Liberal MP Julia Banks has announced she will not contest the next election after “bullying and intimidation”. She said last week’s Liberal leadership spill was the “last straw”, and argued she would always put Australia’s national interests before internal political games and certain media personalities bearing vindictive, mean-spirited grudges.
Ms Banks supported Malcolm Turnbull as prime minister throughout last week’s leadership spill, which saw him and deputy leader Julie Bishop replaced by Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg on Friday.
In a statement, Ms Banks said she had received calls from her constituents saying they wanted Mr Turnbull to remain prime minister and Ms Bishop to remain as deputy and foreign minister.
“So did I,” she wrote.
“I have always listened to the people who elected me and put Australia’s national interest before internal political games.
“Last week’s events were the last straw.”
After Mr Turnbull was rolled on Friday, Ms Banks described him as “one of the greatest leaders this country has ever seen” and described the importance of loyalty within federal politics.
Mr Turnbull, speaking on his day as prime minister, called out the “determined insurgency from a number of people both in the party room and backed by powerful voices in the media” who had sought to destabilise him.
“The people who chose Peter Dutton and Tony Abbott, who chose to deliberately attack the Government from within, they did so because they wanted to bring the Government down. They wanted to bring my prime ministership down,” he said.
Other members of the Liberal Party have spoken out this week about being targeted by conservatives looking to push the party further to the right.
Explaining her decision to move away from politics, Ms Banks said she had experienced bullying and intimidation from within her own party and from the Opposition.
“The people of Chisholm know that I say what I think. They know that I will always call out bad behaviour and will not tolerate any form of bullying or intimidation,” she said.
“I have experienced this both from within my own party and from the Labor Party.”
The Victorian narrowly won the seat of Chisholm from Labor at the last election, and was the only Liberal candidate in that election to take a seat from Labor.
After recent electoral redistribution, the seat of Chisholm has become more safe for the Liberal Party, with a margin of 3.4 per cent. ABC
