is an unfit member of parliament and he must resign.” Speaking after Hanson-Young’s interview, Turnbull stopped short of saying Leyonhjelm should resign, saying it was a matter for the senator himself. But he condemned the marks as “offensive” and said they “should have been withdrawn the moment they were uttered”. “He should have apologised and it is not too late to withdraw and apologise,” the prime minister said. “That type of language has no place in parliament and it shouldn’t have a place in any workplace. “We have to treat each other with respect, we must do that. And respect for women, in particular, is one of the highest priorities that we should be focused on.” Turnbull returned to what has become one of his familiar refrains when calling out violence against women, in explaining why he believed Leyonhjelm’s remarks were so damaging. “We often talk about domestic violence and our concerns there and all the measures we are taking to address it,” he said. “I just want to say this as a reminder to everybody – not all disrespecting women ends in violence against women, but that is where all violence against women begins. “We need to have respectful workplaces where we treat each other with respect, where we disagree, we disagree with respectful language, and that is why, as far as Senator Leyonhjelm is concerned, the remarks, he should not have made those remarks, they were offensive, he should have withdrawn them, he should have apologised for them. It is not too late to do so.” Turnbull said he could not “recall remarks like that being uttered in parliament before”. While profanity has been recorded in previously in the hansard, it was the “slut shaming” nature of Leyonhjelm’s remarks, which he then expanded on as a guest on Sky News, and his refusal to apologise, which have been condemned. Leyonhjelm told the ABC’s 7.30 program on Monday evening that he had made his original comment to Hanson-Young in the Senate because she’d said something like “all men are rapists”. “It was in the context of a one-minute statement by Senator Janet Rice to the effect that men are collectively responsible for the violence and it was Senator Hanson-Young called out words very similar, if not identical to, ‘If only men would stop raping women,’ or ‘All men are rapists,’ or words to that effect,” he said. Virginia Trioli, who was hosting 7.30, said they were not the same thing.<doc-sep>Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young has accused senator David Leyonhjelm of telling her to “stop shagging men” during a debate about women and violence, and then swearing at her when she confronted him. Senator Hanson-Young told parliament the Liberal Democrats senator made the remark on the floor of the upper house during a division on a motion about arming women with tasers to combat violence. “I asked whether I heard him correctly. He confirmed he yelled ‘you should stop shagging men, Sarah’,” Hanson-Young said. “Shocked, I told him he was a creep. His reply was to tell me to ‘f... off’.” She said Leyonhjelm refused to apologise for the comments, which she says are offensive and sexist. Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, approached Senate president Scott Ryan over the incident. I have formally put this event on the record in the Senate and asked Senator Leyonhjelm to withdraw his comment and apologise directly. — Sarah Hanson-Young💚 (@sarahinthesen8) June 28, 2018 Later Leyonhjelm confirmed his words but denied he shouted them out. He said he was responding to Senator Hanson-Young’s interjection in the debate, which he claimed was “along the lines of all men being rapists”. “I responded by suggesting that if this was the case she should stop shagging men. I did not yell at her,” Leyonhjelm said. “Following the division, Senator Hanson-Young approached me and called me a creep. I told her to f*** off.” He said if the Greens senator took offence, it was an issue for her. “I am prepared to rephrase my comments. I strongly urge Senator Hanson-Young to continue shagging men as she pleases,” Senator Leyonhjelm said. Katter’s Australia party senator Fraser Anning moved a motion in the Senate on Thursday calling on the government to relax import laws for the weapons in response to horrific crimes against women. He wants state governments to legalise and promote the carrying of pepper spray, mace and tasers by women for “political protection”. Greens senator Janet Rice slammed Anning’s “blundering, ill-conceived” motion. “The last thing that women in Australia need now is another man in power telling us that we are responsible for violence against us,” Rice told parliament. She said he was putting the onus on women to go to extreme lengths to combat violence rather than addressing men’s crimes. Senator James McGrath said the government had no plans to relax weapons importation laws, while the opposition also opposed the idea. “It is ludicrous to suggest that more weapons will make women safer,” Labor’s Anthony Chisholm said. The motion was defeated 46-5, with Leyonhjelm, Anning, One Nation’s Peter Georgiou, Cory Bernardi and Brian Burston the only supporters.