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The lesson of the week? Handle dangerous material with care
By David Crowe
Anthony Albanese has grounds to go into federal parliament on Monday and demand answers from Peter Dutton about who knew about serious claims of sexual harassment and assault against Liberal senator David Van and whether they took any action to investigate.
The prime minister could turn the tables on the opposition leader after days of unrelenting Liberal attacks on Labor over what it knew when Brittany Higgins set off a political earthquake with her allegation of rape in February 2021. (The allegations led to charges that were ultimately dropped by the ACT Director of Public Prosecutions.)
But the lesson of the last week is to handle this dangerous material with care.
Dutton and the senior Liberals launched a clumsy campaign with their over-heated rhetoric, basically seeking revenge on Labor for the way the Higgins claims were deployed two years ago.
Then Van joined the attack, provoking independent senator Lidia Thorpe into accusing him in the Senate of being “a perpetrator”. Van immediately denied the allegation and attacked Thorpe for hiding behind parliamentary privilege. This masthead does not suggest any of the allegations made against Van are true.
The political outcome is simple. Dutton looks like Wile E. Coyote, his legs spinning in the air after running off a cliff.
Albanese and the Labor leadership could turn the blowtorch on Dutton and find themselves tumbling off the same cliff if a scandal emerges on their own side.
The more important point, however, is that Australians were badly served by the Coalition’s determination to open old wounds and settle personal scores. Why make voters endure a rematch?
Dutton has not wasted time. He wants Van out of parliament. He says he reached this view after hearing Thorpe’s complaint, speaking to former Liberal senator Amanda Stoker about her allegation and becoming aware of a third woman who claims to have had a similar experience.
Will other women come forward with their accounts of harassment or assault by others in parliament? It is sadly quite possible. Rumours swirl, names are mentioned, but women may choose not to comment. Fair enough. It is not for the media to speculate on who they are or try to pressure them into making statements.
The lesson of this week is the handle dangerous material with care.Credit: Illustration by Matt Golding
Dutton has to explain, however, how the Coalition let this matter drag on for two years.
Was the Liberal leader kept in the dark about the allegations? Why? Concerns about Van surfaced in the last parliament and his office was moved away from Thorpe’s office as a result. Van says he only agreed to that to placate Thorpe, and because it made no difference to him. Liberal senator Simon Birmingham said on Friday this was communicated to the office of then prime minister Scott Morrison and the party’s Senate leadership at the time.
So, how does the system work? If complaints are made about an MP or senator in one parliament, are they shelved in the next? Or forgotten?
Parliament is a flawed forum to hear claims of sexual harassment or assault, let alone decide them, but Thorpe’s statement on Wednesday highlighted the same lesson as the move by Brittany Higgins to speak to the media two years ago. Going public forces action.
And the process within the parliament is yet to be set up to force any action when claims are made. There is a Parliamentary Workplace Support Service, but it remains a work in progress. Draft laws are yet to be finalised to give it more scope and clear the way for a more powerful watchdog to be known as the Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission.
“We are making progress but until such time as the IPSC is established, the enforcement mechanisms are still more limited than they should be,” says Larissa Waters, the Greens senator on the Parliamentary Leadership Taskforce that oversees this culture change.
The angry arguments over the past week do not help.
“I think goodwill took a bit of a beating this week,” says Zali Steggall, the independent member for Warringah and another member of the parliamentary taskforce.
“My biggest concern is the feedback I’ve had from staff who feel very disillusioned that all of the lovely statements by leaders, that they’re going to create a better workplace, was all for nothing.”
Until the IPSC is set up in law, the process to decide these complaints is not clear. The sure way to force change is to use parliamentary privilege.
Labor asked hard questions about the Higgins claims in 2021 and the Liberals sought revenge over the past week, but neither side will benefit from an escalation in the week to come. It is time to lower the temperature.
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