A key minister has revealed she will be unable to attend a major speech by Brittany Higgins or a formal acknowledgement of alleged sexual assaults in parliament.
Ms Higgins alleges she was sexually assaulted by another staff member inside the office of cabinet minister Linda Reynolds in 2019.
Senator Reynolds was later forced to pay compensation and apologise after calling Ms Higgins a “lying cow” the day she went public last year.
Ms Higgins will attend a formal acknowledgement of alleged sexual assaults and harassment in Parliament House on Tuesday.
Then on Wednesday, she will deliver a National Press Club speech alongside Grace Tame.
Senator Reynolds has confirmed she will miss both events after testing positive for Covid-19 in Tasmania.
The minister will miss the entire sitting week.
Senator Reynolds is not the only high profile politician who will miss the press club speech.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he did not have time to watch the major address.
Ms Tame and Ms Higgins will front the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday after months of highly publicised criticism of the Prime Minister and his government’s lack of action on women’s issues.
Ahead of parliament’s return on Tuesday, Mr Morrison was asked if he would be one of the many MPs carving out time to listen to xjmtzywthe advocates but conceded he wouldn’t have the time to tune in.
“It’s going to be a busy week,” he told reporters in Canberra.
“I don’t get the opportunity to listen to all these speeches, but I’ll certainly ensure I am aware of what they’ve said.
“I am certainly … very interested in the contribution they have made. I think the contribution they have made has brought forward some very important issues that we’ve had to deal with and we should deal with and were long overdue.”
His concession follows reports the government was applying pressure to Liberal backbenchers not to attend the event over fear it could embarrass the government.
“There’s no trust in us (MPs), so it can’t be reciprocated,” a backbencher told AAP.
“The Prime Minister can’t have it both ways. (Scott Morrison) can’t say he doesn’t trust us to act in the interest of the party and the government and listen to (concerns) about an important issue in parliament and the country.”
Asked if there had been discouragement from the Prime Minister’s office not to attend, Tasmanian Liberal MP Bridget Archer said it had not occurred to her but stopped short of denying reports altogether.
“Certainly not to me, because … I don’t actually have a ticket at the moment. I’m on a waitlist,” she said.
The Prime Minister’s office has denied the claims, with a spokesman indicating as long as the MPs were paired and could meet their duties in parliament, they were free to attend.
Allocating a pair is the process of pairing up absent MPs and senators to preserve the voting strength of each party.
But manager of opposition business Tony Burke on Tuesday morning said no such requests had been made to the opposition whips.
“The government haven’t requested any extra (pairs). If they do, of course we give them,” he told ABC RN.
“It’s the same approach that we had when the Match for Justice was at the front of the building. This is not a moment where we want anything other than people being able to attend.”
