The Alan Tudge affair is Scott Morrison’s government in microcosm: smoke, mirrors and a lingering stench you can’t quite place but end up just getting used to. Because, as always with these guys, you’re too exhausted to bother anymore.
The facts: Alan Tudge was (or is?) a cabinet minister. Rachelle Miller worked in his office as a media adviser in 2016 and 2017. In November 2020, Miller featured in the notorious ABC Four Corners episode “Inside the Canberra Bubble” with the disclosure that she and Tudge had conducted a secret affair when she worked for him. She said it was consensual. Tudge publicly admitted the affair and apologised to his family.
At the same time, Miller lodged a formal complaint with the Department of Finance, alleging that Tudge had serially bullied her. She alleged that he had made her fearful of losing her job. She ultimately moved from his office to that of Senator Michaelia Cash, where Miller claimed she was blocked from progressing her career as punishment for her earlier affair.
By February 2021, Miller had lawyered up and was reportedly planning to sue both Tudge and Cash in the courts for workplace harassment.
The story took a dramatic turn in December, when Miller went public with a new set of allegations. Her relationship with Tudge, she said, was not as she had previously described it but one characterised by emotional abuse. She said she was completely under Tudge’s control: “[the] bullying, intimidation and harassment I experienced from him while at work completely destroyed my confidence in my own ability”.
Miller also disclosed a specific allegation of physical abuse: she said that on a work trip she had gotten drunk and ended up in Tudge’s hotel bed. In the morning, he had physically kicked her out of bed, telling her to “get the fuck out of his room”. She said she didn’t know if they had had sex.
Morrison announced an inquiry into Miller’s new allegations, appointing Vivienne Thom to conduct it. Tudge stood down from the ministry. Miller refused to participate, on the basis that the inquiry’s terms of reference specifically excluded consideration of any allegations which could constitute a criminal offence. It smacked, she said, “of a political fix”.
Thom, hamstrung by Miller’s non-cooperation, properly concluded that there was insufficient evidence to support findings that Miller had been bullied or harassed, that her relationship with Tudge was emotionally abusive or that he had physically abused her.
Thom also found that Tudge had supported a promotion for Miller while they were having the affair without disclosing his interest. That was not, however, a breach of the ministerial standards, which apply conflict rules with respect to ministers’ family members but not their special friends.
Morrison announced that Tudge had been cleared, but he did not return to cabinet.
We learned recently that Miller’s legal claims have been settled, reportedly for a $500,000 payment, and that they included a previously unpublicised claim that she had been sexually harassed by another unnamed government MP. The settlement is confidential.
Miller has now waived her entitlement to secrecy and openly dared the government to disclose the full settlement terms. Morrison keeps deflecting, saying it’s a matter for the Department of Finance and that he hasn’t been briefed on the matter at all. He also claims that, because of that, the settlement must not involve the claims against Tudge. What it does relate to, he says he doesn’t know.
The final piece of the puzzle is that, contrary to what he is on record as saying previously, Morrison now says that Tudge is still in cabinet and welcome back to his portfolio whenever he likes.
I jest when I say final, because this puzzle has more holes than pieces. In truth, we know barely anything except a pile of untested allegations and some text messages which establish that Tudge tried to get Miller to not disclose their affair when she was renewing her security clearance.
Tudge hasn’t been cleared of anything except breaching the uselessly weak ministerial standards when he helped get his girlfriend a pay rise. The substantive allegations remain unresolved and no action has been taken with respect to the security clearance issue.
We have no idea why half a million dollars of our money was paid to Miller. We do not know if any admissions have been made by Tudge, or the unnamed other MP. We do not know if the bullying allegations against Cash have been resolved or remain hanging.
All we have is fog, out of which we are told Tudge will at some point soon emerge, when he chooses, to resume his briefly interrupted ministerial career. Behind him, fog. A more apt metaphor for this government of lies, gaslights and misdirections I cannot find.
It’s not unusual for co-workers to have liaisons. When one or more of them are married, it gets complicated.
What is unusual is for $500,000 to be paid as compensation.
I understand the details of the matter are said to be “confidential”. But what of the funding for the payout? Can we not access more detail about where the money is coming from? Who is the ranking official responsible for the decision to allocate the funds? Out of what budget were the funds resourced?
The Saturday Paper (16-22 April 2022) says “The government has declined to confirm details of the payment or explain why it was being made.”
Can Crikey shed more light on the administrative dimensions of the payout?
I can’t believe that Morrison is comfortable with some unknown “unelected bureaucrat” making such a huge payment
Well, he shouldn’t be comfortable with such a happening – another “nothing to see here” trick.
Yeah, half a million is a lot to be paying in this kind of scenario, particularly without any clarity about what exactly it’s being paid /for/. Obviously confidentiality will apply to a lot of the deliberations (though if Miller is happy to waive that I imagine a lot could be released publicly), but at the very least the broad outlines of what the settlement is supposed to actually /settle/ should be publicly available.
It’s no deeper than asking the lady to go away . . ..
…and be quiet, the most important condition.
That is remarkably succinct from you Ep, congratulations.
If the $500,000 are public monies? Then clearly back to basics . . . again and again.
Transparency. Accountability. Even more so deeply troubling, an utterly decimated Public Service. How is it even possible . . . TO TRUST?
Marise Payne and Jane Hume both made reference to the $500,000 being arranged through Comcare, however, this purported lump sum payment is not something Comcare would provide in these circumstances. This is something that goes through the ‘secret silent shush’ payment system arranged by the Dept. of Finance!
As Frank says ‘Can Crikey shed more light on the administrative dimensions of the payout?’
Seriously, if men in this country have no brains I hope women do and will show this ‘government’ the door.
More of the same, LACK of Accountability, modus operandi for LNP.
I will bet my last lazy $10 that suggesting someone omit information on an application for a Security Clearance is a crime under the Crimes Act
Definitely, s70 (i) would cover it for Tudge & (ii) for Miller.
What happened to Turnbull’s ‘no bonking’ decree resulting from the esteemed Barnaby Joyce’s parliamentary & extra curricular activities?
Isn’t Minister/non-Minister Tudge in breach of that ministerial standard?
Even a celeb. ‘lawyer’ like Talcum ‘the High Court Will So Find’ Harboursidemansion would know that there can be no legal (if that word still means anything…) restriction on extra curricular consensual fornication.
Like everything he ever said or did, it was “tell & don’t show” for momentary effect strictly for the rubes & punters.
Probably, but remember that Turnbull’s and Morrison’s standards are likely to be vehemently opposed.