‘Time to go Lammo’: Crowd rallies near Laming’s Qld office
By Toby Crockford and Lydia Lynch
Signs and slogans demanding the sacking of a federal MP Andrew Laming were the order of the day in the embattled backbencher’s Queensland electorate on Saturday.
About 150 protesters gathered at a rally in Cleveland, just metres away from the Member for Bowman’s office, ahead of Dr Laming’s return to Parliament next week.
Protesters at Kyling Corner in Cleveland in Andrew Laming’s Queensland electorate of Bowman on Saturday.Credit:Toby Crockford
It will be Dr Laming’s first time in Parliament since the Prime Minister ordered him to take medical leave and undergo empathy training in March after he was accused of harassing two women online and taking a photo of a woman’s bottom with her underwear visible while she bent over. Dr Laming categorically denied this accusation on Saturday.
Scott Morrison has resisted calls to force Dr Laming to the crossbench, which would plunge the Coalition into minority government, saying he had already done “something quite significant” by announcing he would not seek re-election.
Dr Laming said in a statement on Saturday the accusations made against him were politically-motivated and linked to the Australian Labor Party. He denied all allegations.
The rally held in the Redland City-based electorate, east of Brisbane was organised by March4Justice Brisbane, which held national women’s rights protests earlier this year.
The placards held aloft on Saturday morning featured the words “time to go Lammo”, “delaminate Bowman”, “lack of empathy training” and “Lamo not welcome here”.
State Labor Member for Redlands Kim Richards, who was in attendance, said the rally was a good turnout and representation of the community’s feelings.
“For the last four weeks there has been one story after another story. Scott Morrison clearly wants to be a bystander. Words are cheap if they’re not backed up by action,” she said.
“It’s politics over people. Politics over the right thing.”
Labor’s Senate Leader Penny Wong said she was “appalled” after speaking with some of the women who have made allegations against Dr Laming over his behaviour and online comments.
“I was really shocked at how scared some are, the extent of the online harassment and how long this has been going on for. One of the women I spoke to has been complaining about this since 2015 and she said to me she was scared of what he will do after this,” she said.
“If you [Mr Morrison] let Dr Laming into your party room on Monday, if you let Dr Laming back into the Parliament and accept his vote as a member of your government, you’ll be demonstrated to be a hypocrite.
“You will show that when you stood up and told the women of Australia that you got it and you cared about them, you will show that was not true.”
Dr Laming said the accusations came from “long-time political opponents” and the other complaints were “minor” and “popped up years after the fact”.
“There are no accusations of cyber-bullying before any authority I am aware of after a decade of social media,” his statement read.
“ALP-linked accusers are unlikely to ever lay a formal complaint to authorities after years in the job, because they know their accusations simply don’t stack up.
“Today’s march4justice was co-promoted by the ALP with a 10am branch meeting down the street. Attending were overwhelmingly ALP members with a dozen or so curious onlookers.
“They were across the road from the local police station today, but in eight years obstinately refuse to lay a single formal complaint to authorities. That says buckets about their motives.
“The remaining complaints are the result of media trawling the local community for the last month looking for anyone with a mean thing to say about a local politician.”
Dr Laming was disendorsed by Queensland’s Liberal National Party after refusing to formally withdraw his prelection nomination last month but remains in the Coalition party room.
His disendorsement made him eligible for a taxpayer-funded payment of $105,600, or six months’ salary.
Toby Crockford is court reporter for the Brisbane Times.
Lydia Lynch is Queensland political reporter for the Brisbane Times