Prêt à porter … Horse in fetid stable … Rule of Law … Rule of the Jungle … Political imperatives … Statement expected in bold volte face … Polly Peck reports
The internet is awash with Christian Porter’s name while in Canberra Schmo Morrison claims he spoke to an unnamed man who says there’s nothing to worry about because he “absolutely” denies he raped anyone in 1988.
It is expected there’ll be more extenuated denials on Wednesday (March 3) when the attorney general might front-up and make an overdue statement – with Minter Ellison defamation lawyer Peter Bartlett on hand.
#BREAKING The Cabinet Minister, who is the focus of a historical rape allegation, is likely to break his silence tomorrow.
Sources within the Government say the man is likely to make a statement and possibly take questions from journalists. @abcnews
— ABC Politics (@politicsabc) March 2, 2021
Justinian’s sister publication 500 WORDS or thereabouts was out of the blocks yesterday (March 1) with Porter as the prime suspect. Otherwise, the mainstream media has maintained a respectful lawyer-induced fiction as a precaution against expensive battles in the defamation court.
Rule of law luminaries such as Morrison and Josh Frydenberg said it should be left to the federal police, who have no jurisdiction at all over an historic rape in NSW. “We have a rule of law in this country,” Schmo insisted.
The electrifying foreign affairs minister Marise Payne captured the government’s real pain when she said:
“We should operate according to the rule of law in this country, because the alternative frankly doesn’t bear thinking about.”
Mick Fuller, the NSW Police commissioner might have been a safe port of call. He’s a friend of the PM’s and a former neighbour. Morrison spoke to him while the Angus Taylor document forgery case was under investigation – and, bingo, Mick dropped the inquiry, flick passing it to the AFP who also dropped it.
After Aunty Gladys handed Fuller a $90,000 pay rise in May last year, bringing him to $650,000 pa, it was widely thought that NSW had the best police force money could buy.
As you would expect, Mick has closed the book on a further investigation. Apparently, there can be no adequate testing of the allegation because the victim died last June.
Porter has now chosen the moment to emerge.
The ministerial code of conduct makes it clear that it’s up to Morrison to stand aside a member of the government. 7.1 of the statement of standards says:
“Ministers must accept that it is for the Prime Minister to decide whether and when a Minister should stand aside if that Minister becomes the subject of an official investigation of alleged illegal or improper conduct.”
Anthony Albanese, leader of the non-opposition, says it’s all a matter for Schmo. Whatever he wants to do is fine with him.
For now the government is clinging to the rule of law as a hush-hush mechanism. It’s an awkward straddle, particularly when attorney general Porter has been actively blitzing rule of law conventions by stacking and rorting the AAT with party hacks and pushing for secret trials against “enemies” of the Liberal Party, such as whistleblowers Bernard Collaery and Witness K.
Not to mention the government’s trashing of legal process in refugee and asylum cases and Frydenberg miraculously avoiding prosecution for leaking classified government documents to Melbourne hack Andrew Blot.
Too much of a last-minute grasp for high-mindedness can induce a rash of nausea. Where’s the Rule of Law’s Tamil when we need him?
There has been the added diversion of an attention-deprived Malcolm Turnbull slashing Porter with his rusty fish knife. The former PM even suggested that an unnamed person may have killed the woman.
“We don’t know for sure that she took her own life, we know for sure that she’s dead,” proclaimed Mal.
The smooth touchstones of the law such as presumption of innocence and fair process don’t stand a chance when a political gale is blowing. Politics has its own rule of the jungle and if the electorate smells a dead skunk then there’s no alternative but to defenestrate.
With two-thirds of those polled believing that the government’s handling of the rape allegation is on the nose, that time cannot be far off.
Regardless of his boilerplate denials, it would be intolerable and unconscionable for an attorney general to continue in office with an unresolved allegation of rape hanging over his head. Politicians have been scarified for less.
Grassgate Gussy Taylor and The Christian Porter were two gilded, self-basting lads who went into parliament in the sure belief that they would float effortlessly and inexorably to the top. They’re still there, but now only as flotsam.
Paul Fletcher, minister for communications, and bit-player in the drama, has also blotted his copybook. After Four Corners’ Inside the Canberra Bubble went to air on November 9, 2020, he sent 15 silly questions to ABC chair Ita Buttrose.
He wanted to know why the broadcaster was impertinent enough to probe the youthful behaviour of people who subsequently enter the federal parliament and become ministers:
“How is it consistent with the code of practice’s reference to fair treatment and impartiality for the ABC to include in the program extensive materials regarding conduct over a quarter of a century ago by someone who was then a university student and even a school student?”
Dame Ita might have had a bit of fun with a supplementary answer.
Porter denied 4 Corners’ report that his lips were wrapped around a young female parliamentary staffer in a Canberra bar in full view of journalists and other politicians.
Minister Tudge was on hand to make sure the photographic evidence was destroyed.
And here we go again. Morrison says he doesn’t have to do anything more because Porter has “absolutely” denied that he raped a brilliant young woman in Sydney over 32 years ago.
We’re looking forward to more from Porter on Wednesday.