Cartoons of the Week

 

Jon Kudelka

Peter Broelman

'First Nations women are being murdered at up to 12 times the national average. In some regions, their deaths make up some of the highest homicide rates in the world.’

 

ABC News, 24 October 2022:

‘First Nations women are being murdered at up to 12 times the national average. In some regions, their deaths make up some of the highest homicide rates in the world.

Four Corners can reveal at least 315 First Nations women have either gone missing or been murdered or killed in suspicious circumstances since 2000.

But this is an incomplete picture. We will likely never know the true scale of how many First Nations women have been lost over the decades.

This is because there is no agency in Australia keeping count, and there is no standard way of collecting this important data in each state and territory.

Canada calls it a genocide. The United States considers it an epidemic. But here in Australia, we’re only just waking up to the scale of the crisis…..

Read the full article here.

Morrison Government did not finish the 2021 Australian Parliamentary year in a blaze of glory

 

The Australian Parliament House Of Representatives and Senate now stand adjourned until 12 noon on 8 February 2022.

This is how the parliamentary year ended for the Morrison Government – women both inside and outside the parliament were openly critical of the Prime Minister and the government he leads.

Political commentator and author Niki Savva writing in The Sydney Morning Herald, 2 December 2021:

The last time Bridget Archer alerted the Prime Minister’s office in advance that she was considering voting against the government, she says she had two senior members of his staff literally standing over her in her office.

Archer told colleagues at the time, and has since confirmed it to this columnist, that for almost two weeks she felt bullied, threatened and intimidated by the staffers – one male, one female, both of whom have been around politics a long time who should know better – seeking to persuade her to vote with the government.

Archer spoke against the cashless welfare card legislation, then abstained from voting. Her decision triggered a campaign of online abuse …..

Lately, constituents in her notoriously fickle Tasmanian seat of Bass, which she holds with a margin of 0.4 per cent, have been stopping her on the street, saying: “we like you Bridget, but...” The “but” drips with portent for Scott Morrison and the government.

So last Thursday Archer crossed the floor to second a motion by independent Helen Haines for a national commission against corruption. Archer regards the right to stand up for a principle, even if it means going against the government and the Prime Minister, as the defining feature of the party. It’s what makes people like her become a Liberal.

To avoid a repeat of her experience last year, the only people she told in advance of her intention were her staff and Haines. She did not even tell the Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, two nights before when she and other MPs ate takeaway pizza and pasta in his office.

When she burst into tears in Morrison’s office, after Frydenberg had escorted her there like an errant schoolgirl, it was an emotional release, not a sign of weakness.

Archer had no problem with Morrison expressing his displeasure. He said his piece. After composing herself, she said hers. She owned her actions. She did not apologise for supporting Haines, she did not take a single backward step. She told Morrison she was neither a “drone” nor a “warm body” – words he later appropriated to describe rebellious backbenchers and convey to the media his tolerance of them.

Archer told Morrison about his staff, pointedly asking that “they stay away from me”. She also made clear she would cross the floor again if necessary. Archer’s experience underlines the importance of Kate Jenkins’ finding that cultural change to tackle bullying and sexual harassment in Parliament House has to come from the top.

Archer reckons the government has got its priorities all wrong. Although she empathises with Gladys Berejiklian, she believes the ICAC was doing its job, arguing such a body – rather than a religious freedom bill – is essential to help restore people’s faith in politicians.

One is a problem which exists that needs to be fixed, the other looks like a fix for a problem which doesn’t exist, as the deeply religious NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet implied on Sky by asking “why now?”

Archer fears the religious discrimination bill could be a “slippery slope”. She says she will vote against it if it impinges on the rights of others, particularly the LGBTIQ community.

At least she will have company with Trent Zimmerman, Dave Sharma and Warren Entsch expressing similar views, which explains why Morrison is in no rush to put it to a vote.

The Prime Minister pretended to be as relaxed about Archer’s actions this time as he was last time, saying what close friends and colleagues they were and what a grand old party he led which allowed members to express themselves freely.

He does that often. Boasts about being good friends with people when really it’s just heavy duty Spakfilla patter, sealing up the cracks or covering his own poor behaviour.

He has done it with Berejiklian too, even though she confided several times to friends he tried to bully her, and while Premier she got her office to tell Morrison’s office to stop undermining and backgrounding against her……

ABC, “7.30” program, 2 December 2021:

LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: Laura Tingle is with us from Canberra. Laura, as much as governments like to clear the decks at the end of the year, especially going into an election year, there is always unfinished business. What are the leftovers this year that are likely to be significant going into 2022?

