Question Time - Brittany Higgins

Anika Wells MP: My question is for the Prime Minister. Today Brittany Higgins said: "…the media exposed a long list of people who knew about what had happened to me, a list that seemed to grow by the day…"

How can the Prime Minister maintain that he didn't know about a reported sexual assault just metres from his office for nearly two years, when so many other people inside this government knew and when Malcolm Turnbull, Peta Credlin and Julie Bishop all say it is implausible that the Prime Minister didn't know?

Prime Minister Scott Morrison: I could say that I wasn't aware of this until 12 February because it is true. That is the simple truth of the matter. We have already heard today in reports that have been printed on news.com of any number of what seem to be events that may have occurred in relation to members opposite that they apparently don't know. I can simply say this about these
very sensitive matters. They are sensitive matters and they are traumatic matters. We see that evidenced in the great frustration and, indeed, anger that is outside of this place today and in so many other places. That is genuine and it's accepted. But, in this place, if we are to take successful action to address the very issues that are being raised, then the way that that is achieved is not by the political weaponisation of these things but by dealing with them honestly and sincerely and together, and I would invite the opposition to take that course rather than the alternative, which seems to be the approach that they are going down. People in this place live in glass houses.