David Van quits the Liberal party after being hit with sexual assault allegations

Under-fire senator David Van has unleashed on the Liberals as he quits the party following accusations of inappropriate behaviour towards women in parliament. 

Mr Van said he quit the party ‘effective immediately’ following a ‘disregard for due process and natural justice in relation to allegations made against me’. 

In a letter addressed to Greg Mirabella, the president of the Victorian division of the Liberal Party, the senator reiterated that he denied the allegations. 

‘I cannot remain a member of a party that tramples upon the very premise of which our justice system is predicated,’ Mr Van wrote. 

‘This is a travesty of justice and I reiterate that I deny the accusations made against me. 

‘I resign also acknowledging the cruel irony of doing so amidst public discourse about the weaponisation of allegations and the role of the rule of law which has at its centre the presumption of innocence.’

The senator said he was ‘deeply distressed and hurt’ that he had not been afforded procedural fairness in relation to these claims. 

He thanked the ‘hundreds’ of Liberal party members who had supported him over the last week and said he was grateful for their ‘belief in my honesty and integrity’. 

‘I have worked tirelessly for the Party and fought hard for its beliefs over many years. 

‘I will continue to fight for what I thought were the Party’s values – just not under its banner.’

Senator Lidia Thorpe and former LNP senator Amanda Stoker this week came forward with accusations Mr Van had inappropriately touched them in previous years. He has denied the allegations. 

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, who took steps to remove Mr Van from the Liberal party room on Thursday, confirmed he was aware of further allegations beyond Ms Stoker and Ms Thorpe. 

‘I made a decision yesterday based on all of the information that was available to me… that’s a decision I don’t regret at all,’ he told the Today Show on Friday. 

‘I believe it is in the best interests of the Liberal Party and that’s what I have acted upon and I don’t want Senator Van sitting in our party room. I have made that clear.’

Mr Van then issued a statement on Friday stating his ‘good reputation’ had been ‘wantonly savaged without due process or accountability’.

‘I am utterly shattered by the events of the past days,’ he said. 

‘I will fully cooperate with whatever process Mr Dutton proposes to determine these matters as quickly and fairly as possible.’ 

It comes after Sky News host and former senator Amanda Stoker hit out at Mr Van after he claimed to have ‘no recollection’ of squeezing her bottom twice during an informal drinks.

Ms Stoker, who was a Queensland Liberal National senator from 2018 until 2022, urged women not to ‘take any s***’ during an editorial on Sky News on Friday. 

Ms Stoker alleged on Thursday evening that Liberal senator Mr Van had groped her twice at an informal gathering in a parliamentary office in November 2020. 

She said the senator’s public denial of her groping claims had validated her decision to come forward, after Lidia Thorpe on Wednesday told the Senate Mr Van had sexually harassed and assaulted her. 

‘Ladies, don’t put up with behaviour that you don’t deserve. Don’t take s**t,’ Ms Stoker told viewers on Friday evening.

‘Now, I am not out to make this a bigger deal than it is. I am not scarred for life and I am not out to get anyone.

‘I never wanted this to be public. But I’m also not about to cover it up.’

Ms Stoker said despite ‘burying the hatchet’ with Mr Van she felt compelled to speak about her own alleged experience after she was contacted by journalists. 

‘Senator Van apologised to me and said I could be confident he wouldn’t behave that way in the future. I accepted his apology and got on with the job,’ she continued. 

‘Senator Van is right to say that he and I buried the hatchet. We were able to work constructively. He didn’t repeat the behaviour.

‘I’ve even interviewed him on this channel recently. I am a professional and I don’t hold a grudge.’

In light of Lidia Thorpe’s allegations in the Senate on Wednesday – in which she said under parliamentary privilege that Mr Van was a ‘perpetrator’ – Ms Stoker felt it was ‘no longer tenable’ to remain silent about her own alleged experience. 

Ms Stoker said Mr Van acted inappropriately toward her ‘by squeezing my bottom twice. By its nature and repetition, it was not accidental’. 

She informed a senior female colleague of the alleged incident but did not feel the need to take it any further, confident the matter had been dealt with.

Mr Van said he had no memory of having had such an encounter with Ms Stoker, but that they had had a ‘frank and open’ discussion about her recollection of the evening at the time. 

On Wednesday, Ms Thorpe tearfully told parliament she had been harassed and assaulted when she arrived in 2020.

She said parliament ‘was not a safe place for women’. ‘You are often alone in long corridors, with no windows, in stairwells hidden from view where there are no cameras.’

Ms Thorpe never spoke publicly about her alleged experiences, which she said happened around the time Brittany Higgins came forward with rape allegations, to avoid taking focus off that case. 

Instead, she placed her faith in the Liberal Party that her complaint was being taken seriously. 

Ms Thorpe said she has no intentions of taking the complaint to the police.

She said there are ‘different understandings of what amounts to sexual assault’ and that when she raised her complaint with the government of the day – the Coalition – ‘it was recognised as such’.

‘I was afraid to walk out of the office door. I would open it slightly and make sure the coast was clear before stepping out,’ she said. ‘I had to be accompanied by someone – that is how the Greens supported me and I thank them for that.’

Ms Thorpe told the Senate she was sure the then prime minister Scott Morrison had been informed. He said in a statement on Wednesday he did not recall if this was the case. 

‘I was convinced the government believed me… my faith in the Liberal Party was not the right decision,’ Ms Thorpe said.

‘Until yesterday, I thought they took the issue seriously.’

Ms Thorpe said she was prompted to speak out on Wednesday when Mr Van ‘had the gall to stand up in parliament’ to address the handling of Ms Higgins’ complaint in parliament this week. 

She will not pursue legal action or go to police, but vowed to ‘continue to speak out against the abuse and harassment that happens in this building’.

‘That is my choice. I want to focus on making this place safe for everyone,’ she added.

‘And at this moment, it is not a safe place for women and I call on the government to immediately increase the number of security guards in the building and cameras in the corridors and to consult women who work here on what measures can and should be taken.’