It’s hard to know what’s worse in this week’s developing story exposing, once again, the Liberal party’s problem with women. A story that also highlights, once again, why high-profile women don’t immediately report the harassment or abuse they experience.
Is it that a Liberal upper house MP didn’t just voice some of the most disgusting and degrading comments about women imaginable, but that he actually put them in writing and texted them to the subject of his vile disapproval?
Or is it that 2GB’s Ben Fordham took it upon himself to name the female Liberal MP at the centre of the complaint? A high-profile woman in the Liberal party who had made a confidential complaint about alleged sexual harassment and abuse to her party, and believed that the process would be confidential.
Former federal MP Lucy Wicks has now confirmed in a statement that she is the complainant in the investigation by the party into the long stream of abusive text messages.
She shared on social media that she was “distressed” to have been named on radio and outlined the fear she felt about speaking up, as well as more detail on the “demeaning, degrading, and abusive” messages she says she received over five years.
“I was continually exposed to highly aggressive barrages of verbal abuse, which included threats to destroy my reputation if I spoke up,” Wicks wrote.
“I am beyond distressed that I have had to disclose even a small portion of these details. I sought to create a confidential process that would enable natural justice and provide me with safety as I navigate this process.
The texts, alleged to have been sent by Taylor Martin, are so vile they require a warning on the explicities within them.
Sources who have seen the texts say they call Wicks pretty much every standard demeaning term you can think of, from “dumb slut” to “pig” and “fucking idiot”.
The Herald reports seeing one text message that read, “Go stay in your world of fucking make believe you fucking pig ignorant bitch.” The Herald also shares screenshots of the text messages with explicit warnings.
Wicks served as a Federal member for the NSW Central Coast seat of Robinson for almost ten years until 2022. She has previously backed quotas for Liberal women, and has spoken generally about some of the issues that she has “faced in my own life” when promoting the need to ensure more women are heard in politics.
The messages Wicks received raise serious concerns about culture in the Liberal party when it comes to the treatment of women. How does an individual who can think and write such comments reach the top of a party’s upper house ticket? How does a party promote individuals who hold such views into positions of power that ultimately give them a say on legislation affecting women’s lives?
Taylor Martin, who became the youngest person in state parliament in 2017 when he was appointed to an upper house seat by the Liberal party, has removed himself from the Liberal party room while the independent investigation continues. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, he admits to using the words, noting the pair had experienced an “ugly and undignified” break-up following a romantic relationship, and sharing that there are “two sides to every story.” He described the text messages as including words that he regrets, and said that he is sorry. He also said he welcomes the investigation, expressing his confidence that, “the truth will come out through that process and I will be cooperating fully.”
For now, this complaint by Wicks has taken on its own narrative — broadcast on radio, despite Wicks believing the process to be confidential. For ratings, to demonstrate power, for what? We know what happens next to Luck Wicks, because we’ve seen it before. The details of her personal life are being and will further be examined. Questions have already and will continue to be raised about whom she chooses to have a relationship with. And reasons will be explored attempting to justify why the text messages were sent in the first place, when no such justification is possible.