The federal opposition would have you believe that key Labor figures – particularly now Finance Minister Katy Gallagher – weaponised rape allegations made by a former Liberal staffer to help bring down the Morrison government.
All the evidence is that the former Coalition government, particularly the former prime minister Scott Morrison but also his then defence minister Linda Reynolds, contributed massively to any damage it suffered after Brittany Higgins went public with her story.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and shadow attorney-general Michaelia Cash are showing the same lack of sensitivity to the issues involved in this sorry, tawdry tale as Morrison and Reynolds did when the story broke.
Reynolds was forced to apologise and pay compensation to Higgins for calling her “a lying cow”.
Morrison stunned the nation when he said of the thousands of women protesters who rallied outside Parliament House in March 2021 to support Higgins and justice for women that it was a “triumph for democracy” that they could demonstrate without being “met with bullets”.
Demands for scrutiny
Dutton is now demanding that the confidential settlement made to Higgins for her treatment in the workplace of her employer, the Commonwealth government, should be raked over in public and face the scrutiny of the National Anti-Corruption Commission.
What sort of message does that send any victim, and not only those who may be employed by the federal government and its agencies?
Cash is saying that Gallagher has “very, very serious questions to answer” after leaked text messages between Higgins and her partner David Sharaz revealed the senior Labor politician had been forewarned the aggrieved former staffer was about to go public.
Cash repeated in a weekend interview that Labor and Gallagher had “weaponised” the rape allegation for political advantage, never mind that this is exactly what the opposition is doing in an attempt to damage one of the government’s best-performing ministers.
There is no evidence that Gallagher was a party to orchestrating the media strategy Higgins and Sharaz had embarked on, merely that she was informed of a story that would clearly have an enormous impact.
The initiative came from the complainant, who believed she had suffered an injustice that was not addressed by her bosses in the Coalition government.
Any opposition would have been derelict in its duty not to pursue the matter once it was revealed.
Higgins said in the aftermath of her bombshell claims that “the only reason I have chosen to come forward is to help others”.
Cash insists Labor should have left the allegations to the criminal justice system – a self-serving myopic view.
‘Me too’ moment
Higgins’ bravery was a most significant “me too” moment for the Parliament and the nation.
Her claims triggered an inquiry by then Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins into the conditions and experience of women working at Parliament House in Canberra.
Dozens of women came forward. The findings were stunning.
One in three women had experienced sexual harassment, almost 40 per cent had experienced bullying, but there was nowhere to confidently turn for help. It found 84 per cent who experienced this harassment did not seek support.
The commissioner made 28 recommendations, including independent complaint and support processes, and induction training for parliamentarians and staff.
The Albanese government is implementing the lot.
Ignoring facts
Cash – with support, and indeed urging, of the more strident elements of the right-wing press, particularly the Murdoch tabloids – is ignoring the fact that Reynolds and Morrison’s office knew of the allegations two years earlier.
What precious little they did about it then or in the intervening years did nothing to make Higgins feel that she and her issues had been seriously dealt with.
The opposition is promising to pursue Gallagher for misleading Parliament when she told a Senate estimates committee in 2021 that she had “no knowledge” of Higgins’ media plans, only to admit at the weekend she learned something of them four days before the ex-Liberal staffer appeared on The Project.
Gallagher, who was not a minister at the time, says she was denying that she had known for weeks “and made a decision to weaponise it”.
Part of Gallagher’s problem is, as the saying goes: It is not the crime so much as the denial that gets politicians into trouble.
Damaging revelations
But in going for Labor, the Liberals are raking over the coals of their own much bigger cover up.
In recent days Reynolds’ then chief of staff Fiona Brown says former PM Morrison misled Parliament over the issue.
The Gaetjens report, about who knew what in Morrison’s office and when about the alleged rape and what they did about it, has never been published.
The improper release of court documents not used in the aborted rape trial to attack Labor raises even more serious questions than those being pushed by the Liberals.
By grabbing them with both hands the Opposition has found itself creating the impression it does not believe Higgins, but rather her alleged attacker Bruce Lehrmann.
Lehrmann, as we know from his Seven Network interview, is angry that the trial mess has left him without the chance for a jury to exonerate him.
Even so, these leaked texts and transcripts do nothing much to further his cause and through his lawyers he denies being the source.
They do, however, potentially damage Higgins’ reputation as we are seeing from those more interested in pursuing culture wars than ending the criminal justice system’s discrimination against women.
All of this, however, can only make the Liberals’ problems with women voters worse, not better.
Paul Bongiorno AM is a veteran of the Canberra Press Gallery, with more than 45 years’ experience covering Australian politics