LAURA TINGLE, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the leftovers are things that probably never now see the light of day before the election, Leigh.

The big ones are the election promises for an anti-corruption commission - not going to see the light of day at the rate we are going. The government hasn't even tabled its proposed legislation on that and has baulked at letting a debate go on about Helen Haines' alternative model.

The other one is the religious discrimination bill, another election promise. It got about an hour's worth of debate this afternoon in the House of Representatives but will be really struggling now to get debated, if Parliament does indeed come back, and it's losing friends as we go. The Christian lobby today signalled that it was not all that keen on the way the debate was going.

And finally, there was this very last-minute proposal about voter ID legislation which offended a lot of people and outraged them. That's now been dumped very unceremoniously, and Labor insists there wasn't a deal on this, but one of the things that has come up as a bit of a surprise is a move that really puts incredible pressure on charities to declare themselves as political campaigners and that is going to have a huge impact, particularly, I think, in the area of environmental charities.

LEIGH SALES: As we know, trust has been an issue for the Prime Minister in recent times, how did that play into a matter that made headlines today regarding the awarding of a quarantine contract?

LAURA TINGLE: This is a story that's sort of come up a few times since September, Leigh, including when the ABC's Andrew Greene reported it. These are contracts to set up a private quarantine hotel arrangement and it was let by a limited tender to two of Scott Morrison's closest friends, including a former Liberal Party director or deputy director called Scott Briggs.

Now, the Prime Minister was really outraged at the suggestion that he had somehow intervened in this policy or was somehow involved in the letting of the contracts, but once again, because this issue of trust has become such a terrible one and I think separate questions, there's been this focus right through the whole year about transparency and accountability in the awarding of grants, that this is the last thing the Prime Minister needs, particularly on an issue like quarantine where things haven't really gone all that well for the Government this year anyway.

LEIGH SALES: Just to switch the focus to Labor, stakes are also high for Anthony Albanese going into an election year. What do you think are the issues Labor is going to need to get in order over the summer break?

LAURA TINGLE: I think they'll have to look at making sure that they have a sound story on the economy. I think the Government's now vulnerable on that.

They have obviously got their climate policy coming out over this next few days and those are the two really big things that they are going to have to sort out, other than that they have got to look, a bit like Kevin Rudd in 2007, they are sort of like the government, only trustworthy.

LEIGH SALES: Laura Tingle, thanks very much.

LAURA TINGLE: Thanks, Leigh.

Last week 2 MPs crossed the floor to vote against the government - George Christensen & Bridget Archer. Only one of these Members was hauled into the Prime Minister’s office & reduced to tears.

Australian women know why Ms Archer received this special treatment. #auspol pic.twitter.com/L4B14h3rzH

— Senator Jenny McAllister (@jennymcallister) November 29, 2021

 

ABC, “7.30” program, 2 December 2021:

RACHELLE MILLER, FORMER COALITION STAFFER: Today I want to stand in my former workplace and to say again that what happened to me was not okay.

LAURA TINGLE, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Today former political staffer Rachelle Miller said she wanted to tell her story. It involved someone much more powerful and famous - Alan Tudge - currently the Federal Minister for Education and Youth.

Miller first disclosed a relationship with Tudge, her former boss, on Four Corners ‘Inside the Canberra Bubble’ report late last year.

(Excerpt from Four Corners - Inside the Canberra Bubble)

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: Rachelle Miller says her affair with Alan Tudge, now acting immigration minister, was completely consensual.

(End of excerpt)

LAURA TINGLE: But today she had a lot more to say and the world has changed considerably since she first spoke out. This week Australians were shocked by the anonymous stories of sexual assault, harassment and bullying in Parliament House.

Today Rachelle Miller put a face to those stories and those stories were not just about assault but about culture and power imbalances.

RACHELLE MILLER: I am fully aware that a year ago I said that my relationship with Minister Alan Tudge was a consensual relationship, but it's much more complicated than that.

When I spoke out, not a single person from this Government contacted me to see if I was okay. One female chief of staff sent me a text and that was it.

LAURA TINGLE: Miller said this was a story about Parliament House and she spoke at exactly the same spot where Scott Morrison commented about the case of another political staffer - Brittany Higgins.

SCOTT MORRISON, PRIME MINISTER (February): Jenny and I spoke last night, and she said to me you have to think about this as a father first. What would you want to happen if it were our girls? Jenny has a way of clarifying things.

