On and on it goes – the seemingly endless reports of bad behaviour emanating from Parliament House. This time it’s Queensland Liberal MP Andrew Laming, who allegedly bullied constituents and photographed a woman inappropriately.

But while Laming has announced he will not stand at the next election, he has not been booted out of the LNP (the Liberals and Nationals are one party in Queensland). Michelle Grattan argues Prime Minister Scott Morrison should boot out Laming, but he will not be keen because of the wafer-thin margin by which he holds power: sending Laming to the crossbench would wipe out the government’s majority.

In the meantime, Australia is watching the prime minister closely to see how he and his government respond to recent scandals about the treatment of women. One measure, Grattan says, should be to take the role of minister for women away from Foreign Minister Marise Payne – who has shown little appetite for the difficult policy issues fixing the situation will raise – and instead make it a stand-alone position within cabinet. As an initial step, it would go some way to demonstrating the seriousness of the issues, and the enormous amount of work to be done to rectify them.

Amanda Dunn

Section Editor: Politics + Society

AAP/Mick Tsikas

View from The Hill: Morrison should appoint stand-alone minister for women and boot Andrew Laming to crossbench

Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra

Let's be frank: no MP needs a course to know gross bullying of people in his local community is appalling conduct for a parliamentarian.

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Social disadvantage can cause stress that leads to changes in 'connectivity' between brain regions, potentially harming adolescents' ability to plan, set goals, and self-reflect.

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Plus why your genes determine how you deal with cold temperatures. Listen to episode 8 of The Conversation Weekly.

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