Peter Van Onselen Is A Vile, Immoral, Misogynist Rapist Protector

Dear availees...I am not a person who is naturally 'hateful' of others, but life has taught me that there are plenty of people that I can and do feel that way about...and rancid Murdoch hack Peter Van Onselen is one of those people...in a recent post we covered his appalling attacks on Ms Katharine Thornton, both in the Murdoch gutter-scum press, but far more concerningly on the 'national broadcaster' the ABC, on their Insiders program, and also on The Project (Channel 10)...now he's taken his rancid attempted character assassination of Ms Thornton to a sickening new low, printing carefully selected portions of her 'dossier' as supplied to police and/or politicians...

 Language Warning:...and fuck Christian Porter and the Self-Righteous Privilege Pony that he rode in on...there is no question for me or many, many others that Porter did Rape Ms Thornton in 1998...everything I've seen about this screams-out that Porter did Rape Ms Thornton, and that literally everyone knows/knew...from Porter's censoring of his social media profiles, eg, removing any connection to his debating history, and then his crocodile tears and vacuous denials and definable lies about how he didn't know what the allegations are and nobody asked him, etc, as per his appallingly self-sympathetic press conference (Wednesday 3rd March 2021)...from Scott 'Scummo' Morrison's constant disingenuous claims that he wasn't told and/or hasn't read anything and therefore doesn't know, and his belligerent declarations that somehow he still knows that Porter "is innocent", and constant erroneous babble about "the rule of law" and related flat-out refusal to do an appropriate independent inquiry, etc...from the abject failures of the Australian Federal and/or New South Wales Police to take a statement from Ms Thornton and then lie about it, and/or read the letter recently provided and/or contact witnesses listed there-in , etc, etc...and then there's the rancidly vile attacks from the gallery of fuckwit luminaries oozing their collective fuckery out of gutter press formats like SKY News and the Murdoch swamp...

And arguably the worst of this sad shit-pile of toxic humanity is Peter Van Onselen...most of these clowns make no attempt to try and disguise just how bigotted and biased they are, and what sort of Right Wing pro-Liberal/National Party supporters and apologists they are...but not Peter, he's all about what a great guy he is and just calling it as he sees it, etc...his own rancid actions regarding Ms Thornton, attacking her in defense of his good mate Christian Porter, this is what defines PVO as a fucking prick...where in all of his horrendous attacks on Ms Thornton does Pete, mate, accurately define just how much he and his wife have profitted directly from their association/friendship with Porter?...when will Pete, mate, in his relentless and very deliberately pro-Porter selective denigration of Ms Thornton acknowledge the direct causal links between Violent/Sexual Assaults and the onset of traumatic Mental Health issues?...

Here's Pete, mate, here's his latest scurrilously manipulative defamation of Ms Thornton, on behalf of his Rapist mate Christian Porter...and how the fuck did Pete get hold of these documents that were sent to Scummo and Penny Wong and Sarah Hanson Young?...who has passed this critically sensitive information onto this rancid little Murdoch stooge?...was it Scummo? Porter? the AFP? the NSW Police?...***   

The sitting fortnight ahead will be a difficult one for the government. Scott Morrison will be without the services of his Leader of the House, Christian Porter, who is also the Attorney-General and Industrial Relations Minister. This means the Coalition will be playing catch-up when it comes to parliamentary tactics. It also means that one of the few policy scripts the government appears to be willing to fight for — IR reform — is likely to stall.

Defence Minister Linda Reynolds will also be absent this week and next. Both are off on medical leave. Her absence during Senate estimates hearings will be met with plenty of scepticism. Just wait for the theatre. While both ministers won’t be present (there is a chance Porter may return for the second sitting week) their political shadows will certainly loom large: Reynolds for the way she handled rape allegations in her ministerial office, including reports she called the alleged victim, Brittany Higgins, a “lying cow”, while Porter continues to be in the spotlight for an historical sexual assault allegation that was reported on the ABC, albeit without the allegation even being put to him first.

(***There are no "reports", Reynolds has settled Ms Higgins' defamation claim, including paying Ms Higgins' legal costs and compensation...Pete knows that multiple media tried to contact Porter but that he refused to respond...this is Pete carefully, knowingly lying on behalf of the LNP***)  

We certainly live in strange times.

Throw in that Health Minister Greg Hunt will be hobbling around the corridors of power, having only just recovered from a bacterial infection in his leg. “Not related to the vaccine” seemed to be the first response from anyone and everyone in government when asked what happened to him, desperate not to give the anti-vaxxers any oxygen. That note even bobbed up in the daily talking points for Coalition MPs.

While Labor will zero in on the government’s myriad problems in question time and estimates, in a further twist to federal politics right now, Anthony Albanese is the leader under the most pressure, not Scott Morrison.

Yes, Morrison could and should have handled all of the above better than he has. To put it bluntly, he’s been out of his depth, seemingly determined to highlight differences between how he leads and how John Howard approached leadership. But Labor MPs will be watching Albanese very closely during the sitting fortnight ahead, mindful that if he can’t take paint off the government and the PM in these circumstances, what chance does he have in an election campaign?

So far Labor MPs haven’t been impressed with the lack of cut-through during opposition question time performances. “I don’t know where the bar exactly is set,” one Labor frontbencher says. “But he’s got to jump over it and stick his landing. Albo’s greatest strength right now is that those who want to replace him can’t settle on a candidate, and there are no guarantees any one of them would do better.”

A nicely worded quote for someone who sees themselves as a leadership option. The joys of anonymity’ there has been fair bit of that lately in Australian politics.

But the closer we get to the next election the risk grows that opposition MPs panic and make a move against Albo.

It is a perverse situation that so much can be going wrong for the government yet it is the opposition that has the most to lose from this sitting fortnight. It goes into it as the favourite and needs to come out the other side seen as the winner.

Which is not to suggest that Coalition MPs aren’t concerned with how they are travelling. They are. So is the PM and so is the cabinet. One minister noted that Morrison looks panicked in private, which isn’t something they have seen before: “Other than at the start of the fires.”

But he has time on his side. No one is challenging Morrison, no one is lining him up. His heir apparent is obvious, Josh Frydenberg, but the Treasurer isn’t counting numbers, not even close. The PM chooses the timing of the next election and remains in front in the polls. His federal director, Andrew Hirst, is the best in the business, having masterminded the come-from-behind campaign in 2019.