LAURA TINGLE: Miller’s intervention today, challenging the voters of Aston to consider the behaviour she alleges of Tudge - a man she claims physically kicked her out of bed because her phone had disturbed his sleep - is a suitable coda to a political year dominated by the issue of the treatment of women in politics.

Mr Tudge quote “completely and utterly” rejected Miller’s version of events today and said he deeply regretted the consensual affair.

But despite the denials, Miller’s statement still posed big problems for the Prime Minister.

After all, earlier this week, he had described the Jenkins reports’ findings of what goes on in Parliament House as ‘appalling’ and ‘disturbing’.

SCOTT MORRISON: But given the seriousness of these claims that have been made by Ms Miller, it is important that these matters be resolved fairly and expeditiously.

To this end, the Minister has agreed to my request to stand aside while these issues are addressed by my department, but I wish to stress that this action, in no way seeks to draw a conclusion on these matters, Mr Speaker, but this is the appropriate action for me to take under the ministerial standards.

LAURA TINGLE: In a statement, Mr Tudge said he intended to submit written evidence to the inquiry that would contradict Ms Miller’s position.

The PM seemed to be very aware today that he needed to be seen to take these allegations very seriously. He announced that Vivienne Thom would be conducting the inquiry - the woman who ran the High Court inquiry into former Justice Dyson Heydon.

Standing Minister Tudge aside only added to the sense the Government is disintegrating around him with a growing list of departures ahead of next year’s election.

Late yesterday, former attorney-general Christian Porter announced, via Facebook, that he would not contest the next election.

FACEBOOK POST FROM CHRISTIAN PORTER: Even though I have experienced perhaps more of the harshness of modern politics than most, there are no regrets.

It’s now time to give more of what is left to those around me whose love has been unconditional.

LAURA TINGLE: Porter’s departure has been reported very much in terms of the allegations and controversy he has faced this year.

But the policy issues over which he presided are perhaps more important signposts to the history of this government, and the policy controversies - and approach to accountability - in which it has often been embroiled.

As minister for social services, he played a key role in establishing the controversial Robodebt scheme, which saw hundreds of thousands of people facing devastating claims of overclaiming welfare benefits.

Porter was occupying the office of attorney-general when the Government was later forced to concede that the scheme had ‘no legal basis’ and was ‘unlawful’. The government eventually repaid $720 million of the falsely raised debts

Also as attorney-general, Porter would not rule out prosecuting journalists, and sending them to jail, for publishing public interest stories.

He also made the decision to proceed with the prosecution of the man known as Witness K and his lawyer Bernard Collaery. Witness K was the whistle-blower who revealed Australia had bugged a room in the offices of Timor Leste’s Prime Minister at the time the two countries were negotiating resource rights in the Timor Gap.

Last year, Porter used his national security powers to have the court hearing of this case held in the strictest secrecy.

KERRYN PHELPS: There is an urgent medical crisis in Australia's offshore detention centres.

LAURA TINGLE: In 2019, the government lost an historic vote when Labor and the crossbench forced through what was known as the so-called medevac laws - designed to more easily allow seriously ill asylum seekers to be evacuated from Australia’s offshore detention centres.

During that process, Christian Porter resisted attempts to have advice on the legislation from the Solicitor General tabled in the Parliament.

TONY SMITH, SPEAKER (2019): I'll advise the Attorney-General that, as Speaker, it's important I ensure, in this instance, all material available to me is also available to all members of the House.

LAURA TINGLE: After the 2019 election, Porter oversaw the repealing of those laws.

The former attorney-general also released the original proposal for religious freedom legislation - subsequently dumped.

And his proposed model for a national anti-corruption commission has been derided as a toothless tiger.

Late this afternoon, Health Minister Greg Hunt told Parliament he will be leaving Parliament at the election.

GREG HUNT, HEALTH MINISTER: On Sunday, they looked at me, and said, "Dad, this is your last chance to be a proper dad and it's time to come home, Dad.”

LAURA TINGLE: That’s a senior cabinet minister leaving, a former senior cabinet minister - once seen as a future PM - leaving, and another senior cabinet minister with his future under a cloud.

There are also seven other MPs leaving at a time when the Government has gone from eyeing seats it can win from Labor to having to defend seats across the country

In the PM’s home state of New South Wales, bitter divisions within the Liberal Party have seen pre-selections delayed for both House of Representatives and Senate seats.

