Two Women's Stories

Howdy dear availees...it will come as no surprise that, in the cataclysmic fall-out of the June long weekend 20 year anniversary of the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up, that I'm daily struggling with a freshly renewed contempt for the community I live in, and humanity in general...(well that didn't last long, what happened to the positivity related to the li'l ol' lady face-planting in the carpark and everyone rushing to her aid, etc, of just a coupla' posts ago?-Ed)...so anyhoos, ain't gunna' give the bastards the satisfaction...(such noble ideology-Ed)...so I'm gunna' just plough ahead as best I can manage...and today that's this...just wanted to share these 2 stories from far beyond my life experience...they're fairly self-explanatory so let's jump right in...this first one is another definitive piece about what an immoral, deceitful, arse-hat of an alleged human being our former PM Scott 'Scummo' Morrison truly is...I've included the link and the actual text...***

https://www.karenthinksaloud.com.au/blog/powerfulmenforwomensafety

For Scott so loved the women's safety...

New leaked internal polling from the Liberal Party shows that just 38% of its voters are now women. The numbers mark a crisis for the Prime Minister and Saturday’s election, but for most women, they don’t come as a surprise. 

 In 2018, when he was still a newly minted Prime Minister, Scott Morrison offered an apology to victims of institutional child sexual abuse, telling us, “I believe you, we believe you, your country believes you.” 

Following his swearing-in, he declared that as the new generation of Liberal leadership, “we’re on your side.” 

 For me, that’s hard to believe. His actions, or lack thereof, over my own allegations of sexual abuse have proved that when push comes to shove and he has the opportunity to show his support for victims in actions, rather than through hollow statements and well-worded sentiments, Scott is a man who loves to talk, but loves to shirk responsibility even more, as if his morality is just another thing to be outsourced to third party contractors.

 It’s been 32 years since I was sexually assaulted. My assailants were members of the church I attended as a child. 

 Despite the pastor learning of my allegations almost immediately after they occurred, there is yet to be adequate resolution or acknowledgement of responsibility from the church. Instead, I have spent the past three decades being thwarted every step of the way. 

 Anybody who has experienced sexual assault understands how hard it is to put into words the lasting impact this experience has had and still has on every facet of my life. Some days are good, some days are bad, some days are worse than bad, and sometimes, on the rarest of days, you get a reprieve and don’t think about it at all. In recent weeks, though, the decades of the pastor’s inaction have been constantly on my mind. 

 Scott has known my family for over half of his life. My older brother, Tim Stewart, is one of his oldest friends. Tim’s wife Lynelle, was an employee of Prime Minister & Cabinet until late 2020. Jenny was maid of honour at Tim and Lynelle’s wedding and enjoyed a few spins around the dancefloor with my other brother. Over the years they’ve stayed in touch, with Tim, Lynelle and the pastor’s family being part of the, now infamous, holiday in Hawaii in 2019. 

 Scott and Jenny began attending the same eastern suburbs Baptist church as my family back in the early 1990s. Eventually, Scott joined the leadership team, becoming an elder and giving the occasional Sunday sermon, no doubt honing speaking skills he’d later take with him to Canberra. 

 It’s impossible to know what he knew, if anything, at that time about the abuse I experienced. It took place well before he and Tim were friends and before he and Jenny became members of the church. 

 What I do know, though, is that without doubt Scott  has known the extent of my allegations since June 2021. This is when I first went public with my allegations, and my parents and I spoke to the ABC’s Four Corners program about my brother Tim’s growing involvement in the QAnon movement, and his proximity to the Morrison family. 

 As part of those interviews, I spoke of what happened to me all of those years ago at the hands of fellow congregants. 

 If the Royal Commission has shown us anything, it’s that churches like to keep secrets. I choose to believe Scott didn’t know of my abuse when he was an elder at the church, and that had he been aware of what Tim and my parents have always known to be true, he would have done something back then. 

 While, finally in 2018, the pastor of the church admitted a serious crime was committed against me, he still fails to accept responsibility for not having reported the matter to the police and, by extension, failing to meet the law’s mandatory reporting requirements. Even now, he remains unwilling to confront the full reality of the situation or support my search for justice. 

 By the time we head to the ballot boxes on Saturday, it will have been a year since Scott learned about what happened to me all those years ago and the impact that powerful men like himself turning a blind eye has had on my life, and the life of every other victim, every day since. 

