'Call it out': senator alleges inappropriate behaviour
An independent senator wants people to call out inappropriate workplace behaviour after alleging a parliamentary colleague taunted her with insensitive comments.
Fatima Payman, who is Muslim and does not drink alcohol, was at a social event as part of parliamentary business when she says an older, male colleague made comments like "let's get some wine into you and see you dance on the table".
"I don't drink and I don't need to be made ... to feel left out because you do," she told ABC's Triple J radio station.
"I told this colleague, 'Hey, I'm drawing a line, mate', and moved on to making a formal complaint."
The former Labor senator quit the party over its stance on Palestine and sits in the upper house as an independent.
She said poor conduct shouldn't be brushed under the rug.
"If that something makes you feel uncomfortable, call it out and say 'yeah that wasn't cool'," Senator Payman said.
The issue has been escalated to the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service, a body established after staffer Brittany Higgins made public allegations about being raped in Parliament House by a colleague.
Senator Payman said the support service had taken care of her and she was happy with the swift handling of her complaint.
Independent senator Lidia Thorpe's complaint with the agency relating to sexual harassment allegations against Victorian senator David Van remains unresolved.
Senator Van denies the allegations and became an independent after quitting the Liberal Party in 2023.
His term will finish at the end of June as he wasn't re-elected at the May federal election.
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley said she read reports about Senator Payman's claims with "great concern".
"It is simply not good enough to have that behaviour take place in this building," she told reporters in Canberra.
"It is vital that reporting of events like this are a reminder to everybody that we must never take our eye off the ball when it comes to continuous improvement in the culture in this building."
The service managed 339 cases between 2023 and 2024, according to its most recent annual report.
Just under one in 10 cases related to rape and sexual assault, harassment, assault, sexual harassment, stalking or intimidation.
A similar proportion were about bullying, about one in five related to family and domestic violence, alcohol and drugs or mental health, while roughly one in four were over workplace conflict.
The vast majority were related to staff who help politicians carry out duties, but not for party political purposes, though 17 involved parliamentarians.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
An independent senator wants people to call out inappropriate workplace behaviour after alleging a parliamentary colleague taunted her with insensitive comments.
Fatima Payman, who is Muslim and does not drink alcohol, was at a social event as part of parliamentary business when she says an older, male colleague made comments like "let's get some wine into you and see you dance on the table".
"I don't drink and I don't need to be made ... to feel left out because you do," she told ABC's Triple J radio station.
"I told this colleague, 'Hey, I'm drawing a line, mate', and moved on to making a formal complaint."
The former Labor senator quit the party over its stance on Palestine and sits in the upper house as an independent.
She said poor conduct shouldn't be brushed under the rug.
"If that something makes you feel uncomfortable, call it out and say 'yeah that wasn't cool'," Senator Payman said.
The issue has been escalated to the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service, a body established after staffer Brittany Higgins made public allegations about being raped in Parliament House by a colleague.
Senator Payman said the support service had taken care of her and she was happy with the swift handling of her complaint.
Independent senator Lidia Thorpe's complaint with the agency relating to sexual harassment allegations against Victorian senator David Van remains unresolved.
Senator Van denies the allegations and became an independent after quitting the Liberal Party in 2023.
His term will finish at the end of June as he wasn't re-elected at the May federal election.
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley said she read reports about Senator Payman's claims with "great concern".
"It is simply not good enough to have that behaviour take place in this building," she told reporters in Canberra.
"It is vital that reporting of events like this are a reminder to everybody that we must never take our eye off the ball when it comes to continuous improvement in the culture in this building."
The service managed 339 cases between 2023 and 2024, according to its most recent annual report.
Just under one in 10 cases related to rape and sexual assault, harassment, assault, sexual harassment, stalking or intimidation.
A similar proportion were about bullying, about one in five related to family and domestic violence, alcohol and drugs or mental health, while roughly one in four were over workplace conflict.
The vast majority were related to staff who help politicians carry out duties, but not for party political purposes, though 17 involved parliamentarians.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
An independent senator wants people to call out inappropriate workplace behaviour after alleging a parliamentary colleague taunted her with insensitive comments.
Fatima Payman, who is Muslim and does not drink alcohol, was at a social event as part of parliamentary business when she says an older, male colleague made comments like "let's get some wine into you and see you dance on the table".
"I don't drink and I don't need to be made ... to feel left out because you do," she told ABC's Triple J radio station.
"I told this colleague, 'Hey, I'm drawing a line, mate', and moved on to making a formal complaint."
The former Labor senator quit the party over its stance on Palestine and sits in the upper house as an independent.
She said poor conduct shouldn't be brushed under the rug.
"If that something makes you feel uncomfortable, call it out and say 'yeah that wasn't cool'," Senator Payman said.
The issue has been escalated to the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service, a body established after staffer Brittany Higgins made public allegations about being raped in Parliament House by a colleague.
Senator Payman said the support service had taken care of her and she was happy with the swift handling of her complaint.