Incumbency is supposed to give governments a political advantage. As this ugly political year ends and we approach a federal election campaign, that advantage is far from clear.

Kate Jenkins' Independent Review into Commonwealth Parliamentary Workplaces has been released. It is damning.
- 1 in 3 people in parliament experienced seuxal harrassment
- 1 per cent suffered attempted or actual sexual assault
- 77 per cent witnessed or experienced bullying

— Clare Armstrong (@ByClare) November 30, 2021

Liberal and Nationals MPs who have stated they are not standing in the 2022 federal election

Kevin Andrews (disendorsed by party) – Menzies Vic – Margin 7.0 LIB

George Christensen – Dawson Qld – Margin 14.6 NATS

Andrew Laming – Bowman Qld – Margin 10.2 LIB

Greg Hunt – Flinders Vic – Margin 5.6 LIB

Christian Porter – Pearce WA – Margin 5.2 LIB

Tony Smith – Casey Vic – Margin 4.6 LIB

Nicolle Flint – Boothby SA – Margin 1.4 LIB

John Alexander – Bennelong NSW – Margin 6.9 LIB

Steve Irons – Swan WA – Margin 3.2 LIB

Ken O'Dowd – Flynn Qld – Margin 8.7 NATS

Damian Drum – Nicholls Vic – Margin 20.0 NATS

Then there was this in the House of Representatives during Question Time on 2 December 2021…..

Mr BRENDAN O'CONNOR (Gorton) (14:02): My question is to the Prime Minister. Yesterday, Sky News reported two of the Prime Minister's best mates received $80,000 of taxpayer money, without a tender, to set up their own private sector quarantine business known as Quarantine Services Australia. Sky News also reported that Home Affairs secretary Mike Pezzullo told business leaders that this was a really important project for the Prime Minister. Is Mr Pezzullo right?

The SPEAKER: The Leader of the House, on a point of order?

Mr Dutton: There is an imputation that's implied quite clearly in the question that's been asked, and that is against the standing orders. That's the first point, Mr Speaker. If there are allegations to make, then those allegations should be put in another forum, not here in this House.

The SPEAKER: The Manager of Opposition Business?

Mr Burke: Ministers are expected to be across media reports; that's in Practice. The question specifically goes to a media report and describes the source. It then refers to that particular payment being a priority for the Prime Minister as being attributed to the secretary of a department. It simply asks whether that is accurate. It goes no further than asking whether it was a really important project for the Prime Minister. So the extra layers that the Leader of the House is referring to are not in the question that was just asked.

Quote of the Week

 

” It seemed that the part he was most sensitive about was whether I was going to expose his invisible role as a ringleader – of the coup, and of the treatment I’d received since. He asked the same question in various different ways, along the lines of ‘It’s not anything I have done is it?’ ‘You don’t have a problem with me, do you?’ ‘Are you sure there’s nothing I’ve done to make you want to leave?’ Would I expose that he was a bully? That he was a man who could not be trusted?” [Former Liberal MP for Julia Banks quoted in The Sydney Morning Herald, 5 July 2021]

Is Scott Morrison's response to the National Inquiry into Sexual Harassment in Australian Workplaces genuine? Or is it just busy work to hold the line until after the next federal election?

 “The Australian Government has agreed to (in full, in-principle, or in-part) or noted all 55 recommendations in the Report.” [Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, media release, 8 April 2021]

“are either agreed wholly in part or in principle, or noted where they are directed to governments or organisations other than the Australian government” [Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, quoted in Sky News online, 8 April 2021]

So after ignoring the National Inquiry into Sexual Harassment in Australian Workplaces Final Report for over 12 months, what do Morrison’s weasel words in the quotes above indicate?

Scott Morrison & Co say they are proceeding to:

* order a survey every four years to provide data on sexual harassment;

* provide educational resources for young people of working age on workplace rights and sexual harassment;

* educate and train staff at the Fair Work Ombudsman, Fair Work Commission, Safe Work Australia, WHS regulators and workers’ compensation bodies concerning sexual harassment;

* lead a new collaboration by government, unions, employers and employer associations called Respect@Work aka the Workplace Sexual Harassment Council; and

* the Workplace Sexual Harassment Council is charged with:

a. providing high-level advice on development of guidelines and resources to ensure that all services providing information, advice and support in relation to sexual harassment can provide accurate information, make appropriate cross-referrals, and collect consistent data

b. after three years, considering the need for a centralised, accessible service to provide information and advice in relation to workplace sexual harassment;

* develop a Respect@Work website to provide the general public, employers and workers with free information; and

* Advise all state governments that they should ensure that relevant bodies responsible for developing training, programs and resources for judges, magistrates and tribunal members make available education on sexual harassment. 

