The list of women that have publicly accused Scott Morrison of bullying them and/or causing them mental health issues grew by another one during the week, former Liberal Party MP Julia Banks, and Scott Morrison hasn’t been seen publicly since. The total number of women claiming that Scott Morrison has directly or indirectly acted in a bullying or inappropriate manner now totals at least four this year alone, including but not limited to, Brittany Higgins, Grace Tame, Christine Holgate and Julia Banks.

What former Liberal Party MP Julia Banks said by itself is not that surpsrising but the power of it is that it is also very similar to the allegations made by Brittany Higgins regarding Scott Morrison’s office backgrounding journalists with lies against her.

On the ABC’s 7:30 Report on Monday (5/7/21) Julia Banks said:

LAURA TINGLE: So we move then to the leadership coup in 2018 against Malcolm Turnbull. Can you tell us about your interactions with the Prime Minister and also with Josh Frydenberg as the senior Victorian in the Cabinet?

JULIA BANKS: So I didn’t vote for Scott Morrison and on the Monday after the coup I made the decision that I was not going to recontest the next election.

I tried to contact Morrison directly, based on my corporate background, I was trying to manage the communications as you would when you leave any job. So you tell family, friends, people who, your supporters etc, and I wanted to get a message to Morrison.

I had given them quite a bit of notice and a couple of days’ notice and eventually I was at the point where I literally had flowers and chocolates in my car, I was driving to my office to share the news with my staff who had guessed that, pretty much guessed it anyway and Morrison called and he said straight away, “Julia, you can’t do this. You can’t do this statement now. You have to delay it a couple of months.”

And I said, “Well, Scott, I’m going now. I’m not delaying it a couple of months.”

“Well, at least wait until the next sitting week.”

And I said, “No, Scott, I can’t lie to my staff, my constituents, my family. I’m going to make this announcement now.”

And he said, he was getting really angry with me and because he then said, look, he’d just sworn his ministry in and he said, “Look, not this time.” He was implying that I would get a ministry come the next round and I said, “Scott, it is not about that, I’m just announcing that I’m not going to recontest the next election and that I will support you and Josh and the new candidate and that’s what was all in my statement.”

And he was getting really frustrated because I just wasn’t taking any of these offers and he said, “Julia, I am the Prime Minister.” And I remember thinking, I think I said something along the lines of, “I know who you are, Scott.”

Ande said, “Look, just give me 24 hours.” I said, “Alright, okay, 24 hours, fine.”

And that was my first mistake because I’m told afterwards that the PMO’s Office, the Prime Minister’s Office for which, obviously, Morrison is accountable, were backgrounding the press and others, certainly within the party, that I had had a complete sort of emotional breakdown, I had not coped with the coup and don’t go near her and that was the way they were being backgrounded.

And I just sort of got wind of this later but come the 21-hour mark I think it was, early that morning, the story was starting to leak so I issued the statement because I wanted to get ahead of the story leaking, my statement leaking. I wanted to be the one the one to announce it and then Morrison rang me and he said, “You agreed on 24 hours.” He was a bit cross about that and I said the story was leaking.

And then he said, “Well, I’ll tell you what we’ll do, I’ll come to your electorate and we’ll do a press conference together,” and I said, “No, no, Scott, I’m take a few days leave.” It was the last thing I felt like doing and he said, “Well, do me a favour, do not speak to the media. Don’t do any interviews.”

And I agreed to that and that was my second mistake because this backgrounding had been going on and then his first press conference, he was asked how do you feel about Julia Banks not recontesting? And I remember watching the television and thinking, “What’s he saying?” He said, “All I’m doing right now is checking in with Julia, making sure she’s okay. All that matters at the moment is Julia’s welfare in what has been a really torrid time for her”.

So this whole narrative which is what he’s very good at, controlling the narrative, and this whole narrative about me being this weak petal that hadn’t coped with coup week and that’s the reason I was leaving was the narrative that they had created and that he was complicit, absolutely complicit in when he did that first presser. (Click here to read more)

Below is ABC’s 7:30 Report full interview with Julia Banks:

Alleged parliament house rape victim Brittany Higgins said Scott Morrison’s office backgrounded against her partner, who previously worked in Morrison’s office, telling journalists lies about her partner. Morrison set up a dodgy inquiry which said it could not substantiate whether the backgrounding took place, but Morrison told parliament his office was cleared which was a another lie.

There was no direct allegation Morrison was involved in the backgrounding regarding Brittany Higgins’ partner but with Julia Banks there is a direct allegation that Morrison was involved and Morrison “controlling the narrative” at a press conference which makes it hard to believe he was not involved with backgrounding against Brittany Higgins partner as well.

There is now a strong prima facie case, that is getting stronger by the day, to charge Scott Morrison with the cover-up of the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins. Some of the possible charges would be attempting to conceal a serious indictable offence and interfering in a police investigation etc.

It makes me wonder how Scott Morrison treats his own wife behind closed doors given she has publicly said she has suffered from depression. Does Morrison also bully his wife?

Jenny Morrison is quoted as saying:

“I suffered and didn’t know why’: Jenny Morrison reveals she needed treatment for depression as she cared for young daughters while husband Scott ‘wasn’t around” (Click here to read more)

It is no longer one or two people making allegations against Prime Minister Scott Morrison, it is at least 4 women, and there should be an inquiry into Mr Morrison’s conduct which is what would happen at most organisations. When you look at the numerous complaints against Scott Morrison it’s not hard to understand why he protects and covers up for the many predators in parliament such as Barnaby Joyce, Christian Porter and Andrew Laming.

Update: The Christian Porter v ABC interlocutory hearing on 9th of July 2021 will start at 10.15am. I will be a party to the matter which is being heard via video link. It is regarding the suppression orders and the removal of evidence from the court file applications. The link for the public to watch live is here: (Click here to watch)

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