Women of Australia condemn Morrison Government

The weekend press was a relentless and searing condemnation of the Morrison Government by the nation’s leading women. This will continue non-stop up until the next election. The newsflow was terrible:

• A senior Macquarie banker has offered to testify on relevant conversations he had with AG Porter in the past. He was the accuser’s ex-boyfriend and disputes Porter’s version of events.
• Outgoing CEO of Minter Ellison, Annette Kimmitt, condemned the firm’s treatment of women.
• Linda Reynolds settled with Brittany Higgins for her “lying cow” comments.
• NSW Bar Association said an inquiry into Porter allegations would not offend the “rule of law“.
• Former sex discrimination commissioner Elizabeth Broderick was scathing.
• Federal police never passed on documents to NSW police for the now-closed investigation.
• NSW police are reviewing whether to reopen the case.
• Former Liberal MP, Julia Banks, savages the PM today. Another TAS Liberal will march.
• Thousands are expected at marches today. 5000 marched in Perth yeseterday. They were not be greeted by the Morrison Government which will huddle inside in disgrace:

Minister for Women Marise Payne will snub the historic Women’s March 4 Justice on Parliament House on Monday, telling organisers she will receive their petition “via correspondence” rather than in person.

Labor education spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek and Greens’ co-deputy leader Larissa Waters will jointly receive the petition from organisers – who invited Senator Payne to do the same – but the most senior woman in the Morrison government has turned down the invitation.

Needless to say, these optics are terrible for the Morrison Government. Peter Hartcher chimed in with a pointed question about the silence of all Liberal Party sisters.

Perhaps that’s why by Sunday afternoon, the Government did a volte face with both Maris Payne and PM Morrison agreeing to meet the protest leaders. In another turn this morning, protest leaders refused to meet him and hand over a photo-op

The commentary was damning across all mastheads as well with Jacqueline Maley, Katherine Murphy, Katrina Grace Kelly Samantha Maiden and Kate Middleton leading the attack. That’s Nine, Murdoch, The Guardian and The Saturday Paper locked arm-in-arm in outrage and judgement.

The one exception was Murdoch culture warrior Janet Albrechtsen who released details of the Porter allegations. Her intention seems to have been to hose off the affair by raising doubts about the complainant but, like all political attacks in a context of human tragedy, she accomplished the opposite. The details are disturbing in every way and demand investigation.

The gong for the weekend goes to Crikey which ran no fewer than seven attacks on the government on the issue. Moreover, Bernard Keane got his hands on a PM&C memo assessing Morrison Government options now that the issue has mushroomed into a stinking cloud of existential destruction. I assume it’s some kind of prank on Scotty from Marketing

Morrison Government memo or Betoota Advocate satire? Hard to tell…

In short, a failing government response that is driven by “political exigency” must be addressed urgently by political exigency!

It may be a prank. But it captures the moment in which there is nothing to suggest that the Morrison Government has any grasp of the intrinsic violation of basic human morality that has enraged the nation’s leading women (their sisters and many brothers). It still views the issues through a political prism that aims to change perceptions over behaviour, photo-ops over justice, and ‘game of mates’ over probity.

This is not surprising. A psychopathic culture that enables alleged serial sexual assaults is by definition incapable of addressing the aftermath appropriately. As was the case in the Hawaiian bushfire scandal, the Morrison Government is unable to present a human face because it isn’t human. It lacks the basic empathy needed to balance judgements about individual and collective need. Unable to address the rights of eleven allegedly violated women through an appropriate process, every barren Morrison Government attempt to quell their outrage only violates all women.

That’s the rub. Political parties have normalised a lot of criminal behavior in Canberra in recent years. But this is way beyond the regular programming of petty theft and corruption. The serial dimensions of the scandal are reminiscent of prison gang rapes or online paedo rings found on the dark web. Thus, anybody promulgating a ‘politics as normal’ response is instantly exposed as equally degenerate.

My best advice to everyone within the Morrison Government is to resign in haste. Association with it now jeopardises post-political careers as well.

Getting on the wrong side of a revolution is generally unwise.