Somehow in this 7-item list I don't see any immediate, hands-on, practical actions by the Morrison Government that will see the rates of sexual harassment, sexual assault, physical assault and/or murder by a partner or former partner, of women and girls in any state or territory decrease in the next few years.

I sincerely hope I am wrong.

 

Quotes of the Week

 

“When Scott Morrison says he’s listening, it’s usually to himself.” [Dennis Aitkins writing in The New Daily, 27 March 2021]

“This prime minister speaks almost exclusively to one cohort of voters: men at risk of voting Labor.” [Political editor and journalist Katharine Murphy, writing in The Guardian, 27 March 2021]

Liberal Party women are beginning to openly speak truth to power

 

IMAGE: NSW Liberal Party

Catherine Cusack (left) is a member of the NSW Legislative Council, hailing from the Northern Rivers region. She has been a member of the NSW Parliament since 2003,was the first female NSW Young Liberal President in 1985-1986 and sat on the Liberal Party Executive 2000-2003.

Here she speaks about behaviours displayed by men within her own party - cronyism, rampant self-interest, alcohol abuse, election campaign dirty tricks, pushing female politicians in front of the cameras when questions get awkward, male colleagues expecting support from women for their flagrant abuse of power.

The Guardian, 25 March 2021:

I joined the Young Liberals in 1982 when things were definitely on the up for women. It was an exciting time – a youthful Nick Greiner was state leader, Rosemary Foot his deputy. I found an amazing peer group that was not bored to tears by my interest in politics. I met my future husband there – we are both former YL state presidents. When our sons, now aged in their 20s, joined, we were jokingly accused of trying to establish a monarchy inside the YLs. The Liberal party has been my life.

I entered the New South Wales parliament in 2003. John Howard as prime minister openly celebrated his female MPs, whom he frequently credited with saving his government. In 2004 Chris McDiven became our first female federal president – but sadly the storm clouds had already gathered. This momentum for women came to a crashing halt with the brutal factional wars that transformed the culture and behaviour of the party, harmed our reputation and triggered an exodus of ordinary members.

Howard had tried unsuccessfully at the 2003 Adelaide federal convention to warn of the dangerous path we were on. “I think factionalism is weakening and eroding the strength of this party and the respect of this party in the Australian community,” he said.

As he feared, his message fell on deaf ears. The Howard government’s 2007 campaign was derailed when high-ranking Liberal volunteers were arrested in the dead of night letterboxing a fake Labor campaign brochure. The destructive factional wars and resultant toxic behaviours had gone too far – a halt was called to the infighting and a small group of factional leaders agreed to share power. And so began the Liberal boys’ club that has been calling the shots ever since.

“We have some young men on big salaries, doing aggressive factional work … they are intoxicated with power as well as alcohol”

The factional system relies on compliance and patronage, so straight away the idea of merit-based selection went out the window. This doesn’t just affect women – it affects everyone. Even Mike Baird needed a special deal to secure Liberal selection for the 2007 election in Manly. Favours given and favours repaid is how this works.

In other states, this model was nicknamed “the NSW disease”. Unfortunately, it spread. It has escalated.

An MP might be asked to allocate a staff position to a factional operative and in exchange his/her preselection is assured. Step away from the factions and they might all combine to unseat you. In this way, the factional model is part taxpayer-funded.

So now we have some young men on big salaries, doing aggressive factional work out of some ministerial and MP offices. And they are intoxicated with power as well as alcohol. Their bosses need to bear much of the blame. They legitimise and tolerate behaviours that serve their own self-interests in terms of getting and retaining power.

There are many reasons why women across Australia so triggered and upset by what’s going on in Canberra. Personal experience, solidarity with the victims – but most of all it has been the sense of powerlessness they feel when the issues are seemingly dismissed. It has happened over and over again and this time they are telling us: “Enough!”

Maybe there are bubbles inside the Canberra bubble? I don’t know – I am just convinced the PM needs to seek out and listen to his female MPs, who have their own stories to tell.

An alleged rape has occurred inside the citadel of Australian democracy.

Our prime minister needs to be told why people are so angry. And it’s up to his female MPs to take it to him direct.