Not that polls worry Morrison anyway — he only won one poll in the previous term, the one that mattered. Election Day. If Team Morrison has anything to worry about, it is that it lacks a clear narrative for re-election beyond appearing a safer option than the alternative. It has a penchant for winning elections but little ideological motivation for staying in power beyond retaining patronage and keeping Labor away from the Treasury benches.

It’s not the best pitch for a fourth term in office I have ever heard.

At one level Morrison’s is an old-fashioned conservative ethos, made more potent by the fact the last election saw Labor advocating for controversial reforms. Labor’s failure to get an ambitious policy agenda across the line at the 2019 election threatens to usher in another era of policy timidity.

Of course, there’s much more to policy innovation than mere electoral politics. Only parts of the Hawke-Keating agenda of the 1980s were put to the electoral test. We shouldn’t expect political leaders to show courage — to use a term currently in fashion — when the electorate and the media reward a more conservative approach.

There is something to be said, though, for relying on the political advantages of incumbency and the extensive machinery of government to conjure the combination of policy ideas, political support and skill at implementation, which is essential to sustain political change. This gives political leaders greater control of policy debate in a media environment that rewards short-termism.

While hardly an example to inspire young political activists, the last Labor federal government did progress modest proposals on broadband and disability insurance.

On the other hand, when it came to carbon emissions trading, a bolder policy from the opposition couldn’t be sustained in government. Yet Labor in opposition doesn’t look particularly energised on any of these fronts.

Morrison in many respects embodies the limitations of contemporary Australian politics: spin as a first instinct, little policy imagination, and a risk-averse approach, even after a solid election win. Yet, along with the states, the federal government showed a good deal of policy flexibility when faced with the COVID-19 crisis.

Which adds up to tough political times ahead for Labor, notwithstanding the quagmire the government appears to currently be in.

***...absolutely fucking extraordinary!...with all of the rancid LNP corruption, upto and including multiple Rape Cover-ups, and it's still 'Labor Labor Labor'...and now Pete has gone even a step further down into the pro-LNP Murdoch cesspit by sharing/supporting another rancidly defamatory attack on Ms Thornton, this time from Janet Albrechtsen...I can't get the actual article because it's behind a paywall...it's a deceitful manipulation, distorting the facts with selective publication of specific documents, ignoring the vast likelihood that Rape trauma led to the Mental Health issues, and all to try and perpetrate the disgraceful denigration of a person who cannot defend herself...and as many have observed, the same people like Pete who have decried a "trial by media" of poor old Christian Porter, they clearly have no problem with "trial by media" for Ms Thornton...they are collectively immoral scum, the lowest of the low, and everything they do and say about this only further confirms that Porter did Rape Ms Thornton, and that Scummo and the LNP know that, have known for quite some time, and so too the police, and all involved are complicit...   

https://twitter.com/vanOnselenP/status/1370467787722854401

Here's the link to the This Is Not Journalism hashtag regarding Pete's latest effort... 

https://twitter.com/search?q=%23ThisisNotJournalism&src=typeahead_click

Here's some of many comments that perfectly encapsulate what so many people are feeling and saying about Pete... 

*1) Van Onselen demonstrates the depths to which the gutter Murdoch press will go to support its mates in the #Bufocracy by publishing leaked documents cherrypicked to discredit dead alleged victim.

2) The ultimate humiliation for Kate. The thoughts of a vulnerable woman, in words & images, splashed on the pages of a newspaper. How did you & Janet Albrechtsen choose which pages of her diary to undermine & humiliate her with? This is beyond sad & tragic. It's unconscionable.

3) I’ve just unfollowed @vanOnselenP for or retweeting an article in the Australian that shows a page of Katherine’s writing when she was clearly not well mentally. What was the purpose of this article? To paint Katherine’s mental state as being so unstable, she must not be believed

4) It goes like this. Woman suffers severe trauma when she’s raped. Men who enable rapists say she can’t be believed about the rape because of the severe trauma she’s suffering as a result of it. This is how much they hate us

5) @Lisa_Wilkinson @theprojecttv Peter van Onselen must not be on the panel while the Porter rape allegation remains unresolved. He’s not a journalist, but a poorly biased friend who’s creating harm to not only the alleged victim’s family but all the women who have been assaulted.* 

Also many, many people tweeting that they will no longer be reading anything Pete does, and/or watching The Project, and calling for The Project host Lisa Wilkinson to call-out her co-host Pete live on air...and that if she doesn't, she effectively tars herself as complicit in his appalling conduct...

Tomorrow: Some New LNP Corruption Scandal

Someone was telling me that jolly japesters have been wittily quipping on social media that Liberal Member for Barker Tony Pasin will take his recent fourth pre-selection win all the way to the Prime Ministership, 'cos he's about the only Liberal left who doesn't have a Rape and/or other Corruption scandal hanging over them...so I reckon I'll help Tony back into the LNP fold by detailing just exactly how complicit he is in the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up...have covered this stuff before here on TMGI, but it's currently relevant...

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

Why Are So Many Male Journalists So Hell Bent On Denigrating Ms Katherine Thornton?

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.

READ MORE:All balance lost in a Canberra witch trial|Alpha abusers, beware|Canberra’s #MeToo has come at a dreadful price|Political stunt takes focus off the most vulnerable

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.

Peter Van Onselen

Dr Peter van Onselen has been the Contributing Editor at The Australian since 2009. He is also a professor of politics and public policy at the University of Western Australia and was appointed its foundation c... Read more

***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...

Teachers Registration Board Victim-Blames 7 Year Old Kids - The St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up

Howdy dear availees...a very quick post to address the epidemic of Victim Blaming currently infecting the Australian media and some parts of politics with regards to the Ms Brittany Higgins Rape Case, and the Ms Katharine Thornton Rape Case...particularly with Ms Thornton the (usually male) journos have been flat-out casting aspersions about the 'mental health' of the accuser and how that impacts on poor old Attorney General Christian Porter, etc, etc...literally everything is being said/done by a cabal of rancid little men (and some women, particularly Liberal/National Party women) to discredit Ms Thornton and protect Porter, etc, and all carefully avoiding the very specific likelihood that Ms Thornton's health issues were triggered by being subjected to a violent Rape as a teenager...this is a typical 'The System' strategy to cover-up abuses and protect perpetrators, etc, denigrate the survivor/victim and undermine their story, etc, by using the trauma suffered due to the Rape/Assault against them...I have repeatedly stated how triggered/angered/traumatised I am by what's happened these last few weeks, but that I cannot imagine the suffering of victims/survivors...and today I'm going to quantify that trauma and why the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up has direct parallels to current issues...regular availees will remember most of this, but here it is...

