The heated moment you missed on The Project: PM Scott Morrison's fiery exchange with Hamish Macdonald
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has refused to back allegations of bullying against female MPs during the leadership spill, instead saying that both men and women were subjected to “a lot of pressure” during the chaos.
During his first appearance on The Project, host Hamish Macdonald repeatedly and directly asked if he accepted claims made by female Liberals that they were bullied during the spill.
The PM prevaricated before Macdonald asked him to answer the “yes or no” question.
"I believe there was a lot of pressure, that it was applied over a very intense period, okay?" Morrison said.
He said Australian politics had been "ferocious" and "tough" but he would not describe any behaviour as bullying or intimidation.
"When those ballots are conducted, both men and women are subject to a lot of pressure when they're making these decisions," he said.
"Now the curtain has come down on that and, frankly, Australians don't want to be talking about how we feel about our jobs because our job is to focus on what they feel."
We speak to PM @ScottMorrisonMP about his views on the au pair case, whether bullying occurred during the leadership spill and a young trans kid shares her story with the PM. #auspol #TheProjectTV pic.twitter.com/caN3VQiN8z
— The Project (@theprojecttv) September 6, 2018
Despite the Prime Minister wanting the party to move on from the internal fallout over the ousting of Malcolm Turnbull, the claims of bullying have continued to build as more and more Liberal women make allegations public.
Julie Bishop used her first speech since losing the deputy leadership and foreign ministry to call out at the "appalling behaviour" in Canberra.
Victorian backbencher Julia Banks said she was resigning from parliament after having suffered "bullying and intimidation".
The Minister for Women, Kelly O'Dwyer, has also alleged bullying, as has Linda Reynolds, a senator for Western Australia.
None of the women have provided specific examples or who was involved but South Australian senator Lucy Guichui has vowed to use parliamentary privilege to name the alleged perpetrators.