It’s not really a choice any more. For years there has been a ludicrous expectation by Liberal leaders that we female MPs can be wheeled out to defend these disgusting behaviours. When the power to fix the problem lies with them – not with us.

It has reached the point where our personal integrity is being publicly pitted against our loyalty – it’s upsetting and embarrassing and, frankly, they should not be asking that of us.

Tell him.

Step up, be hopeful and make the case for change. Most importantly, back one another. The moment has chosen us.

Tell him.

And conservative women in the media have begun to join in....

IMAGE: The Sydney Morning Herald

Niki Savva is a journalist who has worked in the media for around thirty years. Her mid-career employment outside of journalism was as a press secretary to then Australian Treasurer and Liberal MP for Higgins Peter Costello for six years, before becoming a policy adviser to Australian Prime Minister and Liberal MP for Bennelong John Howard for four years. She is now employed by News Corp.

The Australian, 24 March 2021:

There were a few things Scott Morrison got right with his mea culpa press conference on Tuesday. The first was that he had it. It was at least a sign that the Prime Minister finally realised just how much trouble he was in.

He has floundered for five weeks. Revelations by Peter van Onselen of yet another scandal close to home spurred him to front the media to talk about floods, then apres that deluge he tried to construct a shelter from the other deluge threatening to drown him.

He tried everything. He was repentant, he sought forgiveness, he admitted he made mistakes, he promised to make amends without saying exactly how, he allowed his emotions to overflow as he expressed his love for his family and his faith.

Morrison was tearful in front of the media, then choked up again as he walked into his party meeting, before he even spoke, although that might have had more to do with the way his press conference ended, with yet another disaster, than how it began.

He had to take a moment to compose himself before urging his female MPs to be trailblazers like Dame Enid Lyons, the first woman elected to the House of Representatives.

Liberal women have suffered by allowing themselves to be chained to the talking points, to become the new Stepford Wives of politics, often forced to defend the indefensible. Now at least they are free to talk about quotas.

That is useful, although quality of the candidates as well as the capacity of the leader to consult, listen and act matters more. Also, hearing women of influence bemoan the toxic culture they helped perpetuate by bullying other women is sickening. But that’s a column for another day.

One of the many problems faced by Morrison during this rolling crisis is that the case against him and the failure of government to protect women has been prosecuted largely by women. The government’s senior women, compromised or timid or too ambitious to even think about breaking out, have held back.

The defence, such as it is, has been mounted largely by men, mainly the Prime Minister, although one of the best suggestions came from Russell Broadbent for a national gathering of women, which Morrison says is already in train, which came as a surprise to people.

Strong, articulate women, such as Grace Tame, followed by Brittany Higgins, began the essential difficult work of demolishing structures that have protected predators. Their cause was relentlessly, devastatingly pursued by Labor frontbenchers Tanya Plibersek, Kristina Keneally, Penny Wong and Catherine King, the Greens’ Sarah Hanson-Young, crossbenchers Zali Steggall and Helen Haines, and a slew of opposition backbenchers. It’s a bomb squad planting devices, detonating or defusing them.

And Morrison and his government have been spectacularly, conspicuously, inept in their responses. Unfortunately, the reset the Prime Minister had embarked on literally ended in tears.

In portent and content it was biblical, full of thunderbolts and lightning, following a sadly familiar pattern. So much about it was wrong. It was too late coming. Too much of it was about him. Too much of it didn’t stack up. There were too many deflections, too many straw men and women, and it climaxed with vengeful threats of retribution after he was challenged by a journalist.

Morrison was not criticised (Twitter aside), as he sought to imply, for discussing the rape allegations made by Higgins with his wife, Jenny, or for talking about his daughters. He was criticised because he had failed to grasp the gravity of the situation himself. His wife had to explain it to him, and even after that he lapsed again, like in his scripted speech effectively telling March 4 Justice protesters they were lucky they were “not met with bullets”. He sort of apologised for that by saying he hadn’t meant to offend.

Careful attention needs to be paid to every event and every word because of the slippery, tricky words or technicalities used by others and by him to extricate or protect him or change the conversation. They go like this: don’t ask, don’t tell; don’t show and don’t tell; if you don’t know, you can’t be blamed; even if you do know, it doesn’t mean you have to accept responsibility; keep denying, even if you have misled parliament, because eventually the story will move on.

It has been a wretched and shameful period for the government. So many important matters surfaced that the Prime Minister claimed not to know or hadn’t made it his business to find out, compounded by the other thing he purported to know that never happened…..

Read the full article here.