Independent senator Lidia Thorpe's complaint with the agency relating to sexual harassment allegations against Victorian senator David Van remains unresolved.
Senator Van denies the allegations and became an independent after quitting the Liberal Party in 2023.
His term will finish at the end of June as he wasn't re-elected at the May federal election.
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley said she read reports about Senator Payman's claims with "great concern".
"It is simply not good enough to have that behaviour take place in this building," she told reporters in Canberra.
"It is vital that reporting of events like this are a reminder to everybody that we must never take our eye off the ball when it comes to continuous improvement in the culture in this building."
The service managed 339 cases between 2023 and 2024, according to its most recent annual report.
Just under one in 10 cases related to rape and sexual assault, harassment, assault, sexual harassment, stalking or intimidation.
A similar proportion were about bullying, about one in five related to family and domestic violence, alcohol and drugs or mental health, while roughly one in four were over workplace conflict.
The vast majority were related to staff who help politicians carry out duties, but not for party political purposes, though 17 involved parliamentarians.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
An independent senator wants people to call out inappropriate workplace behaviour after alleging a parliamentary colleague taunted her with insensitive comments.
Fatima Payman, who is Muslim and does not drink alcohol, was at a social event as part of parliamentary business when she says an older, male colleague made comments like "let's get some wine into you and see you dance on the table".
"I don't drink and I don't need to be made ... to feel left out because you do," she told ABC's Triple J radio station.
"I told this colleague, 'Hey, I'm drawing a line, mate', and moved on to making a formal complaint."
The former Labor senator quit the party over its stance on Palestine and sits in the upper house as an independent.
She said poor conduct shouldn't be brushed under the rug.
"If that something makes you feel uncomfortable, call it out and say 'yeah that wasn't cool'," Senator Payman said.
The issue has been escalated to the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service, a body established after staffer Brittany Higgins made public allegations about being raped in Parliament House by a colleague.
Senator Payman said the support service had taken care of her and she was happy with the swift handling of her complaint.
Independent senator Lidia Thorpe's complaint with the agency relating to sexual harassment allegations against Victorian senator David Van remains unresolved.
Senator Van denies the allegations and became an independent after quitting the Liberal Party in 2023.
His term will finish at the end of June as he wasn't re-elected at the May federal election.
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley said she read reports about Senator Payman's claims with "great concern".
"It is simply not good enough to have that behaviour take place in this building," she told reporters in Canberra.
"It is vital that reporting of events like this are a reminder to everybody that we must never take our eye off the ball when it comes to continuous improvement in the culture in this building."
The service managed 339 cases between 2023 and 2024, according to its most recent annual report.
Just under one in 10 cases related to rape and sexual assault, harassment, assault, sexual harassment, stalking or intimidation.
A similar proportion were about bullying, about one in five related to family and domestic violence, alcohol and drugs or mental health, while roughly one in four were over workplace conflict.
The vast majority were related to staff who help politicians carry out duties, but not for party political purposes, though 17 involved parliamentarians.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
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'Surely if you loved them (her in-laws) you would have notified health authorities about the possibility of the foraged mushrooms in the container?' Dr Rogers asked. 'Well I didn't,' Ms Patterson replied. 'I had been told people were getting treatment for possible death cap mushroom poisoning so that was already happening.' Ms Patterson confirmed she did not notify anyone of her suspicions and lied to both police and health authorities in the following days by claiming she did not forage for mushrooms. She was taken to a series of messages exchanged with public health officer Sally Anne Atkinson, where Ms Patterson insisted the only mushrooms in the meal were from Woolworths and an Asian grocer. Asked what her state of mind was in relation to the Asian grocer, she said she 'still thought it was a possibility, but I knew it wasn't the only possibility.' Ms Patterson told the court she first learned of Heather and Gail's deaths as police searched her home on August 5 and continued to lie. 'It was this stupid knee-jerk reaction to just dig deeper and keep lying. I was just scared, but I shouldn't have done it,' she said. Ms Patterson claims she vomited after deadly lunch Ms Patterson also told the jury she had long struggled with both her weight and relationships to food since childhood – describing it as a 'rollercoaster'. 'Mum would weigh us every week to make sure we weren't putting on too much weight … I went to the extreme of barely eating then to, through my adulthood, going the other way and bingeing,' she said. She told the court she had engaged in binge eating until she was sick then 'bringing it back up' since her 20s and no one knew. In the lead up to the July 29, 2023, lunch, Ms Patterson said she had been engaging in this behaviour 'two or three times a week'. She told the court that at the lunch with Don, Gail, Heather and Ian, she only ate some of her serving, but consumed about two-thirds of an orange cake after her guests left. 'I had a piece of cake and then another piece of cake and then another,' Ms Patterson said. 'I felt sick. I felt overfull, so I went to the toilets and brought it back up again.' Ms Patterson is expected to return to the witness box and continue giving evidence when the trial resumes on Tuesday.
