Personal lives: have male MPs been getting away with too much under the shield of privacy?

ABC reporter Leigh Sales is rethinking staying away from politicians' personal lives following revelations of sexual violence in Parliament.

Speaking to the Sydney Media Club on Wednesday, Sales said she had been doing a lot of "soul-searching" on the issue in recent weeks: "Have I been educated in, and almost brainwashed, into a system that has protected powerful men at the expense of women … like their wives, or their staffers?"

It begs the question: in a post-Me Too era, when politicians' poor behaviour -- especially to young female staffers -- is being called out more and more, what right to privacy do politicians have?