Blue Mountains Labor MP Trish Doyle said she has been inundated with support since she broke ranks last week and called for Luke Foley to resign as NSW Labor leader.
Ms Doyle went public with her resignation call before Mr Foley announced himself that he would quit the role after allegations –which he has strongly denied – that he sexually harassed ABC journalist Ashleigh Raper by putting his hands down the back of her underpants during a parliamentary staff Christmas party nearly two years ago.
“I made the decision to call upon Mr Foley to resign his leadership or face a leadership spill motion because in the hours after Ms Raper came forward with her statement it became clear to me that nobody knew where the Opposition Leader was or what he intended to say when he eventually emerged,” Ms Doyle told the Gazette. “At the time I issued that ultimatum, there was no indication he would step down or even face the media that day.
“In the stunned silence which followed the publication of her statement, I also thought it was important for Ms Raper – as well as women throughout the community – to know there were Labor politicians who believed her and who would stand up for her.”
Ms Doyle said the response since then has been overwhelming.
“Over the weekend I received hundreds of emails, messages and social media comments from across the country, as well as phone calls to the office on Monday morning from as far away as Perth. All of these people, women and men alike, are united in the view that it is simply unacceptable for women to feel unsafe because of pervasive behaviour like this by men and that it is made all the worse that women often feel they won’t be believed or taken seriously when they make a complaint,” she said.
Ms Doyle praised new Labor leader Michael Daly as “an engaging and charismatic person who will be able to sell Labor’s policy agenda to the community”.
“In the four years I’ve been working with him in Parliament I have found him to be genuinely interested and concerned about the issues I’ve raised with him. Politics is often crowded out by big egos who can’t see beyond themselves, so the cooperative and consultative qualities which Michael brings to the leadership will make a huge difference to the Labor Opposition,” she said.
