Politics

Sarah Hanson-Young slams Peta Credlin ‘slut-shaming’ over Abbott rumours

Oct 02, 2018

Hanson-Young apologised for not speaking out sooner about the treatment of Peta Credlin. Source: ABC/Getty.

During her time as Tony Abbott’s chief of staff Peta Credlin was the subject of many rumours about her relationship with the former prime minister, but now Sarah Hanson-Young has slammed the way in which the Sky Sports political commentator was “slut-shamed” in Canberra.

Appearing on the ABC‘s Q&A programme on Monday night, Hanson-Young revealed her regret over not speaking out in Credlin’s defence at the time, admitting she has since apologised to the 48-year-old former public servant.

“At the time, I regret not calling it out and defending her more then,” the Greens senator said. “I have since said I’m sorry to her. I think this is something that affects a lot of people. Calling it out breaks the silence and breaks the power.”

Senator Hanson-Young said Credlin had “copped it more than most” when it came to sexism in parliament, adding: “The things that were said about her, if she had been a bloke as chief of staff in the prime minister’s office it never would have been said.”

Credlin, who has been married to Brian Loughnane since 2002, strongly denied the rumours that she was having an affair with Abbott, telling The Australian in 2016 the claims were “completely false, utterly untrue, unfounded and wrong.”

.@sarahinthesen8 discusses the power of the term 'slut shaming' #QandA pic.twitter.com/PO5DxNYxcS

— QandA (@QandA) October 1, 2018

Hanson-Young went on to discuss why she refers to this type of treatment as “slut shaming”, saying: “It is confronting [but] there is no better description of how this is used to disempower woman.

“The power of slut-shaming itself is that yes it is hard to name, it has this incredible power of silencing the victim because the moment you name it, there is something, even just a little bit, where people go ‘maybe she is a slut’, ‘maybe that did happen’.

“That is the power of that type of intimidation, rumour and innuendo. It’s used as a weapon.”

Earlier this year, the South Australian senator called out fellow Senator David Leyonhjelm over sexist comments he made to her in chamber, claiming he told her to “stop shagging men” during a debate about the issuing of non-lethal weapons to women as a way of preventing sexual attacks.

Back in June, Hanson-Young, 36, labelled him a “creep” and admitted she was “disappointed” that he had refused to apologise. She told the Senate: “Earlier today, during the motion relating to violence against women, Senator Leyonhjelm yelled an offensive and sexist slur at me from across the chamber. After the vote on the motion was complete, I walked over to the senator and confronted him directly.

“I asked whether I had heard him correctly. He confirmed that he had yelled, ‘You should stop shagging men, Sarah.’ Shocked, I told him that he was a creep. His reply was to tell me to ‘f… off’. I informed the leader of the Greens, and he has raised it with both Senator Leyonhjelm and the President.”

In the weeks that followed, the two senators continued their feud, with Hanson-Young eventually lodging a defamation case against Leyonhjelm in August.