Note: this article discusses suicide and sexual assault.
There are no good ways out of the situation Australian federal politics, and the political class, now find itself in. Only bad ones, and less bad ones.
A cabinet minister is accused of rape in 1988, by a woman who took her own life last year, ending decades of misery and illness. The relevant documents have been known to some media outlets for differing periods of time, but they became known more widely when they were sent to a number of political figures and the Australian Federal Police (AFP).
The AFP commissioner Reece Kershaw last week took the unusual step of writing to the prime minister to rebuke the failure of government ministers, staff and other figures to report the rape of Brittany Higgins, who says she was pressured to not report her alleged rape out of fear of losing her job. Any politician receiving any allegation of rape was therefore placed on notice of the need to forward them immediately to police.
Thus the government, through its odious mishandling of Brittany Higgins, created the circumstances that led to the airing of allegations against one of its own — a just reward for always treating Higgins as a political problem to be dealt with rather than an alleged rape survivor and victim of a deeply toxic culture.
Police can’t resolve the accusation. There is no prospect of a conviction, but no way of disproving the allegations either. The minister may be entirely innocent, but smeared forever with the tag of rapist. He may be guilty, not merely of rape but of destroying a life, and will never be punished.
But this is public office. The highest and most important body in the country, the cabinet in which decisions affecting every Australian are made. Now it is tainted, and everything it has done has been tainted for as long as the relevant minister has been sitting at the cabinet table.
How can any government credibly speak about the status of women, safety, law and order, or violence, when an accused rapist was a decision-maker? What of the security implications for a minister with a rape allegation hanging over him, potentially exposing him to blackmail? What are leaders of other countries to think when they meet an Australian minister, knowing he may be a rapist?
As long as the alleged perpetrator remains unnamed and in cabinet, a cloud hangs over everything the government does.
The least worst option is for the minister to out himself — to the public, if not to the media and his colleagues, all of whom already know his identity — and agree to cooperate with a police inquiry or any inquiry the prime minister may decide to establish. He must do so knowing that, even if he is innocent, any inquiry will not fully resolve the matter, only conclude, based on the complaint and any corroborating evidence, about the possibility of a successful prosecution.
The alternative is that the entire government remains tainted.
The Labor MP that is subject to a rape allegation referred to police by Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson should do exactly the same if they are a frontbencher — assuming that it is a frontbencher, and assuming it is not an allegation that police have already examined and dismissed.
To maintain a veil of secrecy over the identity of the cabinet minister, in the hope that the matter will simply disappear, is to leave him a hostage to both his political colleagues and the tender mercies of social media. Labor will never reveal his identity, but there’s no restraint on the crossbench using parliamentary privilege to publish the complaint in full. Nor, potentially, internal party enemies. Nor is there anything to stop a foreign website or social media user publishing his identity.
Again, the least worse option is to control the revelation of the minister’s identity, rather than leave it to others.
What won’t be fixed, no matter what tactics are employed, and even with the best outcome, is the stench around the Morrison government. It’s the product of a deep cynicism, of corruption, of misogyny, of partisanship at all costs, and of constant scandals and sleaze. It will go down as Australia’s grubbiest government.
If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault or violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit 1800RESPECT.org.au.
For anyone seeking help, Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and Beyond Blue is 1300 22 4636.
The current system fails women. It is seen as ‘our word against theirs’, but it is always their word that is believed. Try getting police to press rape charges against a powerful man in Australia. Its impossible. The police simply refuse to press charges & his word will be given more weight than ours. The system has betrayed generations of Australian women. I refuse to be one more.
As usual, Bernard, you nailed it. My first reaction on hearing that this alleged perpetrator was a senior cabinet minister was to realise that with this grubby, sleazy lot, we are ‘spoilt for choice’. And if backbenchers had been included, then that would have blown out the numbers even more. I have one chief culprit in mind – I would almost bet on its being him. If this alleged rapist is guilty, I hope he is in paroxysms of panic, anxiety and terror – oh, I don’t know, something along the lines of what his victim must have felt. It is a disgrace to good men to call this foul being a man.
It’s possible that for the second time in recent months, Frydenberg is enjoying a quiet champers at home, seeing a possible leadership contender being severely, possibly fatally damaged.
And Josh’s wife’s advice? Make sure you take that smile off your face when leave after breakfast.
I agree, Pollietragic. Josh is now minus a major competitor, as I see it. And in a totally unrelated vein: intriguing that the Attorney General of Australia has had not a word to say about this fraught legal matter.
The bottom line is that the government and Morrison have no credibility with this or any other matter. Everything is binary and winning is all, credit is stolen from those who do the hard work and failings are ignored or others are blamed, regardless of the truth. The AFP and public service are used, without shame or restriction, as a tool to win political issues.
Nothing will come of this except more nonsense pressers and fake funding announcements. With the L/NP governments since 2014, it isn’t what funding announcements are made that is important but how much of that money they actually spend.
I wonder how many in the Press Gallery now realize why there will be no election this year?
The really sad thing is that Morrison is the PM that Australians want, in the same way that 70M+ USA voters wanted Trump to continue.
