Howdy dear availees...another quick one-topic post about the litany of sickly sycophantic pro-LNP journos who are attacking anyone and everyone who dares to criticise poor old Liberal Federal Attorney-General Christian Porter...apologies that I've bumped the Mick Fuller New South Wales police post, again, but when I read this bizarre piece by Murdoch hack Peter Van Onselen (below), it sent me into a quiet rage...this is typical of the appalling response from numerous (mostly male) journos...I can only apologise again to anyone who is reading my posts and is 'triggered' and/or re-traumatised, but I cannot imagine what this sort of allegedly professional, allegedly independent, alleged 'journalism' must do to traumatise victims/survivors...this was in The Australian and/or I think The Weekend Australian, on Saturday 6th March 2021...***
The way the allegations against Attorney-General Christian Porter crescendoed this week was utterly extraordinary. The denial of natural justice; the trial by media; the lost presumption of innocence; the mob mentality of convicting someone whom police didn’t even charge with a crime — I have never seen anything like it in Australian politics.
But it is also important to note that the mood that precipitated the unedifying pile-on speaks to genuine and understandable angst about a criminal justice system that has let women down, sexual assault survivors in particular. Conviction rates are disproportionately low compared with other crimes. People, women in particular, have had enough. Change is necessary; men need to understand that and pay more than just lip service to the groundswell of support for action.
Nonetheless, it is vital when seeking to overthrow tyranny that those who start with good intentions don’t themselves resort to tyranny or be used by those without good intentions in the first place. That may sound melodramatic, but in the case of Porter we have borne witness to something that hurts our institutions, our democracy, our standards of journalism and even perhaps the cause of better justice for sexual assault victims.
Ends do not justify means.
I don’t know any more than anyone else whether what was alleged to have happened back in 1988, when a 16-year-old girl and a 17-year-old boy attended a debating tournament, occurred.
But I do know that whether Porter is guilty or innocent, the way it played out publicly could happen to anyone and that should concern everyone. The trite bullshit that an innocent person has nothing to fear is rubbish. Read nearly any history book to understand why.
Porter has never been contacted by police. He hasn’t seen the so-called dossier prepared anonymously by the alleged victim’s friends. Neither have most of us. Selected materials from the accuser have been selectively leaked to selected personnel. Then when the time came for one journalist to publish the accusations, they were never put to the person they were being levelled against, according to Porter, which to my knowledge has not been contradicted.
That is extraordinary.
That the initial publishing of the allegations was anonymous doesn’t make this failure any better. It precipitated a pile-on and a witch-hunt. It put the entire Morrison cabinet under a cloud. In short, it released the hounds.
We have heard from a random collection of the alleged victim’s friends, most of whom lost contact with her for most if not all of the past 30 years. We have not heard from her parents, who according to their daughter’s own writings and recordings — none of which were contemporaneous to the alleged crime, by the way — questioned her claims and didn’t want the issue to go public.
I can only imagine their trauma at losing a child before also having to endure this. She, according to what has been released, had deep psychological issues. But we don’t know, of course, whether they were caused by a traumatic event or her reported bipolar disorder, of which delusions are a possible symptom.
Yet friends who knew her as a 16-year-old, but not for the following 30 years, are sure. So the parents who weren’t so sure, and presumably have lived through their daughter’s difficult life, are ignored, as are their wishes for privacy. I find that extraordinary.
One fact that isn’t in dispute but does seem to get breezed over lightly is that the alleged victim withdrew her complaint. She did so one day before taking her own life. People will make their own assessments about what may have motivated her to do so, but the bottom line is that none of us will ever know. She withdrew the complaint.
Scott Morrison has said that there won’t be an independent inquiry into what happened. I disagree with this. We should get line of sight on these anonymous friends and their exchanges with journalists, seeking to bring this issue into full view.
An inquiry with all the powers to compel witnesses and access electronic communications should happen in this matter. A chance to interview the alleged victim’s psychiatrists to paint an accurate picture of her mental health. The fact the family released a statement on Thursday indicating they would welcome an inquiry only adds to the value of having one.
The irony is not lost on me that Porter is part of a government that denies refugee rights, used robodebt to take away the presumption of innocence for welfare recipients and fell in line behind a Prime Minister who used the floor of parliament to summarily stand down Australia Post chief executive Christine Holgate on spurious grounds. I have railed against the Coalition on each one of these fronts. But its failures to observe proper processes are no excuse for others to do the same, and in a most extreme and egregious way.
As Porter said at his media conference on Wednesday: no one is beyond an allegation. That is why allegations that were never put to him before being published, that didn’t lead to charges or even a police interview for him, allegations the accuser ultimately withdrew, weren’t sufficient for him to get sacked. Were that to happen then anyone could weaponise allegations to remove any politician, or indeed anyone else, with any degree of legitimacy.
Yes, I have known Porter for more than 20 years. Unlike many others reporting on this sad saga with close links and friendships with the alleged victim, I have been open about that. However, what I think about Porter’s guilt or innocence on this matter became of no consequence once it played out the way it did when the allegations became public.
Which is why this is a matter for all of us. Self-interest should kick in because any one of us would want procedural fairness, which has been absolutely denied to Porter with the public tarring and feathering he has endured.
I know some of the people who have targeted him: ideological opponents who have disliked him since the moment they met him; people for whom ends justify means. No doubt Porter made it easier for them to dislike him with some of his antics.
Evidence could emerge tomorrow locking in Porter’s guilt for the alleged crime all those years ago and it wouldn’t change the fact that what has transpired in terms of denials of basic rights under our democratic and legal systems has been chilling and utterly disgraceful.
