Former Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has slammed Canberra's culture in politics, saying that a group of male Liberal MPs who called themselves the "big swinging dicks" tried to ruin her career.

She made the claims in an interesting interview with Leigh Sales on ABC's 7:30.

Sales directly asked Bishop about claims that a group of Liberal MPs tried to block her career progression.

“It was actually big swinging dicks,’’ Ms Bishop said.

“No-one self-identified to me. My ambition was to be the foreign minister of Australia, and I served in that role for five years. And likewise I was deputy leader of the party for 11 years.

“If their ambition was to thwart my aspirations, then they failed.”

Former Liberal minister @SharmanStone recently said a group of male politicians who called themselves the 'swinging dicks' sought to block @HonJulieBishop's career aspirations: "If their ambition was to thwart my aspirations, then they failed." #auspol #abc730 pic.twitter.com/ON5zC8xApH

— abc730 (@abc730) March 8, 2021

Bishop also said that a coronial inquest into the rape claims against Attorney-General Christian Porter was a "logical step" despite having a longstanding professional relationship with Porter.

“This is such a difficult area and I feel so unspeakably sad for everyone involved,’’ she said.

“And there are families and friends who are still suffering and there will be trauma for some time. The challenge of course is that the allegations are historic, that the woman who made the allegations took her own life, and now a serving cabinet minister has been informed that the police investigation is at an end. So, there are no answers.

“I do know, however, that the South Australian coroner is considering an inquest and to me that is the next logical step.

“It’s within the criminal justice system. There are checks and balances and there are statutory powers. It has legal standing.

“And so, that is the next step and I understand from media reporting that’s what the family would welcome.

“I think the mainstream media have been taking very careful legal advice and are ensuring they don’t publish evidence, they don’t cross in the areas of contempt and defamation, although I note the Attorney-General has got a defamation lawyer.

“I knew him when he was a young lawyer in Perth. He was a highly intelligent young man. He had a bright future ahead of him. People spoke of Christian Porter as someone who would go on to better things.

“I didn’t work closely with him. No-one made complaints to me. The first I heard about these particular allegations was about six months ago from an informal source. So, people hadn’t raised these issues with me.”