The implosion of the Morrison Government continued over the weekend. Its mishandling of multiple rape allegations against itself dragged in the policy agenda as the cross-bench demanded accountability, at The Australian:
- Senator Rex Patrick demanded an independent inquiry into the allegations confronting Christian Porter and asked him to step aside.
- The Government’s industrial relations bill is dead, given Mr Porter was the Government’s frontman in negotiations.
- Jacquie Lambie agreed on both counts.
Lambie appeared with Peter Hartcher as well:
…Morrison “is obviously not listening to the Australian people”. What she hears from voters is that “people are saying they are so self-absorbed up there, we don’t want them in there any more. Why do we need Parliament? It’s pretty much on its last legs,” she said. Morrison has an opportunity to lead but “while he sits there in denial with ‘sorry, hardly anything to see here, move along’, I’m sorry but this isn’t something that’s going to move along”.
No, it isn’t. Rape is not casual misogyny, workplace bullying, bias nor an identity issue. It is high crime. Morrison’s response to six different allegations of sexual assault by three of its staff has been criminally inadequate. Alleged perps have been protected while victims are ignored, insulted, and openly abused. Followed by crocodile tears as the public recoils in disgust, at the ABC:
Defence Minister Linda Reynolds has apologised to Brittany Higgins for calling her a “lying cow” after Ms Higgins went public with allegations she was raped by another staffer in 2019.
Ms Reynolds has now declared she won’t be back at work any time soon as her health fails. It appears likely this morning that her career is on its last legs as various Colatiion flunkies note her absence is killing the defense portfolio. It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that this is the Morrison Government abusing the “mental health” excuse for political purposes.
The premise of every Government’s defense is absurd. It now makes considerably more sense that it is all a gigantic cover-up gone horribly wrong than it is process or truth:
- The drover’s dog knew about Brittany Higgins but not the PM?
- A defence minister that steam cleans a crime scene then takes a break only to troll the victim of the alleged crime?
- A staffer facing four separate allegations of sexual assault parachuted into a plumb job elsewhere?
- An Attorney-General accused of rape sustains his position as the Government prosecutes multiple rape allegations?
- And when the media calls it out, as it absolutely should, the Government claims that this all protects the “rule of law”?
On every level – moral, humanitarian, governance, legal, intellectual, social, political – the Morrison Government is now so far off the reservation that credulity has snapped.
Even among Coalition stalwarts. Barnaby Joyce jumped ship on the weekend:
Christian Porter may not want an independent inquiry but he has got one by default. A demeaning, cathartic inquisition by the press and Opposition. It is achieving little beyond ratings as salacious dissonance and certainly not offering any solace to any party involved. The alternative should be an inquiry, in camera, the confidential one, not the media’s camera. A vastly more dignified, appropriate alternative for such an emotive and serious allegation, otherwise the current vacuum may hang like fog all the way through the rest of a quite remarkable career.
…Christian knows, many in the Opposition and some on his own side don’t want the truth unless it comes with his head on a plate. They just want his scalp. Christian would also know, they will ultimately get what they want unless he can refer them to a deliberation on the allegation, beyond reasonable questions of efficacy.
That’s gives a read on what he’s hearing in the bush where the harder nuts have clearly also darkened on the Government.
Eventually, both Porter and Reynolds will probably be thrown under the bus. But, to my mind, it’s all far too late. Morrison himself is fatally exposed as a toxic personality in charge of a white-collar mafia. The notion that Australians can entrust him with their wellbeing is as twisted as the Government’s behaviour.
Laura Tingle correctly reads the outcome:
There will be another angry crowd at Parliament House this month.
Women around the country are planning to march, including to Parliament House, on March 15, with the call going out for 4,000 women to symbolically surround the parliament to protest the treatment of women, and particularly women in politics.
Further public and private ruptures are inevitable as well, at The Guardian:
The chief executive of the law firm representing Christian Porter is under fire after reportedly sending an all-staff email critical of the lawyer who took the case.
On Friday the Australian Financial Review reported that Annette Kimmitt, the chief executive of Australia’s largest law firm, MinterEllison, had sent an email to the firm’s more than 2,500 staff saying she was sorry for any “pain” caused by the decision to take the attorney general as a client.
…The email from Kimmitt reportedly said Bartlett had not gone through the firm’s approval process before accepting the brief, and that she had only become aware of it through the media.
…According to the Australian, O’Brien informed them the board would investigate the appropriateness of Kimmitt’s email.
Whatever the Morrison Government now touches will turn to shit. Wherever it goes it will be greeted with disgust, rancour, chaos and rupture, as well as the confusion of the abused. This is neither crazy, political nor cultural. It is psychological. These are normal and appropriate responses to being abused by a toxic personality disorder that divides groups to conquer them. Such personalities turn black into white then gaslight the very rage that their behaviour engenders.
We have seen the Morrison Government’s abusive policymaking play out in economic and social segments. Be it stimulus, realty, welfare, energy, immigration, climate and day-to-day operations. The only difference this time is the Morrison Government has strayed into high crimes that it cannot get away with.
Abuse is not a bug in the Morrison Government, it is a feature of it. It does not have a “women problem”, all Australians are its victim.
