ETA: Patooka beat me to it, so this post is pretty much redundant.
For bit more context:
The deputy prime minister had an affair with a staffer, which came to light in 2018 after he got her pregnant and his wife kicked him out. (Yes, he also campaigns on "family values".) This led Turnbull, the (now former) PM to introduce a ban on sexual relations between MPs and their staff, known as the "bonk ban". The staffer was given a high-paying, do-nothing job in another minister's office. This was the public's first insight into the fact that people were screwing around in minister's offices.
In 2021 another cabinet minister's staffer laid a report of rape against another staffer, which the minister, Reynolds, then tried to suppress. There is a rumour that the government paid the victim hush money. Reynolds has also been forced to publicly apologise for calling the victim a "lying cow". PM Morrison claimed to have no knowledge of the accusation, which is almost certainly a lie, and attempted to throw Reynolds under the bus by claiming she never told him about it. Morrison also claimed that he only decided to launch an investigation into the rape after his wife told him to imagine that his daughter was the victim.
A woman recently accused the now Attorney General of raping her in 1988. While the case is virtually impossible to investigate, since the woman also committed suicide, the government's response to the accusation has been bizarre. Morrison claimed to have referred the case to the AFP and claimed that they were handling it, despite the fact that the case doesn't fall within their jurisdiction. (It should have been referred to the state police.) The PM declared the matter settled after he had a chat with the AG, who said he didn't do it. Morrison did not even read the account sent to him by the now-dead accuser.
This latest bit of news seems a bit silly in comparison, but as part of the bigger picture, it is more evidence that parliament and ministerial offices are not a safe place for women to work. Male ministers think its OK to pursue sexual relations with staffer despite the power imbalance; both male and female MPs will try to cover up a rape. Male staffers are playing a game where they masturbate on a female MP's desk and send the images to their friends, and routinely swap explicit photos of themselves.
