Buswell breaks down over chair sniffing

West Australian Liberals have rallied behind their leader despite his admission he sniffed the chair of a female party staffer.

Senior MPs and state Liberal president Barry Court expressed their disappointment at the incident involving Opposition Leader Troy Buswell, but denied it would hurt the party's election chances.

Mr Buswell broke down at a press conference on Tuesday as he confirmed the staffer's account of the chair sniffing incident, reported in The West Australian newspaper.

The woman, who does not want to be named, said Mr Buswell lifted and started sniffing the chair she had been sitting on at his Parliament House office in December 2005.

The incident took place in front of other staff members.

She said he had done it to get a laugh.

"I was shocked and outraged, and I told him," the newspaper quoted the woman as saying.

At Tuesday's press conference at Mandurah, south of Perth, Mr Buswell said he had repeatedly refused to deny the allegations because he wanted to protect the woman involved.

But he broke down after he was asked about the effect of the report on his wife and children.

Tears in his eyes, Mr Buswell said he needed a short break, turned his back and then asked his press secretary to bring him a glass of water.

Mr Buswell said his wife was aware of the allegation before they were first published on Sunday.

He said it had been a difficult time for him "on a personal level".

"These are difficult issues for me to deal with and they are very difficult issues for my family to deal with," he said.

"It's hard dealing with these matters and having to face up to your responsibilities behaviourally, publicly, and it's harder to do it privately."

Mr Buswell has previously admitted to snapping a Labor staffer's bra at a drunken party trick and has been accused by retiring Liberal MP Katie Hodson-Thomas of making sexist remarks to her.

Despite increasing public scrutiny of Mr Buswell's behaviour towards women, the opposition leader said he would not be standing down.

Liberal education spokesman Peter Collier said Mr Buswell's parliamentary colleagues had accepted their leader's commitment to "draw a line in the sand" and change his behaviour following the bra snapping incident.

He acknowledged people would frown on the latest incident, but said they would eventually vote on the government's inadequacies.

"Troy is an eminently qualified person to be the next premier of Western Australia," Mr Collier told reporters.

He denied the party was standing by Mr Buswell because there was no other viable leadership candidate, after deputy leader Kim Hames earlier said there was no one to replace him.

Liberal spokeswoman for women's interests, Helen Morton, said she was not happy about the chair sniffing but did not think it would alienate women voters.

Mr Court said Mr Buswell had the full support of the lay party and there was no talk of a challenge.

Curtin University politics professor Harry Black said the incident was a huge distraction just as the party had launched a series of advertisements promoting Mr Buswell as the alternative premier.

"The support he's received is inevitable because they have to support him ... there isn't anybody else," Prof Black said.