 It will be almost 18 months since the allegations of former parliamentary staffer Brittany Higgins were made public and Scott told us all that Jenny had encouraged him to imagine one of their daughters was at the heart of the allegations. What about the little sister of your best mate? How should you think about it then? Sure, it’s good to pin a sexual assault awareness ribbon to your lapel, but victims want, need and deserve much more than that. 

 Saturday will also mark two months since Brian Houston, who is facing criminal charges over allegations he concealed his father’s sexual abuse, stood down from his position as leader of another powerful church. Just like the pastor from my family’s church, Brian too was once a close friend of Scott’s. 

 During an election campaign debate, while discussing former parliamentary staffer Rachelle Miller’s allegations against cabinet minister Alan Tudge, Scott said he believed that “all serious allegations should be investigated.” 

 To the best of my knowledge, Scott still hasn’t picked up the phone to have a frank conversation and ask the hard questions to the pastor we both know so well. If he really believes that all serious allegations should be investigated, though, why is that? 

 I imagine it’s for the same reasons that he didn’t think to invite Brittany Higgins to the parliament’s formal apology to victims of sexual harassment, sexual assault, and bullying. Or why he still fails to mention that Tim, Lynelle and the pastor’s family were all a part of his ‘last-minute surprise trip’ to Hawaii. Or why Christian Porter was allowed to accept almost $1 million from anonymous donors to cover his legal fees in a battle against the ABC, why Alan Tudge has stayed on as the Education Minister, and why Andrew Laming has been allowed to keep his job and continue to draw a six-figure salary from taxpayers even after admitting to bullying women. 

 Either Scott believes us, as he said he does in 2018 but doesn’t care enough to do anything about it or he’s been paying lip service to taking action. The problem for him now is that we are doing something about it. And unfortunately for him, victims - many of whom are women - outnumber even the most adept members of his spin team.  

 The culture of an organisation is shaped from their leaders’ behaviour. As a sexual abuse survivor, I refuse to remain silent when a man or his party protects and enables abusers, and won’t hold people to account. Scott may be surprised by how many other people feel exactly the same way come election day.

***(wow, just, wow-Ed)...indeed, a powerful statement from someone right at the heart of those multiple issues...and then this piece about the Amber Heard/Johnny Depp trial that recently dominated media globally...again I've included the link and the reduced Twitter thread...***

https://twitter.com/Sallou20/status/1520991615405461504

My mum was a victim of serious DV as I was growing up. He almost killed her on multiple occasions. Choked her, beat her, busted her up. Really bad, serious stuff. She cowered for years. One day she shouted back in anger while being beaten. And then it became the norm for (1/)

her to do that. Over time shouting became the only thing she could bring to these incidents. He'd come at her and she'd shout that he was evil, an asshole etc. Eventually she got brave enough to shout pre emptively. When he was coming home drunk, scaring the kids, smashing (2/)

 

up the furniture, or mistreating ppl, she'd call him out- she'd shout to try and out him in place. She explained when I got older that she was able to start doing that because whether she acted the strong woman and yelled at him, or was meek and mild, she was going to (/3)

get beaten anyway. In other words, my mother WAS incredibly meek and mild, most of her life, and being abused by my father actually made her louder. She was still afraid of him though. One night he almost killed her by choking her. That night she took a knife and put it (/4)

under her pillow. She was terrified. But you wouldn't know it to hear them argue. "You're pathetic", "beating on women and kids? You're a baby", or "Oh are you gonna try and be the big man as usual- gonna beat me up again??" she sounded so angry but all 5 children in that (/5)

house knew how terrified she was; we all were. Eventually my dad stopped physically hitting her. His sons had got old enough to possiblely fight him back, my mums strong abrasive attitude when she shouted at him, etc, made it not worth it for him anymore. She slept with that (/6)

knife under her pillow for years (my dad had moved permanently to the sofa; they were seperated more or less but living together). She threw things at him a few times. And sometimes when she felt brave enough, as he was beating her she'd try pummling back with her fists (/7)

To say that my mum abused my father in any way is ABSURD. She begged him to move out and leave us alone, and he stayed on that sofa for 15yrs out of spite. He beat her, assaulted her, abused her, over years-we were often witnesses. He terrorized us kids/teens. (/8)b

