The fall of Robert Doyle ought to have been completed yesterday. Even his number one sponsor in Melbourne, 3AW shock jock Neil Mitchell, today declared he was “finished, and rightly so”.
Melbourne’s former lord mayor had been in possession of the Freckelton report for six weeks and a sensible approach would have been to accept the findings detailed in it, apologise to the women involved and state that he was a problem drinker who was determined to do something about it.
Instead, as Gay Alcorn eloquently outlined in The Guardian and Susie O’Brien pointed out to Herald Sun readers, Doyle chose to have his wife, Emma Page-Campbell, make this statement and continues to deny all allegations.
The Freckelton report specifically states that Doyle admits to groping Councillor Cathy Oke on the leg during the CEO interview dinner at Lupino Bistro in Little Collins Street on December 4, 2014.
Why did he do this? Doyle’s 15-page written submission and oral evidence was dismissed thus by Ian Freckelton, QC: “The investigators did not accept the argument advanced by Mr Doyle in respect of an incident at a restaurant that his touching of Ms Oke was a signal to her that he was impressed by a candidate for a job.”
Can you believe it? I was the third member of the City of Melbourne CEO selection committee at the time and Robert Doyle didn’t grope my thigh whenever this particular candidate — who was not successful — made some impressive comment at the dinner.
City of Melbourne councillors have been understandably silent about this saga over the past three months, so it was great to see the strength of their support for the female councillors during last night’s 40-minute council meeting, which is available to view on The Herald Sun website.
Doyle’s loyal deputy of eight years, Councillor Susan Riley, who was inexplicably dumped to number four on the Doyle ticket to make way for political newcomer, former Councillor Tessa Sullivan at the 2016 election, declared she was “ashamed” to discover what had gone on.
Councillor Oke made another emotional speech and the point she made about the powerful networks in Melbourne was referring to Robert’s Doyle cosy relationship with The Herald Sun, 3AW Morning presenter Neil Mitchell and, to a lesser extent, Jeff Kennett.
Councillor Oke told ABC Melbourne’s Jon Faine this morning, in her only radio interview, that when she saw The Herald Sun’s victim shaming front page attack on former Councillor Sullivan on January 9, “it really shook me”.
Sullivan went in harder, naming Jeff Kennett, Neil Mitchell and The Herald Sun as the group which backed Doyle and attempted to discredit victims.
Doyle was tight with the various powerful male players around town. He had regular meals with Premier Daniel Andrews, was a confidante of Tony Abbott when he came to town as prime minister and used to travel to Canberra at times just to hang out in the office of Josh Frydenberg, who fancies himself as a future prime minister. He also presented Kerry Stokes with the keys to the city, declared Rupert Murdoch’s mother the first Freewoman of the City, did regular radio interviews with Eddie McGuire and happily made Shane Warne King of Moomba.
What all these powerful men say and do now about their fallen friend will be interesting to watch.
Neil Mitchell was particularly bad because he presented himself as a witness to the “Carla” incident at the Melbourne Health Awards, and effectively called the complainant a liar. As Sullivan told Faine this morning, Mitchell should have said nothing and let the inquiry take its course.
While it is no excuse, Doyle at least knew Councillor Oke and then-Councillor Sullivan when he groped, touched, squeezed or kissed them after drinking copious amounts of red wine. With Carla, it was his first meeting.
Doyle was not too sick to put out a statement denying everything yesterday but he has been too sick to respond to Carla’s compelling statement, which she provided to both Freckelton and the separate Melbourne Health inquiry set up by Health Minister Jill Hennessy. These inquiries are still going.
If Doyle continues to effectively call all these women liars, don’t be surprised if a formal complaint is lodged with the police in order to have a court make a more formal official judgment than what a council-commissioned QC was able to do yesterday.
Such denials will also fuel calls for Doyle’s Companion of the Order of Australia to be removed. Based on what we now know, and particularly the complete lack of contrition, I reckon this is a no-brainer. “Sexual predators” shouldn’t keep their gongs, but don’t expect to hear that line from the long-serving powerful men who run Melbourne.
The problem with powerful editors and shock jocks is that you rarely hear from their bosses. Any accountability they face is normally from other media outlets, such as when Gay Alcorn took Neil Mitchell to task, or when Media Watch hopped into the Herald Sun on Monday night.
Penny Fowler, Rupert Murdoch’s niece and the chair of the Herald & Weekly Times board, needs to say something about Herald Sun editor Damon Johnston, who made some appalling decisions to blindly back Doyle and victim-shame Tessa Sullivan and wasn’t backing down in today’s full-length editorial.