In February/March 2003 several parents, myself included, petitioned the South Australian Teachers Registration Board to take disciplinary action against "text-book grooming paedophile" teacher Glyn Dorling...Dorling was exposed in June 2002 for abusing most if not all 7 year old students in his grade 2 class at St Martins...he was removed from teaching on the June long weekend and never returned to the classroom, but sued the school for 'Unfair Dismissal', which the Lutherans did not contest so he received a $250,000 pay-out, all hidden behind 'Confidentiality Agreements', and he left the school permanently/officially in late 2002...it was later alleged to us parents by Emeritus Professor Freda Briggs (late 2004) and Child Abuse Commissioner Ted Mullighan (early 2005) that the Lutherans had simply moved Dorling to Victoria were he was teaching in a Lutheran School...the SA TRB started their 'inquiry' in March 2003, interviewed several parents in May/June, and then 'suspended' their Inquiry twice, until eventually starting in June 2004...they then held 7 different hearing dates from June to November 2004, forcing us parents to repeatedly travel back and forward to Adelaide (450kms away)...with hindsight, these multiple adjournments/delays were undoubtedly about causing maximum stress and trauma to us parents...

In November 2004 the TRB completely exonerated Dorling, and sent us parents a 2-line letter, sans any actual explanation, and subsequently refused our multiple requests for any explanation and/or a copy of the TRB's 32-page long Reasons For Decision...but when several families tried to sue the Lutherans and Dorling, Dorling then used that TRB Reasons for Decision in his Affidavit...I was not directly involved, but when that attempted action collapsed due to the rancidly corrupt betrayal of parents by lawyers Bill DeGaris and Peter Humphries, DeGaris handed that Affidavit and other paperwork to myself and another parent...I recall he literally shoved it across the desk at us, told us it was all over, so sad, too bad, and couldn't get us out of his office fast enough...raging incompetent that he is, Bill DeGaris literally makes 'incompetent' a proper noun, we would likely never have accessed that TRB RFD if Dorling hadn't used it and then DeGaris handed it to us...it was thusly revealed that Dorling had acknowledged the contacts that he was 'accused' of, but had actually blamed the kids as being out of control, that the kids had forced themselves on him and he couldn't stop them...he actually stated, 'if I hadn't been reported I was about to report it myself'...

This completely contradicted the evidence of Flinders Child Protection Unit/Services, who are quoted in the TRB RFD as stating that there were concerning contacts and "games" taking place in that classroom, and that they were instigated by Dorling...the TRB had also ignored 1) extensive other testimony from FCPU/S and their official report(s?), 2) the FCPU/S's reports of their interviews with several children, ie, the children's statements, and 3) the testimony of us parents about what our kids had said to us and/or what we had personally witnessed...all of that extensive evidence and testimony was ignored or dismissed by the TRB, who chose to believe Dorling's extraordinary defense of blaming the children...the TRB also called me a liar, stating that my testimony was "not honest recollection", and completely dismissed my eye-witness evidence as irrelevant...

And I remind dear availees that Dorling was represented in that Inquiry by lawyer Stephen Lieschke, the law firm partner of then Labor Minister and soon to be Premier, Jay Weatherill.

I also remind availees that the TRB panel consisted of then Liberal leader Rob Kerin's cousin Carmel as Chair, and majority if not entirely of Teachers Union members/associates...Dorling was the Teachers Union representative at St Martins.

I also remind dear availees that "text-book grooming paedophile" was how FCPU/S described Dorling to me in August 2002 when expressing their deep concerns that SAPol (police) had already dumped their alleged investigation in July 2002, and did so without even informing parents or FCPU/S, and that they were finding all that out via me...

Despite all of the evidence to the contrary, including professional reports/testimony/opinion/evidence, etc, etc, the South Australian Teachers Registration Board 'Victim Blamed' a class of 7 year old, grade 2 children for the litany of abuses committed against them by "text-book grooming paedophile" Glyn Dorling.

The South Australian Teachers Registration Board 'Victim Blamed' 7 year olds...as abhorrent and vile as the current spate of politically expedient 'Victim Blaming' is, this is what was done to us and our kids by the TRB in 2004.  

There was also a litany of 'Victim Blaming' from SAPol, who repeatedly blamed us parents for their abject failure and repeated refusal to do any sort of investigation...they never formally interviewed Dorling, claiming to have 'spoken' to him but refusing to provide any evidence of that...they repeatedly blamed us parents for "not lodging official complaints" as an excuse for dumping their 'original investigation' in mid-July 2002, which was an outright lie because I and other parents had attended Mt Gambier Police Station numerous times, requesting to lodge complaints, provide statements, etc, but we were constantly refused doing so...SAPol then blamed us parents for dumping their fake alleged 'second' investigation, stating that we had been discussing it amongst ourselves and that denied Dorling fair process, etc...sound familiar? it's exactly what's happening with Porter...refer/defer to a fake police investigation whilst screeching about the 'alleged' perpetrator's rights, etc...

We were also repeatedly attacked by Pro-Paedophile Corrupt politicians, eg, the rancidly corrupt Rory McEwen who initially promised to help us "fix a broken system" (August 2002) , but then backed out (late 2002) stating there was nothing he could do...in that meeting in his office, he actually told myself and 3 other fathers that "it's your fault that your kids have been abused because you sent them to that school in the first place"...I still applaud those fathers that Rory got out of that meeting alive...the rancidly Pro-Paedophile Corrupt Rory then attacked us on the front page of The Border Watch ( 6th May 2005) as being 'conspiracy theorists who think everything is corrupt', and had "actually hounded the teacher"...Rory knew the most intimate details of what our kids were subjected to, and he betrayed us and them to 'buy' his way into a Ministerial position with the equally Pro-Paedophile Corrupt Rann Labor government...   

And that's 'tip of the iceberg' stuff when it comes to the 'Victim Blaming' associated with the St Martins Cover-up, eg, the Lutherans openly and repeatedly attacked us few parents as "perpetrators of bad rumours", not least of all as stated in their school news letter in July 2002...Lutheran hierarchy were attending their precious Church and telling everyone that it was all just a few trouble-maker parents stirring-up trouble about nothing much...we were accused of just trying to get money from the school, accusations parroted in 'Comments' on this blog by anonymous stooge 'Dick Stretcher'...and on it went and on it goes...