By the end my dad had stopped hitting, but was still nasty, vicious, violent with the furniture/doors/cupboards/dishes, we were constantly scared. Mum and dad would go months without saying a word to one another, until he either hit one of us, said something disgusting about (/9)

her or came home drunk. And if mum caught wind shed go give him a piece her mind verbally- by this point he'd started this thing of pretending to look lost and confused when she yelled, telling her to calm down in a delicate voice, and saying "ok, right ok" as if he was (/10)

the one being mistreated. Having painted the picture of what the course of their RL looked like.. Imagine this. Imagine if, for some reason, there was audio recordings of my mum when she was shouting. Audio clips of her calling him an asshole, a baby, going nuts, and (/11)

him quiety going "alright yeah, calm down, ok". Audio clips of them talking about one of the times she tried hitting him back. Audio clips of him mentioning times she'd thrown things at him. How EASY it would be to point to those and think my mum a bad person. The idea of (/12)

such clips being used to paint my mum as some sort of abuser has me literally crying right this second thinking about it. The idea that people could hear those, and with no knowledge of the context they existed in, think badly of her, or worse- be used to imply she was (/13)

lying about my fathers abuse- makes me so upset and frustrated I cant put it into words. BUT IT COULD SO EASILY BE DONE. Because in those moments she WAS angry, aggressive, attempted to belittle and shame him, sometimes attempted to be violent back, threw things. (/14)

She did those things. She did them. But hearing such clips would NOT IN ANY WAY paint an accurate picture of what was going on behind closed doors in my home growing up (and into my early 20s) Yes, I'm thinking on all this right now, at 5.30am, because the Depp case has (/15)

frustrated. Because in those clips of Heard shes being utterly shamed for, I can absolutely hear the exasperation, frustration, desire to be a "bad bitch" / not a a victim, and fight back etc in Heards voice as I always heard in my Mums. I do not know for absolute certain (/16)

whether Heard was simply a violent abuser- but I do know that it has always been her testimony (and she has always admitted) that she started fighting back/hit JD after the RL had already been abusive on his end for some time. And it makes (/17)

me profoundly sad that, considering there is reasonable evidence to suggest he was indeed violent with her at times, that no one seems to accept even a *possibility* that (as bad as those clips might sound) they might not give an accurate picture of what actually went on- (/18)

and could in fact still be consistent with her having dealt with his abuse first, before eventually starting behaving as she did. Because if my mum was ever recorded in certain moments, she would have sounded monumentally *worse* than Heard does. It just upsets me to think (/19)

that were my mum ever recorded, the way she reacted to her own abuse could be used against her to discredit anything she had to say about my dad. And no one would be willing to give the benefit of the doubt to that behaviour (and, considering I was talking about the (/20)

Depp case, any evidence/examples of my fathers own abuse would be excused, downplayed and explained away by the same people unwilling to extend the same benefit of the doubt to the hypothetical recordings of mum... I guess all I'm saying is this: (/21)

If Heard were indeed abused over time by Depp, and eventually started fighting back and trying to give as good as she got, I would actually EXPECT her to be as angry, belligerent, mocking, frustrated, violent, on edge, etc as she seems in those clips- and so such clips (/22)

dont *NECESSARILY* paint an entirely accurate picture by themselves. I say this as someone who literally watched this play out over time in my own home. He finally left us, btw, cause my mum chased him out of the house, hitting him the whole way, and calling him a piece of shit

This was very long, and just me thinking aloud to cyberspace... Thanks to anyone to bothered to read it. (Also. mum, I love you more than life itself xxx)

 

***...like most people, I don't have any real idea about what really happened in that Heard/Depp relationship...(but that hasn't stopped many others having very specific opinions about whom did what to whom, or not-Ed)...exactly, and that's why I wanted to share this piece...

That's a very 'borrowed' post I know, but I'm genuinely motivated to share these 2 experiences/stories, and hope they've helped y'all to a more informed position...if I had to link them, I'd say that connection lies somewhere in the culture of control, usually by men, and particularly of women... 

 

Tomorrow: The 'James Morrison Escapes Responsibility' Post

 

Relating to the 2 Rapists that Morrison has supported and protected...(and that's the 2 we know of, gourd knows how many other students have been groomed/assaulted/raped and that also has been covered-up-Ed)...a fair point well made...

 

I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...