This not a crisis of Parliament, politics or culture, this is about what type of country we Australians want and my fear is that even the corruption and these scandals will not be enough to wake Australian voters out of their opioid like dream state.
“this is about what type of country we Australians want”
Sadly that seems to be true. But it may be worth asking why Australians want a country like this. I like to think it comes down mainly to stupidity and a willingness to be manipulated by uncle Rupert’s lie machine. However, I guess it’s possible that it’s just greed and selfishness that drive us nowadays.
Thanks for that. Paul. It’s both depressing and true but I don’t suppose the situation will change many voters’ minds.
“They” say ScoMo has done a good job with Covid, but in reality, he passed everything for which the Feds were responsible over to the states and is now left holding the Aged Care disaster in his hands.
It’s so “angry-making”, as our grandson terms it, that News Corpse (if only) hadn’t been granted such control of the media to the detriment of journalism around Australia et al.that it makes true independent reporting less accessible.
My feeling anyway.
Well, it might have something to do with the electoral system. There is simply nothing to vote for. There is no new blood with a genuine wanting to better peoples lives. All is geared towards winning elections and the most obnoxious waffle is permitted in order to fill their own wallets.
I ask again: why is it that a front bench that lost an election 10 years ago, is almost the same front bench now?
There should be restrictions to how long one can sit in the house of reps. 3 terms seems enough.
Sadly, when the Parliament fails women, we all fail women. Only a small percentage of men abuse or rape women and many who speak out at the moment are men asking for changes to be made, but in various insidious ways, we allow the status quo to be preserved. Many still think that because Brittany Higgins was rat-arsed, she is at least partly at fault – when in reality that is yet another instance where we play out our societal prejudices – the femme fatale and the poor victim bloke that couldn’t control his urges, despite that the alleged rape was actually rather violent and that indicates the likelihood the guy has done it to other women. We still think that lots of rape allegations are falsified. We still think and we still allow repulsive voices like Pauline Hanson to publicly proclaim, that lots of women before the Family Law Court are making up abuse allegations against their spouse or partner. In both cases, the statistics don’t at all support our ingrained biases, but we still have the Coalition folding the Family Law Court back into the Federal Court – and the losers will be women. The Coalition can’t or won’t afford more social housing for women fleeing domestic violence, but if you wear a hi-vis vest, the government can’t stop giving you handouts. In the US, a misogynistic sleazebag, who boasted about his “conquests”, was elected to the role of President – against the supposed “Crooked Hilary”. The present debacle should, by any reasonable measure, bring down the Morrison government and I think that President Morrison’s moribund expression, as opposed to his trademark smirk, tells me he knows that his action or inaction and attempts to fake-empathise his way out of trouble didn’t work – he knows we know he is a total phony. But if there were shortly to be an election, there is every likelihood Morrison would remain PM, because people don’t like Albanese for ***** sake. That isn’t just the Parliament – it is us. The Parliament might amplify the way men with power abuse women, but it is still attitudes they take into the Parliament.
Albanese didn’t do himself or the nation any favours on Insiders on Sunday, dodging a straight question repeatedly instead of saying immediately “That was a private conversation and it remains private.” He finally said it, too late. Not that Scotty doesn’t do exactly the same but it creates the impression that the two sides are much of a muchness, vote for whomever you like you’ll still get a politician. With this corrupt crew in office they’re not both the same but Albo didn’t get that message out on Sunday. It was very much, “When asked a question you don’t want to answer, look shifty and obfuscate.” Just like Scotty.
A leader is decisive. A strategist offers options. Albo’s Sunday performance lacked clarity. Australia needs leadership, accountability, transparency.
Its not the politician you get but that politician’s policies that matter, and I have yet to see a conservative government do anything that benefits the average person.
When women are rat-arsed or intentionally drugged, that is when the sexual abusers strike. It is their method to achieve compliant control. Bill Cosby is a well known example.
You may as well f*** a sex doll, what is wrong with these men, can’t they handle real Women?
How can any government credibly speak about the status of women, safety, law and order, or violence, when an accused rapist was a decision-maker?
How can any government credibly speak about any of these matters, or be trusted to make decisions about a colleague accused of rape, when women are under-represented in that government?
“How can any government credibly speak about any of these matters…”
Very easily when one of their”leaders” appoints himself “Minister for Women”.
Oh, and when there’s a compliant Press.
Surely, the Australian nation’s Attorney General could advise the Prime Minister of Australia on these matters of national importance ?…;-)
The A-G’s silence on such major matters will not stand him in good stead come the next election. A lot of rusted-on WA Liberal voters reportedly planning to vote Labor in the state election this month may be thinking, “That didn’t hurt as much as I thought it would.” And with the whole male part of the federal Cabinet in such bad odour…
Nor, hopefully will Petre Dutton’s use of the phrase “he said-she said”. What’s the collective for “a shower of tossers”?
Nah, that’s the oddly named Christian Porter. He doesn’t do things like that.
It’s a good thing the A-G supports keeping the minimum age for criminal responsibility at 10. 18 is significantly older than 10.
Hahahahahahahahahahaha…………..Oh……