Peter van Onselen is a professor of politics and public policy at the University of Western Australia and Griffith University.
***Another appalling attack on the credibility of the victim in defense of his mate...the 'System' is all so terribly dysfunctional and "the mood...is genuine and understandable", until it's about his mate Porter, then it's an "unedifying pile-on"...calling for Porter to be held to account, particularly in a context where Scummo is refusing an appropriate independent investigation, that is apparently going to destroy democracy and undermine "the cause of better justice for sexual assault victims"...it's a well-established lie that no-one contacted Porter, numerous journos have said they tried but got no response at all...police failures to question Porter do not exonerate Porter, (**and PVO claimed the very next day on Insiders that he'd read the 'dossier')...then denigrates Ms Thornton's friends, her Mental Health, then drags her family back into it, but criticises about how their privacy has been breached...
His calls for an inquiry aren't about resolving the allegations against Porter, it's all about attacking the friends, the journos, her Mental Health again via her psychiatrists, etc...the LNP's rankly Fascist bastardry and litany or related rank hypocrisies is not an "irony"...he then defends his friendship with Porter but again attacks Ms Thornton's friends, who are not "anonymous", they've been publicly outspoken...the whole horrendous piece is riddled with deliberate inaccuracies and outright falsehoods...Van Onselen can't even agree with himself...first he states that Ms Thornton's family want privacy, but then acknowledges that they have publicly called for/supported the establishment of a formal Inquiry...
And unidentified political operatives allegedly sans moral or ethic are attacking poor old Christian, aided in their nasty agenda by "...some of his antics."...what a glib way to gloss over Porter's known history of appalling conduct towards/about women...there's only one thing here that's "utterly disgraceful", and that's you, Peter, mate...
Fact:...nobody specifically named Porter until after he had outed himself by erasing details of his attendance at that Debating competition from his own Wikipedia page, and related details were being removed from his former school's records/yearbook.
(*from yesterday, Sunday 7th March) Van Onselen is now appearing on the ABC's Insiders program, and opens with a joke about not being the Communist Party...it's a smart-arse comparison suggesting that Porter's position is some sort of Inquisition style persecution similar to the McCarthy Anti-Communism trials of the 1960s...his entire take is in defense of Porter, and he straight-out denigrates Ms Thornton by saying "I've read the document ...so much grey in favour of Porter/Scummo...the main issue is how this came out...it's happened at an unfortunate time for Christian...he was outed...editorial failures...(sent to senior politicians and police)...put to me and read them... trending on Twitter, in alternate media...if it was your child accused? (then interrupts answer)...panellists response, 'anyone can be accused , it's about the 'rule of law' for wealthy and powerful, and merely getting access to justice for the poor'...PVO continued, 'will everyone who hates him ever be satisfied'...(interrupts answer)...says she withdrew complaint...100% straight-out running protection for his mate, in exactly the same vein as above...Annabelle Crabbe says people putting on wig and gown and going through statement and saying this and that, which is what PVO has just done...
PVO declared some sort of 'disclosure' re The Project, 'were the
allegations put to the accused?'...this has forced his co-host Lisa
Wilkinson to take to Twitter to confirm what we who saw that interview
with Ms Higgins already know, because it was mentioned in that
interview, that yes, contact was made but there was no response...call
me a cynic but it looks like they've got Annabelle Crabbe in because
she knew Ms Thornton 30 years ago, and that's therefore going to give
Insiders the basis to argue that her presence 'balances' Van Onselen's
20+ years of close personal relationship with Christian Porter...PVO's closing statements were so appallingly self-focussed that it left the other panellists fuming and literally struggling for words...I urge dear availees to watch this entire Insiders episode, but here's a link to those closing comments...
https://twitter.com/Chris86767838/status/1368337967136219139
Some Random Facts:...the absolute obvious lie of Scott 'Scummo' Morrison stating that he must follow "the rule of law", because he is PM and chooses who is in Cabinet, etc, at a whim...
And now it's been reported that Health Minister Greg Hunt and Communications Minister Alan Fletcher also attended that 1988 Debating competition...so why didn't they speak-up and declare themselves innocent, etc?...my belief, because 1) they all knew who the perpetrator was, because 2) they all knew about the Rape, and 3) likely when it first happened, because 4) Porter likely bragged about it...
Reported yesterday that Linda Reynolds, currently on 'Sick Leave', will extend that 'leave' by a month and therefore not return to Parliament until after the next sitting session...penny to a pound that Porter will also be absent...45 minutes in to Insiders program and just getting to Reynolds...there is no excusing her calling Ms Higgins "a lying cow", but then trying to say that it was not about the Rape allegation but specifically about media issues, etc, that just makes it worse...but Scummo and others have repeatedly gone down that same road, saying 'there is no excuse', but then trotting-out a litany of excuses, 'it was a private conversation in her office', and 'it wasn't about the allegations', etc...this criticism, made in Ms Higgins' workplace, to her colleagues, on the day the Rape allegations were made public, are 1) irrefutably tied directly to the allegation, and 2) are definably defamatory, and 3) are likely Reynold's trying to discredit Ms Higins re that allegation...
Tomorrow: NSW Police Commission Mick Fuller Is Morrison's Little Errand Boy
I have absolutely no trust in either the New South Wales police or SAPol (South Australian police)...my experience of SAPol is that they will conspire to protect paedophiles, and NSW police have a lengthy record of closing alleged investigations without actually speaking to anyone involved...apologies if today's post is a bit 'jumpy', a bit disjointed, but I'm doing the best I can, cheers...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...
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