Former Coalition cabinet minister Karen Andrews has revealed a male colleague would regularly breathe on the back of her neck in parliament, in one example of harassment.

The ABC reports Andrews shares her experiences of lewd and sexist treatment in an episode of Kitchen Cabinet to air on Tuesday night.

“I’d just be sitting there minding my own business and I would have the back of my neck breathed on,” she tells show host Annabel Crabb.

“If I asked a question, it would be ‘That was a great question, thrusting and probing’.

“But do you know what the issue is? Well, there would be people that would say, ‘Can’t you take a joke? Can she not take a joke?’

“I mean, really … and sometimes I do call it out, but sometimes I just go, ‘I can’t be in every fight’.”

Andrews, a Liberal, said she endured such harassment from male colleagues during Question Time in the House of Representatives.

She does not name the politician who breathed on her neck or who made sexually suggestive comments.

The Queensland MP, who will quit politics at the next election, said it was “depressing” to think that women would continue to face such treatment in federal politics.

Cabinet minister Julie Collins described Andrews’ allegations as “appalling”. Such behaviour should not occur in parliament, she said.

“That is appalling. I was not aware of it, and I am very sorry that that has happened,” she told ABC Radio on Tuesday.

“It shouldn’t happen to anybody in any Australian workplace, and the Australian parliament should be setting the standard.

“We need better from everybody that works in that building, and that’s why we’re so determined to improve the conditions for the people that work in the Parliament House.”

The ABC reports Andrews also said there was “a lot of alcohol” in Canberra and questionable behaviour such as “quite a number of people that don’t go home to their own bed on their own”.

“I think a bit of that behaviour has changed. But that was certainly very, very common. There’s a lot of alcohol,” she said.

Andrews said some male colleagues would hold social meetings in their offices, and she wasn’t invited.

“That’s where I really found it was difficult as a, as a female,” she said.

“I wasn’t often invited in when my male colleagues, when they were having get-togethers for drinks or cheese or all those sorts of things.

“A lot of strategising would get done at those meetings, and the women who were not invited to it would just never be part of that.”

In a clip released on Tuesday morning, Crabb asks Andrews if she thought her promotional opportunities were impacted by being left out.

“It didn’t help. I think I was, for quite a while, the person who had served the longest in what became an assistant ministers role I wasn’t fast tracked,” she said.

“You know what – I slept well at night. I slept well at night.”

Andrews’ accusations came as the Senate debates laws stemming from the Set the Standard report, which called for a parliamentary workplace support service.

Liberal frontbencher Simon Birmingham said he had not previously heard about Andrews’ allegations.

Birmingham, who as minister rolled out the initial reforms stemming from the Australian Human Rights Commission report, said people should use the new services.

“I urge anybody in this circumstance to use that service that has been established to provide for an independent, impartial, credible and confidential process,” he said.

“This workplace, like any other workplace, should be one of respect and safety.”

Asked whether the Liberal Party’s internal processes need a rethink, Birmingham said MPs should feel free to raise any issues with the leadership team.

Andrews was elected to parliament in 2010. She became industry, science and technology minister in 2018 and home affairs minister in 2021 until the Morrison government lost the 2022 election.

She quit the Liberal frontbench earlier this year and said she would not recontest her Gold Coast seat.

-with AAP