<doc-sep>SYDNEY, Australia — An Australian senator filed a defamation suit on Wednesday against a fellow lawmaker who she says made a sexist remark to her on the Senate floor during a debate about violence against women. Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, a Greens Party member who was once the youngest woman elected to Parliament, has said that Senator David Leyonhjelm, a Liberal Democrat, told her to “stop shagging men” during a June debate on relaxing import restrictions for pepper spray, a change that advocates say would allow women to better protect themselves. Mr. Leyonhjelm has acknowledged making the remark. “The defamatory statements Senator Leyonhjelm made and continues to make are an attack on my character, and have done considerable harm to me and my family,” Ms. Hanson-Young said in a statement, released soon after filing her lawsuit with the Federal Court of Australia in Sydney. “I’m calling this out because it is wrong,” Ms. Hanson-Young said. “No woman, whether she be working behind a bar, in an office or in the Parliament, deserves to be treated this way, and it needs to stop.”<doc-sep>
(CNN) A sexist remark hurled across Australia's Senate chamber by a male politician at a female lawmaker has now made its way into the courts, after Senator Sarah Hanson-Young filed a defamation suit against David Leyonhjelm, the man who has refused to apologize for insulting her. "The defamatory statements Senator Leyonhjelm made and continues to make are an attack on my character," Hanson-Young said in a statement after filing the suit on Thursday. "I'm calling this out because it is wrong. No woman, whether she be working behind a bar, in an office or in the Parliament, deserves to be treated this way, and it needs to stop." It has been more than a month since Leyonhjelm, a libertarian politician told the Green Party's Hanson-Young to "stop shagging men" during a Senate debate on ways to prevent violence against women. He refused to back down from the comment, conducting several interviews on national television and radio, and pushed back at the female lawmaker. He accused her of "misandry," which he said was the opposite of "misogyny" and was directed at men. The feud brought into focus a national argument about the traditional masculinity in Australian politics. Crowdfunding on both sides Leyonhjelm has long fought against what he has termed political correctness and his political party, the Liberal Democrats, have joined in to help him fight this battle against Hanson-Young. The party, of which Leyonhjelm is the sole elected representative in either house of Australia's national parliament, has turned the lawsuit into a political contest and urged supporters to contribute to a 'war chest' to take on the environmentally-focused Greens and their "toxic unhinged ideology." Hanson-Young's crowdfunding campaign has raised a little over $44,000 (60,000 AUD) while Leyonhjelm's has brought in $20,000 (27,000 AUD). A political strategy "For those who have called on me to use polite language with my work colleagues and treat them with respect, rest assured that I do," Leyonhjelm wrote in a piece for Australia's Sydney Morning Herald . "But let me be clear: Senator Sarah Hanson-Young is not my work colleague; she is my opponent. We strive for opposing things. If I can inhibit her from achieving her political goals I will." Senator David Leyonhjelm. Not everyone is applauding his refusal to back down. Rather, it appears that some of the media outlets who gave Leyonhjelm an overly generous platform last month are expressing remorse. "We took him to task on his comments about Senator Hanson-Young, which we felt were inappropriate and an unnecessary reference to Senator Hanson-Young's personal life," Melbourne talk station 3AW said in a statement posted on Hanson-Young's media page "We think [Leyonhjelm's behavior] is unbecoming and not in keeping with parliamentary standards. We let Senator Leyonhjelm go too far in that interview, and for that we apologize to Senator Hanson-Young." They echo the country's political leaders, who had already called on him to apologize. "It was clearly offensive, it should have been withdrawn and apologized for. It's not too late for him to do so now," Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told CNN affiliate 9News in early July. "All of us I suppose get carried away but when you make a mistake, fix it," former Prime Minister Tony Abbott told a Sydney radio station . "People should be better than that." Fighting for women Hanson-Young has pledged to donate any funds awarded in the lawsuit to women's empowerment organizations. "While the Federal Court cannot compel Senator Leyonhjelm to apologize, it does have the power to award damages in my favor which I pledge to donate to two very worthy organizations," she said in Thursday's statement, describing groups that work on gender equality and advocacy services for women.