‘Nightmare before Christmas’: Explosive claims of sexual harassment, racism, homophobia against MP Sam Duluk

WARNING: Graphic language

Parliamentary privilege has been used to unleash explosive claims of sexual harassment, racism and homophobia against the South Australian MP who was found not guilty of slapping a colleague’s bottom.

Greens MLC Tammy Franks addressed the Legislative Council on Wednesday, detailing the startling allegations to her colleagues about former Liberal MP Sam Duluk.

The member for Waite — who became an independent MP in 2020 — was last month acquitted of basic assault over allegations he slapped SA Best MLC Connie Bonaros on the bottom at the crossbench Christmas party held at Parliament House on December 13, 2019.

Mr Duluk was labelled a “drunken pest” by magistrate John Wells, who also described his actions as “insensitive, uncouth and disrespectful”.

Ms Franks made the allegations after Speaker Josh Teague decided a parliamentary inquiry into Mr Duluk’s behaviour on the night of the Christmas Party would not resume.

“I note that with the ending of the Speaker’s inquiry, this matter and those victims now have nowhere to go … The parliamentary processes have failed them,” she told the upper house.

“The invitation (to the party) was dubbed the ‘Nightmare before Christmas’. If only we had known how portentous that would be.

Ms Franks claimed two female staffers, aged in their 20s, participated in a game of charades when Mr Duluk allegedly stood near their heads and moved his hand towards his groin, reflecting the “grab ’em by the p**sy” gesture associated with Donald Trump, whom he was trying to impersonate.

“It was only in the following days, in a break from work at lunch time, that one of them stated to me, ‘That was so gross that he was right near my head doing that’,” Ms Franks said.

“I had to reassure her that that was not typical workplace behaviour and not accepted in any other workplace in this state.”

The Greens parliamentarian went on to claim Mr Duluk walked a few steps behind a male colleague at the party, alongside a Liberal staffer, and loudly said: “Best not walk too fast and get ahead of him or we might get f**ked up the arse”.

She also alleged he stood over and threatened another staffer until she deleted a photo that she took of him drinking spirits straight from the bottle — an action the court was told during Mr Duluk’s trial.

“He said to a woman in this workplace, our workplace, her workplace: ‘You’ve got big (a cuss word for breasts]. Then he said, ’I’d like to (a word starting with f, with four letters] them’.

“He said to (another) woman, ‘I know you’re effing him so you can eff me too’.”

It was also alleged that Mr Duluk made racist remarks about a fellow member, saying he was “not a real Aboriginal”, and he also stated: “My grandmother was raped in Mildura so maybe I am part Aboriginal.”

A Liberal Party event was held simultaneously in another section of Parliament House, where Ms Franks said she had heard rumours of upskirting and an incident where Mr Duluk urinated in a corner of an MP's office before turning around and waving his exposed penis, calling out: “Touch it”.

In a statement, Mr Duluk said the “outrageous” and “salacious” claims were designed to cause him maximum political damage.

“I am astonished that Ms Franks considered it appropriate to exploit parliamentary privilege to attempt to destroy my character, and I invite her to make these assertions without the protection of parliamentary privilege,” he said.

“I am disappointed that after the conclusion of the legal proceedings and my acquittal as well as the Speaker’s decision to not proceed with a parliamentary inquiry, my political opponents seek to exploit this matter.”

Mr Duluk announced in parliament on Thursday that he would be running as an independent MP in the next election.

He said the past 20 months had taken “a significant toll” on his family, health and wellbeing.

“I want to give the parliament the dignity that it deserves and, more importantly, I want to focus 100 per cent of my energy and commitment to serving the people of Waite,” Mr Duluk said.