A Liberal MP is hiding behind parliamentary privilege to name her state colleague in bullying allegations.

Yesterday, Federal MP Ann Sudmalis announced she would quit politics at the next election, pointing the finger at “the NSW state division and their lack of action”.

Mrs Sudmalis used parliamentary privilege to accuse NSW state MP Gareth Ward of “bullying, betrayal and backstabbing”.

Mr Ward is denying the allegations and is challenging Mrs Sudmalis to make the claims outside of parliament.

Retired Major General and Liberal Senator Jim Molan admits to Chris Smith it’s “tough business”.

“There’s no two ways about it, and it’s an unforgiving business.

“The reason that we have an adversarial process within parliament is that it’s better than civil war.”

Jim believes the important question surrounding Mrs Sudmalis’s claim is how do we define bullying?

“The problem really comes down… what do you think is bullying? What do I think is bullying? What does Gareth think is bullying?” says Senator Molan.

“I don’t believe I have ever been bullied.

“I’ve been yelled at and abused, I’ve been called names, I’ve been discussed in private… I still don’t believe that I have been bullied.

“It’s time we all shut up about this within the party.”

Click PLAY below to hear the full interview

Off the back of news US President Donald Trump has announced $280-billion worth of new tariffs on Chinese imports, Senator Molan says it signals “we can no longer look at the United States or China at what we used to call a status quo power”.

“Powers that were invested in keeping all the rules, security rules, trade rules, as they’ve been for some time.

“It is a problem… but this is the changing world we now live in and we’ve got to manage it in a very sophisticated way.”

“I will be very disappointed if we suffer collateral damage by our farmers and businesses and workers because there is this trade thing going on.”