But for all of that rancidly Pro-Paedophile Corrupt 'Victim Blaming' of parents, and even compared to what's happening right now re Ms Higgins and Ms Thornton, is there anything more illustrative of the Pro-Paedophile/Pro-Rape System, or more grossly appalling, than the TRB 'Victim Blaming' 7 year old kids?...and yes, that is a bitterly sarcastic rhetorical question...

Tomorrow: Alleged Journalist Peter Van Onselen Victim Blames Ms Thornton To Defend/Protect His Mate Christian Porter

Appalling doesn't begin to describe his conduct, let alone that multiple media outlets/programs like the ABC's Insiders program have him on to spew his vile pro-Porter bias into our collective faces...Language Warning...fuck off back under your rock Peter, and take your fucking mate Christian with you...End Language Warning...I note that the Murdoch media, of which Van Onselen is one, they are running continuous multiple stories denigrating Ms Thornton and bleating about poor old Christian...

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

Liberal Party En Masse Lie About Brittany Higgins Rape Cover-up

Howdy dear availees...it's been such a 'bizarre' fortnight of watching PM Scott 'Scummo' Morrison and the Liberal/National Party drowning in a rancid cesspool of their own toxic conduct...I've been chronically unwell, myself deeply triggered and re-traumatised regarding the similarities playing-out here and what we parents experienced with the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up...cannot imagine what it must be like for victims/survivors (for lack of a better descriptor)...started this post a week ago and events have repeatedly stampeded over it, several more half-posts in 'Drafts', etc, but gunna' post this and move onto the next one, and then again, and so on...***

If you can stomach it, here's the link to Scummo at the UN international Women's Day forum last week...as per usual, and usually by ignoring it, here's Scummo desperately trying to distance himself from the horrendous reality of what happened to Ms Higgins and how appallingly corrupt he and the LNP have been in covering it up, and then trying failingly to cover-up that cover-up, etc, etc...in what parallel dimension is it even vaguely appropriate to have this lying, moral-less misogynist speaking at this event?...in general, he quite deliberately does everything he can to minimise and de-personalise the Rape and/or Ms Higgins, whom he constantly and disrespectfully refers to as 'Brittany', and move the reality into the realms of 'an incident', and/or 'the issue', etc...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzht7ObTQvs

But Scummo doesn't just save his base political hypocrisy for Ms Higgins, with his faux-concerns for the safety of all workers, etc, and fronting-up to the UN Women's event, etc...two weeks ago, the day after his LNP government unilaterally dismantled/destroyed the Family Court (without being asked/lobbied by anyone, or consulting a single expert or provider, etc, and against the wishes/advice of many experts/providers, etc), immediately rendering 1,000s of woman and children vastly more vulnerable to Domestic Abuse, Homelessness, etc, Scummo stood at the Dispatch Box in Parliament and asked everyone to spare a thought for Hannah Baxter and her three children, Aaliyah, Laianah, and Trey...politicising the extreme trauma of a horrendously violent crime, with his usual soul-less crocodile tears, etc, for yet more rancid self-promotion...

Addressing the Ms Higgins case, Home Affairs Minister Peter 'Spud' Dutton carefully described the specific processes that define the fact that he's lying about what he was told and when...Peter says that the Australian Federal Police are 'legislated' to notify him of critical issues where-in the AFP become involved...given that the AFP 1) knew of the 'security breach' issue that saw the 'alleged' Rapist 'sacked', and 2) supposedly advised Minister Linda Reynolds on how to handle the situation, etc, both happening within days of the Rape, then Spud must have been informed immediately back in March 2019...and so when he claims that he was only informed the day before journo Samantha Maiden wrote to Linda Reynolds in February 2021, because that's the protocol/process, he's also explaining why that's a lie...and furthermore, how did the AFP know the day before it happened that Ms Maiden was going to make that call? were/are her communications being monitored? her and who else?...as the sole subject of the ICAC/SAPol 'Operation Baritone', I consider that all of my communications, ie, phone calls, emails, my computer, etc, were and likely still are being monitored/recorded by authorities...

Dutton's language has been appallingly revealing about exactly what goes on in that horror-head...as many have observed, he's a former cop and epitomises the attitudes/response that deter so many Assault victims from even going to police...here's how a Twitterer perfectly summed it up...      

**Peter Dutton says he wasn’t provided “with the ‘she said/he said’ details of [Brittany Higgins’s] allegation”. Yet to hear a physical assault or the like described as ‘he said/he said’   

Replying to

@AmyRemeikis

We went from tragedy, to incident, to ‘these matters, now to ‘he said/she said’ in less than two weeks

First Dutton called the rape an "extra curricular activity" and now he calls it an "operational matter"! Could he please borrow Scotty's empathy coach or Jenny to explain it to him?

"He said, she said" is only - barely - appropriate in the total absence of any evidence. I think once you have a disheveled distraught women found by security, deep cleaning of the room and AFO involvement we're in new territory.**

Last week in Parliament Scummo spewed forth his carefully advised and revised 'summary' of how terrible it is, and now it's about 'the protection of all Australians', and 'how wonderful are our highly qualified police, and especially those who deal with Sexual Assault'...and so it's Scummo desperately distracting and hiding behind 'it's all down to the police now'...(***which he continues to do, and we'll look at this in next post***)..and Scummo is brazenly praising-up the AFP, desperately hoping that the AFP, themselves finally shaken from their pro-LNP malaise by the abhorrent and obvious nature of both the Rape and the LNP cover-up, that the otherwise Labor-attacking, media-threatening, LNP-protecting AFP doesn't suddenly go against it's own well-defined modus operandi and actually investigate Ms Higgins' Rape properly and thoroughly, and then lower the boom on the perpetrator and on all of those whom have definably committed crimes by covering-up the Rape and protecting that perpetrator...     

Scummo has also said that he only recently found out about Ms Higgins' Rape, and now repeating Dutton's lies about 'only knew last week' (***Parliament live on ABC/BBC News Radio***)...Scott Morrison is not just lying, he's lying about the lies he's previously told, and lying about the base realities as they present themselves to everyone else...everyone except the Liberal/National Party and their usual entourage of Right Wing media remora and stoogish sycophants, etc, everyone else believes that Scummo knew that weekend (March 2019) or even that very first day...and even his carefully rehearsed and advised language is appallingly lacking in actual empathy and/or understanding...who in the living shreck says "I look forward to how that investigation proceeds"?...

It is fundamentally unbelievable that Morrison did not know that weekend...as covered in previous posts, there is a litany of Ministers, Prime Minister's Office staffers, security, the AFP, the Speaker and the President, and gourd knows who else, who all knew that day or within days...

