'Get over yourself': Senate president Sue Lines is shaking up Parliament

Detailed summary

Sue Lines on power, unruly senators and dealing with the manosphere

Sue Lines would love to throw politicians out of the Senate chamber and has a straightforward message for the officials who occupy the corridors of the mighty.

One of the most powerful women in government, Ms Lines is the President of the Senate and she's on a mission to cut "disrespect" in the red chamber and make sure everyone feels welcome in Parliament House.

"The speaker can chuck people out but I can't," Ms Lines told The Canberra Times.

Anyone who has tuned into question time will be familiar with Speaker of the House of Representatives Milton Dick consigning unruly MPs to an hour or three in the parliamentary sin bin.

"I am concerned about the disrespect, generally, from many senators in the chamber to one another and to me," Ms Lines told a Senate estimates hearing after the attack on Indi MP Helen Haines.

Speaking to this masthead in the middle of a busy Senate sitting day, Ms Lines pulled no punches about how she would keep order in the chamber.

"I get a lot of emails telling me how 'weak' I am ... and 'throw them out'," said Ms Lines.

"I do invite Senators to leave. I think I invited them several times today to leave. They didn't," she said.

"If a senator has said something unparliamentary, I don't care who it is, they withdraw it."

Opening of the article, excerpted from The Canberra Times. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.