Victorian Premier Refuses to Apologise to Female MP for ‘Halfwit’ Jibe

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews is refusing to apologise for labelling a female Liberal MP a “halfwit grub”, declaring he was defending a Labor colleague.

Opposition women’s spokeswoman and Eildon MP Cindy McLeish says the premier made the remark in state parliament on Tuesday before withdrawing it.

“Those comments were deeply offensive to me, but I probably wasn’t surprised because this is a pattern of behaviour we continue to see from the premier,” she told reporters.

“He’s a serial bully and treats women terribly.”

In 2016, Andrews denied allegations he made disparaging comments about former Liberal MP Donna Bauer in 2014 when she was battling bowel cancer.

McLeish and Opposition Leader John Pesutto demanded Andrews say sorry during question time, but the premier said there was nothing to apologise for.

“I’ve defended the member for Northcote (Kat Theophanous) … and I will not be apologising for doing that,” he said.

The lower house was voting on a coalition-backed bill to crack down on lobbyists following a corruption watchdog report into Theophanous’ father, former state Labor minister Theo Theophanous.

McLeish questioned whether it was appropriate for Theophanous to vote on the bill, given it related to her family and the funding of her election campaign.

Speaker Maree Edwards dismissed the point of order.

The Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission in February found that Theophanous father failed to declare he was lobbying for Australian Education City (AEC) as the preferred developer of a proposed precinct in East Werribee.

The watchdog said he misused his role as a Victorian Planning Authority board member to lobby senior ministers and department officers in exchange for donations and other “in-kind” contributions to his daughter’s 2018 election campaign.

There was no evidence Theophanous was aware of the circumstances behind the donations, and no adverse findings were made about her or the Chinese-backed development consortium.

The $31 billion project was ultimately shelved in 2019.