An Australian senator had a fitting response to several members of the country’s parliament who made sexist remarks about her. In a powerful speech, Sarah Hanson-Young called out Queensland Liberal National Party member Barry O’Sullivan for making a crude joke about her.
O’Sullivan had earlier remarked in a seeming double entendre that Hanson-Young had “a bit of Nick Xenophon in her,” referring to a former Australian senator. The Guardian shared a video (above) of Hanson-Young’s fiery speech, in which she also addressed Senators Cory Bernardi and David Leyonhjelm and said they were not fit to represent their constituents and call themselves men in light of their sexist behaviour.
Writing about the incident in an article for Junkee on Thursday, Hanson-Young said: “I was angry because I am sick of being targeted by some men in my workplace who, rather than debating ideas with polices, reason and fact, resort to personal insults and sexualised taunts.”
Leader of the Greens party, Richard Di Natale also spoke out against O’Sullivan’s comments, called him a “pig” and said women in his party had endured “days of sexist filth coming from that man”. After the spat, O’Sullivan withdrew his comments while Di Natale refused to and was asked to leave the chamber.
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