And this guy wants to be Premier of our state.

Perthnow reports.

The new allegations follow admissions by Mr Buswell in January that he snapped open the bra of a Labor staffer during a drunken night at Parliament House last year.

Liberal MPs have contacted The Sunday Times claiming a former Liberal female staffer was the victim of a “chair sniffing” incident in Mr Buswell’s parliamentary office when he was a deputy to former leader, Matt Birney, in 2006.

It was alleged that Mr Buswell lifted her chair and started sniffing it in front of her after she had finished interviewing a constituent. He then allegedly repeated the act moments later in front of several Liberal staff members.

It’s understood that the woman had warned Mr Buswell about his pranks before.

On a previous occasion, he had allegedly crawled around on his hands and knees in front of the same woman pretending to be her husband. When confronted by the allegations this week, Mr Buswell declined to comment.

“I have no comment in relation to that matter,” Mr Buswell told The Sunday Times. “I am not going to comment in regards to the allegations you just put to me.”

Mr Buswell’s chief of staff and media adviser also declined to comment.

When The Sunday Times contacted the woman who was the target of the alleged incident, she asked not to be identified, but admitted she had been horrified and embarrassed by what had happened.

[…]

Mr Buswell told The Sunday Times in January that reports of his past loutish behaviour were likely to surface in the coming months but that the bra-snap incident had been a turning point in his behaviour.

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Update: Via ABC News

“All I can confirm is that the events described in the paper by the former female staffer are accurate,” he said.

In an emotionally charged media conference, Mr Buswell, who has only been leader for little more than three months, had to take a break when tears started welling in his eyes.

He conceded that his behaviour before becoming leader had sometimes been highly offensive but said he committed to changing.

Even though Liberal MPs are privately saying they are disgusted by the incident, they say there will not be a leadership change because there is no alternative to Mr Buswell as leader.

His deputy Kim Hames is defending him with this gem:

“To me Troy’s a rough diamond and you don’t fix a rough diamond by smashing it to pieces.”

Categories: gender & feminism, Politics

Tags: buswell, target, WA