Liberal MP Julia Banks has stunned the government, announcing she’s immediately quit the party and will sit as an independent on the crossbench, cutting the coalition’s numbers even further.
Ms Banks, had earlier announced she won’t re-contest the next election, after making serious allegations of bullying and intimidation during the leadership crisis that saw Malcolm Turnbull overthrown.
The dramatic announcement, in the House of Representatives, came out of the blue, as the Prime Minister was holding a media conference.
It has left the Government with just 74 MPs, after losing Mr Turnbull’s seat of Wentworth to Independent, Kerryn Phelps.
It’s thrown the government into turmoil, and cast a giant shadow over the future of Home Affairs Minister, Peter Dutton, with speculation Ms Banks, no friend of the minister, would support a motion to have him referred to the High Court over his eligibility to sit in Parliament.
Ms Banks, the member for the marginal Victorian seat of Chisholm, said she would back the government on supply, and would not support any no confidence motion.
She told the House the leadership coup was “brutal” and carried out by the “reactionary right wing” for “personal ambition and power” and “not the Australian people”.
“The aftermath of those dark days in August then acutely laid bare the major parties’ obstructionist and competitive actions and internal games, or political point scoring, rather than timely, practical, sensible decisions on matters which Australians care about,” Ms Banks said.
“Equal representation of men and women in this parliament is an urgent imperative, which will create a cultural change. There is a blinkered rejection of quotas and support of the merit myth, that is more a numbers game.
“Across both major parties, the level of regard and respect for women in politics is years behind the business world. Often, when good women call out, or are subjected to bad behaviour, the reprisals, backlash and commentary portrays them as the bad ones.
“The liar, the troublemaker, the emotionally unstable or weak, or someone who should be silenced.”
She said hundreds from her electorate, and across the country, had contacted her, expressing their support.
“My sensible centrist values, belief in economic responsibility and focus on always putting the people first and acting in the nation’s interests haven’t change,” she said.
“The Liberal Party has changed, largely due to the actions of the reactionary and regressive right wing who talk about themselves, rather than listening to the people.”
She said she would make a decision about her future in the New Year, not ruling out contesting the seat as an independent.
