Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has promised significant cultural change to improve the treatment of women in the parliament.
Morrison on Tuesday announced in Canberra that he would address every government staffer to discuss the mistreatment of women in the Parliament House.
It comes after a staffer was fired on Monday night after allegedly engaging in a lewd act on the desk of a female member of parliament (MP). The government has launched an investigation into fellow staffers who allegedly swapped images and videos filmed at the Parliament House.
Morrison, who has faced criticism of his handling of rape allegations against a former staffer and the historical rape allegation denied by Attorney-General Christian Porter, said he was "shocked" and "disgusted" by the reports.
"I am shocked and I am disgusted. It is shameful. It is just absolutely shameful," he told reporters in the press conference while fighting back tears.
"We must get this house in order. We must put the politics aside of these things and we must recognize this problem, acknowledge it, and we must fix it.
"These events have triggered, right across this building, and indeed right across the country, women who have put up with this rubbish and this crap for their entire lives, as their mothers did, as their grandmothers did."
Morrison said he was "open" to a discussion about quotas for female representation in the Liberal Party after Industry Minister Karen Andrews said it was time for "serious considerations."
At the press conference, when asked about whether he had lost control of the ministerial staff, Morrison said that "no one individual" can be overwatch on every single inch of this place every second of the day.
"What I am held accountable is what I do now and that is what I am outlining to you today. So you are free to make your criticisms and to stand on that pedestal but be careful," he said. (/Xinhua)
( With inputs from ANI )
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