Mr Speaker, Mr Speaker, Mr Speaker:...and Scummo desperately tries to give some credence to his relentless lies by addictively referring to 'Mr Speaker' over and over and over again, trying to vicariously attach to his deceits the credibility of the Speaker...and the truly wondrous irony of that, is that the Speaker Tony Smith has no credibility, he is a blatantly biased LNP servant in the grubby mold of Bronwyn Bishop...Lower House Speaker Tony Smith and Senate President Scott Ryan were both officially informed about Ms Higgins' Rape back in 2019, Ryan within 4 days (March 27th) and Smith within a fortnight (April 8)...I personally find it very hard to believe a scenario where the President didn't immediately contact the Speaker, and even if that didn't happen, that Smith didn't know well before the 'official' 8th April 2019...just listening on ABC/BBC News Radio to Scummo's latest Parliament lie-answer and we're already at 12 'Mr Speaker'...no 13...oops 14...I've read claims counting 30+ 'Mr Speaker' in a single extended answer, 40+ across 2 answers, etc...here again is the link to the Nine News article identifying what Smith and Ryan knew and when...and remember dear availees, that the Nine network is currently run by former Liberal Treasurer Peter Costello, so if they're reporting this deeply damaging stuff about the LNP, what does that say about the state of internal LNP politics?...

https://www.news.com.au/national/politics/brittany-higgins-speaker-and-senate-president-told-of-incident-two-years-ago/news-story/399f18f288821df2c2b1a868bf7d99c5

Just listening to the Speaker Tony Smith dutifully running interference on behalf of Scummo...it has been claimed then established that the 'alleged' Rapist Bruce Lehrmann attended a function at Parliament House shortly after his dismissal for a 'security breach' related to the Sexual Assault of Ms Higgins...it has been identified he attended 'a small event related to the Captain Cook commemoration' ...regardless of whom he attended with and/or in what capacity, eg, as the lobbyist he became after his dismissal, etc, it is fact that he would have had to be signed in to that event...but Tony Smith is claiming right now, in Parliament, that it would all be a bit difficult to trace that 'alleged' attendance because 'there are so many sign-ins to go through', and people who attend the public areas don't sign in, etc...the obvious truth, they know what function he attended and what date that function was and that he had to be signed-in to attend...Smith's vacuous response about 'it's all too difficult' is a deliberately deceitful denial of the facts as he knows them, and simply parrots other deceitful statements by LNP stooges, eg, Simon Birmingham in The Guardian article, link here... 

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/feb/25/man-accused-of-raping-brittany-higgins-in-ministerial-office-returned-to-parliament-house

And now former Liberal one-woman horror-show of desperately skewed ideology and rankly soul-less inhumanity, Amanda Vanstone, now Amanda's mouthing-off yet again about Ms Higgins...here is her extraordinary attempted gaslighting, victim-blaming, discrediting of Ms Higgins, whilst dutifully congratulating Scummo and attacking Labor...it's a cacophony of denialist diversion and ideological idiocy and victim-blaming thuggery...because this is such an appalling piece of abusive, victim-blaming dross I've pasted the full article rather than just a link...in a festering circus of low clowns, Amanda is at a sub-level all her own...***

February 22, 2021 — 12.04am

The Brittany Higgins story is unattractive on so many levels that it’s hard to know where to start. As is the case with so many aspects of life, others with hindsight and information not available at the time will second-guess everything. Armchair experts are everywhere.

Higgins claims that in March 2019, after attending work drinks at a bar, a colleague took her back to their boss’ office at Parliament House, where he raped her on a couch. Sexual assault and rape in Australia are all too common.

Brittany Higgins was allegedly raped at Parliament House.

The 2016 Australian Bureau of Statistics Personal Safety Survey found that 148,000 women and 57,200 men were sexually assaulted in the previous 12 months. Most assaults are not reported to police. One reason women don’t report them is concern as to whether they will be believed.

One of the trickiest aspects of rape cases is the question of consent. Understandably defence lawyers focus on that issue. Lawyers who have acted for both the prosecution and defence will assure you of something you already know: when two people go out and drink too much, the mental capacity of both can be impaired but the hormones can be raging. Just as Prime Minister Scott Morrison reflects on “what if this was one of my daughters”, so many mothers are reflecting on “what if this was my son”. They would be thinking, “I hope someone listens to his side of the story”.

If it turns out their son coldly took advantage of an inebriated young woman they’d be tossing a million things over in their mind. Did they fail in parenting? They’d feel simultaneously love and shame for their son.

In the end it doesn’t matter what prism mothers or fathers look through. Rape is against the law. Whether one occurred is something we have clear rules and a process by which they are followed to ascertain the facts.

Higgins’ boss, now Defence Minister Linda Reynolds, gave Higgins all the appropriate support when she heard about the incident. You might call it a textbook response. She listened to Higgins and respected the choices she made. She encouraged and assisted her to report what had happened to the police. Having spoken with the police, Higgins decided not to pursue the matter and asked that her privacy be protected. Almost two years later, Higgins changed her mind, spoke to the media and decided to proceed with the police report.

An emotional Minister for Defence Linda Reynolds in Parliament on Thursday where she apologised to Higgins. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

As tough as this seems, the fact Higgins chose not to lodge a complaint to the police until now allows people to wonder if there has been some sort of cover-up. The delay was her decision. I don’t blame her for that. But it’s made it harder for her and for everyone else. It has put Reynolds under an attack she does not deserve. Quite the opposite.

Reynolds offered Higgins the opportunity to work in a different place, namely Reynolds’ home state of Western Australia. Reynolds has been criticised for meeting Higgins in her office, the scene of the alleged crime. But at the time of their meeting, Reynolds did not know the significance of the couch. Because Reynolds respected Higgins’ desire for privacy, Higgins went on after the election to work in another office. Let’s put some clarity on that. If someone had applied to work in my office and the story going around was that she had come, drunk, into a previous minister’s office at the weekend, late at night, with a man, I would have thought very carefully before offering them a job. “Possible powderkeg” are the words which would have come to mind.

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Morrison knows his power – now is the time to use it

Veteran journalist Michelle Grattan described Higgins’ decision to go public as “the cluster bomb she’d tossed – in media terms, a highly organised operation with a kit of information circulated to news organisations”. Plenty of alleged victims understandably think hard about reporting a rape. Plenty take a long time to decide to pursue the matter with the police. Not so many have an organised media offensive. In whatever way they come forward, it takes great courage.

