An Australian politician who admitted to sniffing the chair of a female colleague has survived a challenge to his state leadership of the conservative party, an official said on Monday.

Troy Buswell was endorsed as the head of the West Australian Liberal Party after a motion to depose him at a party meeting failed, spokesman Ray Halligan said. “It was put to a ballot and the motion was defeated,” Halligan told reporters in Perth. The challenge arose after Buswell last week broke down at a news conference and admitted he had sniffed the chair that a female colleague had been sitting on at his Parliament House office in December 2005.

The incident took place in front of other staff members and was done to get a laugh, the woman, who does not want to be named, said.