The Queensland woman who says Liberal MP Andrew Laming took a photo of her bottom without her consent has called in the cops.
While there’s no formal complaint at this stage, she has attended a police station to discuss her options.
The Queensland MP allegedly took a photograph of a Brisbane woman’s bottom without her consent, while she was on her knees stacking a bar fridge.
Dr Laming — a trained doctor — has been slammed as “a perv” for taking the photo by another man who worked at the landscaping business, but the MP has insisted he did not do it with malicious intent and deleted it as soon as he was asked.
Hitting back at his critics, the MP said his tough questions to constituents on Facebook were being “reinvented as harassment” and challenged those who claimed he hid in bushes to take a photo of a female state Labor MP to “show me the bush!”
He said there were “no bushes in that park, only ground cover and I was standing with my family taking a photograph of them.”
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But Brisbane mother Crystal White was not amused over the picture of her bending down to fill a fridge with soft drink at a landscaping yard. She said her underwear was visible in the photograph.
“I’ve documented the incident and for now that’s all I want to say,’’ she told 9News.
“The photo was really inappropriate, especially when I was bent over.”
A Queensland Police spokesperson said police were in the initial stages of assessing the allegations. They said the woman visited a Cleveland station on Monday afternoon to provide information regarding the alleged 2019 incident, but was “not proceeding with a formal complaint at this time.”
After seeing a report about Dr Laming abusing two Brisbane women on Facebook, one of the men who worked at the landscaping business, Sean Blinco, contacted the MP on Facebook and said “remember that time you took a photo of an employee bending over at a local landscaping yard, you perv? We had to force you to delete it before you left the store. We remember.”
Mr Blinco also attended the Brisbane police station with Ms White to report the incident.
“I am just here to tell my version of events and I am just here to support Crystal,’’ he said
But speaking to ABC Brisbane radio, Dr Laming said suggestions he had “upskirted” Ms White were completely untrue.
“The photo was taken from a distance, showing the worker in a dignified position on both knees but with far more stock to fit than the fridge would hold,’’ he said.
“That was the subject of the photograph, it was completely dignified.
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“The point was to show a real live workplace, a humorous situation where a person was given a task that was clearly difficult. It was like a game of Tetris, trying to get the stick into a fridge.
“The photograph was of her in a completely dignified position, in no way compromised, doing a very hard job well, in full view of every customer, and this photograph was taken effectively from above, on the other side of the service counter, so a large distance away.”
Nevertheless, Dr Laming said he was determined to seek counselling and improve his behaviour.
“So my message on Thursday, Friday and over the weekend, is that my unconditional apology is for how it made people feel and I’m going to go and get the care and help that I can, to make sure that I don’t create these situations again,’’ he said.
He has stood aside from all Parliamentary roles and is currently on health leave, revealing yesterday that he will not be contesting the next federal election.
Victorian Senator Sarah Henderson has called for her Queensland colleague Mr Laming to be removed from the party room when he returns to work.
“We’re not going to cop this bad behaviour,’’ Senator Henderson told news.com.au. “I am quite appalled and uncomfortable. This behaviour is disgusting.”
Channel 7 political editor Mark Riley told the Prime Minister “in any other workplace (Mr Laming) would be gone”, questioning whether he was being retained because “a number you can’t afford to lose”.
“Why shouldn’t people just see this as a cynical move on your part?” he asked.
“If you stand up today, use that podium, that microphone and say, ‘As Prime Minister, I don’t want this bloke in the Liberal Party (and) I don’t want him in the parliament’, he’d be out.”
The Prime Minister said Dr Laming had every right to represent his constituents in Parliament.
“He was elected to serve here three years, in this parliamentary term, and that’s what he intends to do,’’ he said.
https://news.google.com/__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?oc=5
2021-03-29 11:26:15Z
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