There’s some lack of clarity as to who in the Prime Minister’s office knew what and when. Ministerial offices depend on trust. It’s the most valuable asset in an office. If someone has let Morrison down he will rightly feel deeply aggrieved.

Labor Senator Penny Wong has urged the Prime Minister to stop treating the allegation “as a political problem”. It’s a clever tactic. Wong and Labor are using Higgins’ situation to be political, yet urge the Prime Minister to not do so. It is sadly all too common to see people using someone else’s misfortune to paint themselves as models of concern. You use a potential victim to promote your own caring credentials. It’s conspicuous compassion at its worst.

In federal Parliament, there is a high prevalence of advisers under 35. It’s a high-pressure job. They’re away from home, eating out and alcohol is at almost every restaurant. It’s a heady mix. There are things that could be done to improve the culture. But that mix will always be potent.

***Language Warning:...Amanda can take her grossly offensive "conspicuous compassion" and go fuck herself...this appalling attempt to blame Labor for what Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton and Linda Reynolds and Michaelia Cash and Simon Birmingham et al have done, are still doing, what a disgrace...

Anyone familiar with this issue will immediately see the victim-blaming, the gaslighting, the pro-Liberal redefining of facts, etc, but here's coupla' quick notes, from the top, 1) 'the story is unattractive on so many levels'...this is just straight-out offensive, it's not a 'story', it's Ms Higgins' personal trauma...2) 'information not available at the time'...reproducing already known lies, they all knew, and within days if not the same day it happened...3) "a text-book response" was threatening Ms Higgins job if she went to police...it was not "her decision" not to go to police, she was forced to that decision...4) how generous of the Liberals to re-employ this problematic person by moving her to Perth to get her out of sight and out of mind and out of earshot...that job was purely about damage control and also clearly illustrates that the Liberals knew that Ms Higgins was the victim...5) 'Reynolds didn't know', yes she did...6) constantly gaslight Ms Higgins about her conduct, eg, she was inebriated/"drunk", she has an organised media campaign...7) 'lack of clarity in PM's office'...bollocks, they all knew in March/April 2019...8) Labor, Labor Labor...blaming Labor for 'playing politics' is another attempt to discredit the facts and the seriousness of the Liberal's cover-up...

I could write volumes on literally every line in this rancid piece from this rancid Liberal apologist and denier, but she's hardly a lone voice, particularly with media half-wits like Andrew Probyn and Chris Uhlmann going in to bat for the LNP and doing the traditional gaslighting of victims/survivors... 

Tomorrow: Mick 'Could These Bins Be Any' Fuller Puts Out Morrison's Latest Bin Fire

And it's now a week since I started this post, and here's Scummo's latest effort when asked about the appallingly low conviction rates for reported Sexual Assaults...takes him 30 seconds to trot-out 2 of his classic deflections of responsibility, 1) 'it's a state responsibility', and 2) it's about "the rule of law"...and as literally every other 'sewer rat" is asking on Twitter, why in the living shreck didn't the New South Wales police interview Katherine Thornton, 'cos it looks like the classic 'Cover-up System' of repeatedly/constantly deferring investigation until the complainant gives-up...

https://twitter.com/Qldaah/status/1367675006491131907

Scroll down this Twitter thread 'cos it includes an excellently sarcastic but accurate clip of Scummo explaining the 'Rule of Law'...

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

Australian Of The Year, Ms Grace Tame, Is A Deadset Legend

Howdy dear availees...one and only one topic today, Ms Grace Tame's appearance at the National Press Club....if you did not see/hear her, find it somehow, eg, NPC Facebook, she is quite extraordinary...I previously called her appointment as Australian of the Year as being yet another in a long line of Scott 'Scummo' Morrison's  cynical political stunts, ie the top 4 awards went to women in a sickly cynical politicised attempt to distract away from the fundamentally misogynist boys club that is the Liberal/National Party...and as then as now, that is not a commentary on any of those women or their achievements, etc, and I stand by that observation, but today I watched it go ballistically pear-shaped for Scummo...

Ms Tame's presentation was succinct, measured, intelligent, and strong beyond comprehension...she was direct and specific and never broke into emotive hyperbole or anything even remotely like it...she was, in a word, extraordinary...and can I just say how nice it is to be able to use that word in it's positive context again, as opposed to the multiple times I've used it to describe the LNP's and Scummo's unlawful and immoral conduct...I noticed that several journos who asked her questions did so with breaking voices, clearly moved/affected...and when asked about Scummo using the phrase "as a father" and "I talked to Jen about it", Ms Tame responded;

It shouldn't take having children to have a conscience...and having children doesn't guarantee a conscience.

Simply brilliant...and when asked about Scummo's statement back in 2019 that 'we need to believe victims', and whether he's backed that up, etc, Ms Tame's response;

(pause) Obviously not! 

I urge you all to access and watch Ms Tame's presentation and responses... 

Tomorrow: More Federal Sexual Assault Issues

At 1500hrs this afternoon (Wednesday March 3 2021), #CabinetRapist is supposedly going to do a press conference, accompanied by his 'defamation lawyer', and thoroughly deny any and all realities...

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

PS: ABC News just reported this, using his name, 'we're going to hear from Attorney-General Christian Porter at 3pm'...

 

A Stop-Gap Post About The Politics Of Protecting Rapists And Paedophiles

Howdy dear availees...given the now multiple Rape 'allegations' related to Parliament House and/or the Liberal Party, it's been a very long fortnight...I know how much I've struggled, but I cannot imagine how traumatic it's been for Ms Brittany Higgins or Ms Chelsea Potter or the other un-named young women involved, or for the many, many people in our 'society' who have suffered re-newed and/or ongoing trauma after similar abuses, or worse, and had similar gross failures from authorities, etc, etc...for my part, I see a deliberate and very controlled male-dominated structure of denial and protection for Paedophiles and Rapists, particularly those in any position of influence and/or power...I have been absolutely triggered by the extraordinary similarities between the St Martins Lutheran School Child Abuse Cover-up, and Ms Higgins experience/treatment, where-in literally everybody in a position of authority, upto and including the Prime Minister's Office and the Australian Federal Police, they all know, they all have known since Ms Higgins' Rape occurred in March 2019, and yet nothing has been done until the story has hit the media...

