Jul 27, 2023

Dutton then announced Van would be booted from the party to sit on the crossbench. Van has denied all allegations of inappropriate conduct, and accused Thorpe of “cowering under the umbrella of parliamentary privilege to make her claim”. Dutton has called for Van to resign from parliament, in a stance backed by Liberal frontbenchers, while Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in June he would be comfortable if Van didn’t return. Van’s continuing parliamentary presence raised further questions about where he would sit in the Senate, given his ousting from the opposition bench placed him in closer proximity to Thorpe. Advertisement Those questions appear to have been answered by the new Senate seating plan, which assigns Van a seat next to United Australia Party senator Ralph Babet. He is now seated across an aisle from Thorpe, two rows behind her, with One Nation senators Malcolm Roberts and Pauline Hanson, and Lambie Party senators Jacqui Lambie and Tammy Tyrrell seated between the accuser and the accused. According to a source familiar with the new arrangements, all relevant parties were consulted on the move. Babet, one of those consulted parties, and said he was comfortable sitting next to Van. He said he would potentially even use their newfound proximity to convince Van to vote with him. “Allegations are just allegations, this is all they are,” Babet said, adding Van was lucky to leave the Liberal Party, which he described as “a joke”.