Maybe it is time the Herald Sun had the first female editor in its history, and maybe it is also time for 3AW to let a few women step up to the mic.
Stephen Mayne was a City of Melbourne councillor with Robert Doyle and Cathy Oke from 2012 until 2016.
Stephen! “declared Rupert Murdoch’s mother the first Freewoman of the City”. His mother had a name! Dame Elisabeth Murdoch was an amazing woman in her own right, and absolutely deserved such an award .
The statement was poor , made worse in such an article.
Stephen, you reportedly witnessed the harassment of Cathy Oke and privately supported her. Why did you not tackle Robert Doyle about it? It is an obvious question and there may be reasonable answers. Some of the Councillors and senior staff were White Ribbon Ambassadors. What went wrong?
Robert Doyle’s drinking and other behavioural issues must have been obvious to many Councillors and Council staff in the nine years but nobody tackled him quietly or otherwise. Was he SO powerful?
Intimidation, sexual and otherwise, is pretty common in organisations these days. Nobody deals with it well.
For some reason, intimidation/bullying is not uncommon in local governments from the very highest levels down. There have been a few relatively recent investigations in well-known Councils so there would seem to be a role for the MAV and VLGA.
With sexual harassment, women can go to the Human Rights Commission and for other forms of bullying people have to go to WorkSafe Victoria. It is an arduous process, especially if people experience the particular isolation that surrounds such situations.
There is little new about all this. It has been happening for years in all sorts of organisations.
What is different is that cases like this at Melbourne City Council open the doors and windows, giving individuals and organisations permission to think about it all again. It is about power and control and, unfortunately, neither gender is exempt.
Agreed Kate and perhaps Stephen’s article could have mentioned Jon Faine who said he knew about Doyle’s behaviour – or some of it – and yet had said nothing at all even to personally criticism Doyle privately – as Helen Garner pointed out in her letter to The Age. There are a lot of METOOs but with no hashtag among Melbourne’s influential men – and what have they done – til now? Nothing at all.
oops should have been ‘criticise’ sorry!
At least Stephen has now made up for his initial silence! Plenty of media exposure now.
It will be interesting for someone to check the long-term outcomes of all this in a few years time. Local government is riddled with harassment and bullying of various kinds and too often those who abuse their power get away with it. I’m not referring to sexual harassment alone. Common-ground bullying is probably more common.
At least in Melbourne City Council, this time the process has ceased although it took years and a confident, educated and well-supported woman in Tessa Sullivant to bring it to a head. Think of all those who are not able to challenge the status-quo as she was able to.
Tessa Sullivan is courageous but also well-resourced. When this settles down, I feel that she may emerge in some other form of advocacy based on her experience at Melbourne City Council.
I was interested to see her particular interest in disability given her childhood experience. She seems to have a lot to offer in terms of leadership and I’d like to see her use that as many other Melbourne women have in other fields.
The same old story.
When these things come out, the political-media elite, among whom I include Stephen Mayne, apparently all knew about it and are quick to condemn others.
But where were they when it was happening?
Mayne, I think your readers deserve some explanation of your own behaviour.
In other news, circle the wagons and shoot the messenger.
I long for the da
..sorry, my keyboard today has a bad case of premature sending.
“I long for the day when articles like this are historical curiosities.”
Is Neil Mitchell going to support women against men is he? Does Neil want to topple from his perch.
The Herald Sun’s actions were in relation to Tessa Sulivan were awful. Maybe there will be a complaint to the Press Council or further legal action. The Herald Sun, 3AW and Jeff Kennett words and actions are typical, patriarchal stuff and maybe those three approaches will be dealt with or displaced by something fairer and more positive.
I think it is unfair and irresponsible to drag something up that you (Stephen Mayne) said 17 years ago as well but social and mainstream media do this all the time. If they can demonstrate that old statements and actions are consistent over the years then maybe there is a point, but not otherwise.
The Herald Sun’s blatant hatchet job on Tessa Sullivan was appalling at the time let alone with the knowledge that the inquiry has backed her version of events.
This is precisely the kind of behaviour that the Gillard government’s proposed media regulator could have tackled, instead the press collectively howled it down and insisted that the toothless Press Council is enough, and thus effectively collectively endorsed these sorts of actions by the Herald Sun. The standard you not only walk past but actively fight to protect is most certainly the standard you accept.
Fair enough. I didn’t know about Julia Gillards proposed media reforms.
Are the Herald Sun and the Daily Telegraph both Murdoch papers? The Telegraph has done some fairly horrendous things as well.
Defamation actions with payouts don’t seem to change their behaviour either.