Regular availees will be well aware of the exhaustive efforts of us parents to get appropriate action taken against "text-book grooming paedophile" teacher Glyn Dorling who abused an entire class of Grade Two 7 year-olds in 2002, if not hundreds of junior primary children, going back into the mid-1990s...and at every turn, particularly in dealing with SAPol (police), we were warned about the increased trauma that out kids would suffer...and I say 'warned' because it was a thinly veiled threat smeared with intimidation and accusation, ie, if you continue forward then you're bad parents because you've been warned about how traumatising the system is to your children...and traumatising in the context that everything will be done to protect and excuse the perpetrator in a system that's set-up and geared-up and motivated to do exactly that, protect the perpetrator...we were put through this Blame/Guilt grinder many, many times by multiple agencies, but most regularly and specifically by SAPol...  

What Ms Higgins has encountered, what Ms Higgins has been subjected to, is not an unfortunately disjointed and clumsily dysfunctional 'System', this is a 'System' that is doing exactly what it is designed to do, to openly dissuade and if that fails then discredit complainants, de-rail investigations, deny accountability, and protect and distract away from 'The System' itself...

And I'm feeling thoroughly drained and deflated, but it too shall pass, so, in trying to keep moving forward, here's a link to an excellent piece by a well-known Rape 'survivor', Ms Nina Funnell...I urge dear availees to read through the 'Comments' as well because there are some unpleasantly illuminating 'misogynist' views expressed there-in as well...

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/news-life/terrifying-truth-about-rape-convictions-it-shatters-your-belief-that-the-world-is-a-safe-place/news-story/9fc4a65689f180b3534d79f4fd019b8e

And in context, for a markedly less confronting almost amusing change of pace, here's the link to an extraordinary piece about Energy Minister Angus Taylor by Pauline Poulter...and I say quite facetiously that it's a change of pace because it's the organised, multi-faceted corruption defined here-in that is a cornerstone of 'The System', of 'The Establishment', of the structures of Entitlement and Institutionalised Corruption that lead to and precipitate and arguably demand the sort of Moral-Less Self-Serving Pro-Rapist and Pro-Paedophile Culture that pervades/controls/defines all of our 'Upper Echelons'...and it's down the rabbit hole because (Ms) Poulter has done several pamphlets/articles about various Ministers/Acolytes/Stooges, including a 200-page piece on Treasurer Josh Frydenburg, and so I've included a link to her full site/page...  

https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/65306978/angus-taylor-energy-and-emissions-reduction-minister

https://www.yumpu.com/user/paulinepoulter

Tomorrow: I'll Try To Get To The Mt Gambier City Council Rampant Corruption Stuff

Regular availees will have noted that 'Ed' has been absent for the past 5-6 posts...given that 'Ed' is a confected literary device used to debate/discuss conflicting perspectives, and/or set-up jokes, etc, I felt that the recent issues of Rape and Sexual Assault and related Federal government Cover-ups, etc, were/are too serious for 'jokes', and as far as I'm concerned, there is no 'debate' to be had...when the Prime Minister stands there and repeatedly straight-out lies about his clearly definable role in the Cover-up of Rape because it was/is politically damaging, there is no humour, there is no debate...

It puts me in mind of something my Pops used to say, and he worked for decades as a staffer in South Australian State Parliament, and as a result had nothing but contempt for the 'political classes'...and it goes a little like this...if you really want responsible and accountable politicians and a just democracy, then every few years you need to get some of the really off ones (politicians) and put them up against the wall (euphemism for execute them), and you just watch how fast the rest move to act responsibly from there-on in, when they know there's consequences...now I don't support Capital Punishment, but how's about a life sentence in hard labour, as meted-out by a non-corrupt ICAC, not the basely-corrupted bastardisation of an ICAC we have in South Australia...    

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

Has The Liberal Party Been Protecting A Serial Rapist?

Howdy dear availees...I'm not going to apologise for posting about this horrendous situation yet again...quite literally, before I'd finished yesterday's post there's been a series of extraordinary developments, including that a third young woman has now alleged that she was Raped by the same Liberal senior staffer who 'allegedly' Raped Ms Brittany Higgins...this 'alleged' Rape appears to be just one of a series of Assaults/Rapes committed by the same Liberal staffer...if you are not aware of the broader issues around Ms Higgins' experience, please read the previous 3 posts on this issue...also please, if you have not already signed it, here is the link for the official petition asking for the establishment of a genuinely independent authority to deal with these issues within Parliament...

Petition update · The alleged assault of Brittany Higgins and four more women · Change.org

Here's a link to another story from Channel 10's The Project who ran the initial extensive interview with Ms Higgins last week, as provided with our previous posts on this issue...

https://twitter.com/theprojecttv/status/1363403628564910087

Just listening to ABC/BBC News Radio live from Parliament and to Scummo again at the Dispatch Box lying through his crooked teeth about how his office only knew a week ago and there are currently processes underway to review the processes, etc, etc...he continues to be confronted with the un-challengeable reality that multiple senior Liberal staffers in his office knew about the Security Breach and resultant Rape back in March/April 2019, and that his office was notified at the time, and again repeatedly since, and that senior Ministers Michaelia Cash and Linda Reynolds knew directly, and that Ms Higgins was told outright that if she went to police that she would no longer have a job, etc, etc...

Fact:...Linda Reynolds has openly and categorically contradicted herself, alternatively stating and re-stating that 1) she wasn't aware of the 'alleged' Rape when she spoke to Ms Higgins only 3 days later and in the same office where it had occurred, but then has also stated 2) that she (Reynolds) had sought and received advice from the Dept of Finance about what to do about the Sexual Assault and spoke to Ms Higgins about that in that meeting...here's a link to the Twitter feed of journo Samantha Maiden...

https://twitter.com/samanthamaiden/status/1363273514988408834

Fact:...from the day of the Rape, and in the first week there-after there is a clear trail of multiple involvements from the Australian Federal Police, multiple Ministers and staffers, including from the PMO (PM's Office), and including the resignation of a senior Security official, reportedly due to the appallingly bad 'handling' of the incident... 

Here's the link to Scummo's extraordinarily bizarre and quite pathetic attempt to try and Daggy-Dad his way through the shit-storm of his own lies and deceits, trying to pretend that he's not the least bit concerned about the raging bonfire of accountability blazing just outside his door...in the circumstances, it is not just embarrassing to see our PM behaving like this, it is basely offensive...

https://twitter.com/Kiki__Stewart/status/1362956218201858050

...and it's particularly offensive because Scummo has only been a 'life-long' Sharkies supporter for about 9-10 years, it's purely a politically expedient construct to try and promote his 'Every Man's Mate' faux-persona with his electorate...that was Saturday, and then on Sunday came the hastily organised COVID19 distraction of him getting his vaccine shot, along with a couple of senior citizens...this took place at what is reportedly the clinic of an LNP supporter and Hillsong Pentecostal preacher...even that stunt went pear-shaped when Morrison semi-assaulted the elderly woman by grabbing and twisting her arm, and trying to laugh it all away...touch my elderly mother like that and see how it works out for you Scotty mate...

