Australia PM Scott Morrison on Tuesday said that he welcomes the spotlight put on 'rubbish and crap' women have put up with for their entire lives and said he was 'very open' to the idea of quotas to recruit more women into the Liberal Party to run for the parliament.
Morrison also said he was disgusted by the latest sex scandal to rock his government.
In February, a woman said she was raped in the parliament by a colleague. Morrison apologised for how the complaint was handled and promised an investigation into the government's workplace culture.
A Coalition staffer was sacked on Monday night for filming himself performing a sex act on a female Liberal MP’s desk.
Identities of other staff who shared pictures and videos of themselves performing lewd acts in the Parliament on a Facebook Messenger group as reported by Ten News will be ousted, said Morrison. Ten News carried the report based on a tip-off from an anonymous whistle-blower. Morrison in the meanwhile also asked the media to be careful while reporting the government's handling of reported instances of sexual misconduct at Parliament House.
“I'm shocked and I'm disgusted. It's just absolutely shameful,” Morrison told AP. “I was completely stunned, as I have been on more than one occasion over the course of this last month,” he added.
“There has never been a more important time for women to stand in this place. I want to see more women in this place, I have done many things to get more women in this place and I intend to do more,” Morrison said.
The prime minister also said he expected compulsory harassment and misconduct training to be introduced in the Parliament and an independent complaint mechanism for staff who are sexually harassed.