In 2019 another former Liberal staffer Ms Chelsea Potter made public that she had been Sexually Assaulted by a Liberal "up-and-comer" in 2015, and that Minister Simon Birmingham knew when he was interviewed but denied knowing, etc...I do not know whether this is another 'staffer' or the same man who Raped Ms Higgins...here is the link to Ms Potter's story from InDaily, which includes a further link to Simon Birmingham's response...and like everything I've seen him do this past week, I'm going to call it a deeply disingenuous and carefully non-committal response, avoiding certain issues and speaking fakely insincere, politically expedient concern to others...   

https://twitter.com/chels_e_potter/status/1363680853566529537

Since I started this post yesterday, now a fourth young woman has come forward claiming that she was groped by the same Liberal staffer who 'allegedly' Raped Ms Higgins...below is the link to a Twitter thread about that assault, but I've quoted here what I consider to be a critical statement about the 'culture' of Parliament House...***  

     5. She said it wasn't the first time she received unwanted attention or advances from men she            worked with at Parliament, and it wasn't the last. "By that time, I was just so used to sexual harassment I just brushed it off," she said.

https://twitter.com/Julieoz836/status/1363693655374979076

***...this follows several pieces I've read about how senior journos would provide new Parliament reporters, particularly young women, with a list of Ministers and senior staffers to avoid being alone with...this is not a new claim, and has surfaced several times in recent years when claims of inappropriate behaviours have been raised...

I note that Sexual Harassment and/or Assault is also an issue for young men in Parliament, who are also preyed upon by senior staffers or politicians...I've read claims of married, supposedly straight men (Ministers) having 'dalliances' with male staff, including direct claims of witnessing such incidents and other claims about 'rumours' of male staffers being Harassed and/or Assaulted...it is also clear that these issues of power imbalance and Harassment/Assault, etc, whilst clearly an endemic and epidemic problem within the LNP, is not a problem limited to the LNP...there are several instances of similar claims against Labor staffers and/or Ministers, etc, including against former leader Bill Shorten...   

I find it fundamentally unbelievable that Scott Morrison didn't know about Ms Higgins Rape, probably within days, and possibly within hours...with the 'security breach' in the critically important Defense Minister's office and unscheduled deep cleaning of the office within hours, etc, and then the 'sacking' of the perpetrator within days, but not of Ms Higgins, etc, etc, it is blatantly obvious that everyone involved knew that a crime had been committed against her...further, given the security breach and subsequent sacking, etc, I find it absolutely unbelievable that this incident remained some sort of secret between a few people, this would have been known right through-out the Liberal/National Party, and likely through the Labor Party and broader Parliament staffers, and almost certainly by the Canberra press gallery...whilst Morrison et al are currently trying to use 'The Culture' to distract away from Ms Higgins specifically, there is undoubtedly an issue of the broader conduct/attitudes in our Federal Parliament...

There are now also 4 'inquiries', including a 'secret review' by Morrison's senior staffer Phil Gaetjens who cleared Morrison of any involvement in Sports Rorts, a ridiculously and obviously tainted and false exoneration...the results of this 'secret review' will not be released...it's a farcical joke from Morrison, who clearly knew back in March/April 2019 and is clearly now relentlessly lying about it...multiple former Liberals are also crawling out of the woodwork to defend Morrison and say what a great job he's doing in dealing with this situation...here's links to 1) Amanda Vanstone's comment, and 2) Alexander Downer's appearance on the ABC's The Drum program...please note Downer, a definably criminal National traitor regarding East Timor, repeatedly talking-over the women trying to speak...

https://twitter.com/Terrytoo69/status/1363571424040939521

https://twitter.com/Terrytoo69/status/1363571424040939521

Here's what Minister for Women Marise Payne has had to say...it's absolute gas-lighting and victim blaming to say that Ms Higgins was mistaken or misinterpreted how she was treated, and didn't get treated how she thought she should, etc...this from the Minister for Women...

https://twitter.com/Terrytoo69/status/1363571424040939521

....faux empathy and weasel-worded white-anting of Ms Higgins credibility/claims...what hope for any genuine change or action when this is the response from the Minister for Women?...

Vicki Campion, former staffer and now partner of The National Party's Barnaby Joyce, has, sans any actual credentials or qualifications or experience, been gifted an apparently regular column in the Daily Telegraph...I've included here the link, but in short, it tries to play down the importance within the Liberal Party of the 'up-and-comer senior staffer' who Raped Ms Higgins...the most obvious fact that undermines that premise, is that this man had access not just to Parliament House after hours, but had  officially sanctioned access directly into the actual office of the Minister for Defense...that's not the sort of access that a nobody gets, that is not "the fringes of a Parliamentary office"...

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/vikki-campion-brittany-higgins-alleged-rapist-was-far-from-a-political-rising-star/news-story/e83b057aa331dc8e07461f7675792f1e

Vicki also claims to have extensive knowledge of this man's extensive rorting of Parliamentary allowances, but why hasn't he then been reported and held to account for that?...it's reminiscent of Michaelia Cash's unhinged melt-down in Senate Estimates when she threatened to 'name young woman in Mr (Bill) Shorten's office about whom rumours abound in this place'...either Michaelia was making vacuous threats with nothing to back it up, or she has failed to report multiple issues of Sexual Assault and/or other illegal/inappropriate behaviours committed in Parliament House...I don't think Vicki realises the vastly ironic hypocrisy of someone like her, who was moved from Barnaby's office when the 'scandal' broke, through 2 other apparently non-existent jobs in other National Party Ministers' offices, then into this 'journo' job, someone with that history then casting aspersions on someone else's entitlement and/or qualifications for a parliamentary job...the only saving grace in this article is the observation that both men and women suffer under this culture of Assault and Cover-up, and that some genuinely talented people have lost their promising careers to this issue...

Tomorrow: Probably More Mt Gambier City Council Corruption

I know I keep promising this, and it's likely that there'll be further revelations about Ms Higgins Rape, etc, but we'll get to this MGCC stuff eventually...

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