Parliament House sexual assault and harassment allegations

[watt price tully]

Just to show I am even handed between the sexual abuse ridden Liberals that the little turd the happy clappy Scotty from Marketing is their cherished leader

[stui magpie]

Even handed?



This is a really difficult situation. From what I read the NSW Police suspended their investigation when the woman involved suicided.

What I understand is:

The alleged assault happened in 1988 in Sydney when the victim was 16 which means the alleged perpetrator would have to be 50+

Labor are calling for an inquiry god bless them. if the Police aren't going to investigate and the alleged Victim is deceased, I can't see how you can do anything.

The only thing I can consider reasonable is to name the minister involved. I'd be reluctant to do that as you'll get the usual social media pile on, but at least that creates the opportunity for any others to come forward and stops the conjecture

[watt price tully]

Even handed?



This is a really difficult situation. From what I read the NSW Police suspended their investigation when the woman involved suicided.

What I understand is:

The alleged assault happened in 1988 in Sydney when the victim was 16 which means the alleged perpetrator would have to be 50+

Labor are calling for an inquiry god bless them. if the Police aren't going to investigate and the alleged Victim is deceased, I can't see how you can do anything.

The only thing I can consider reasonable is to name the minister involved. I'd be reluctant to do that as you'll get the usual social media pile on, but at least that creates the opportunity for any others to come forward and stops the conjecture

Bugger ( excuse the pun) I was hoping it was <please let's not name people, whether in jest or otherwise - Thanks, Pies4shaw for BBMods> but he might be too young.

Now Sarah Henderson the defeated member for Bellarine, ex ABC presenter and generally unpleasant but scored a job elsewhere has been given details of an alleged sexual abuser from the ranks of the Labour Party.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/subsc ... de=premium


Labour 1, Libs 35

[stui magpie]

Bit of detail.

https://www.news.com.au/national/politi ... c372e9f7b1

[stui magpie]

And the beat goes on...la de da de da.....

One party and so much abuse

Whoops.

An allegation of rape against another federal politician has also been sent to the AFP.

Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson and Senator Hanson-Young confirmed they both received an email from a woman, who alleges she was sexually assaulted by a man who is now a federal Labor MP.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-28/ ... c/13201522

[5 from the wing on debut]

There's also a large difference in the way the opposing parties treat the allegations. The left have jumped on the allegations to make political mileage whereas the Liberals, in the case of Shorten, from memory, were silent. Nothing in question time, nothing given to journalists and the alleged victim wasn't used as a pawn. There may be a few reasons for that, but the difference is stark.

I am not sure who is advising Albanese though. Calling for an inquiry into a sexual assault allegation from 1988 where the alleged victim is deceased just makes him appear stupid.

[David]

[5 from the wing on debut]

Why should the accused have to step down from his position? He may have committed a rape. He may not have. Most women do not lie about being raped. Some do.

All that will ever be proven, is that a person with mental health issues committed suicide and she had alleged that she was raped over 30 years before that.

It's understandable why some rape victims don't go to the police at the time but if they don't it's generally a matter that police will investigate and then not pursue.

There are very important issues going on in the world and it appears the only way that Albanese can gain some media attention is to lower himself to the level of commenting upon this issue and requesting an investigation. I have never held politicians in high regard but he's stooping to new lows on the basis that some people may actually believe that he cares about the issue.

[David]

[5 from the wing on debut]

Come on, we are talking about politicians. Honourable, resign? You saw the contortions Andrews engaged in before the sham "judicial inquiry".

No politician is going to say "there's not one scrap of actual evidence that says that I committed a rape 30 years ago, but I admit that I did".

What will happen now is that every time an MP receives a letter from a nut job (they receive a lot of them) they will go public with it so they are not accused of covering it up. In the past I assume they would throw them in the bin but those days are over because it's not important, apparently, what happened but when you knew about the allegation is important.

There are already lower burdens of proof in civil claims where it's decided on the balance of probabilities. That should not be the standard for an allegation of criminal conduct.

[David]

Worth asking why on that last part, isn't it?

It's understandable for crimes with heavier penalties (e.g. long jail terms) to have higher burdens of proof. But what if there were situations where there could be a lower burden of proof and less severe penalty that increases the likelihood of the truth coming out and some restitution being offered? I don't see any reason to oppose that in principle.

[stui magpie]

^

That's exactly what happens in every workplace where allegations of misconduct are investigated. People are sacked every day for things that aren't subject to a criminal investigation.

I don't know if there's a process or precedent to be used in Parliament of this nature.

They have the details of the alleged incident, the alleged victim had withdrawn their complaint the day before they suicided so the Police are unlikely to proceed.

They could appoint an investigator but it would be a quick investigation. Put the allegations to the accused and get his response.

There's no witnesses to the event
The complainant is deceased and can't elaborate
There may be some detailed writing left behind by the complainant but unless it involves actual correspondence with the accused it would likely only go toward victim impact and their state of mind, not toward whether it happened or not.

If the accused denies it, you would have little option on balance other than to accept that and move on

[David]

Unsurprisingly, the (still unnamed) minister has "vigorously denied" the allegations, so I guess it remains to be seen whether anything conclusive will emerge from this:

https://thewest.com.au/politics/calls-f ... -s-2051471

[5 from the wing on debut]

The only thing that has conclusively emerged, and will conclusively emerge, is that a woman with mental health issues accused a minister of raping her over 30 years ago has committed suicide.

If the person accused was not a minister it would be a non story.

[Pies4shaw]

That very much depends upon the content of the allegations and their plausibility. There is little prospect of a criminal conviction but that's not all that's at issue here. One might (depending upon the circumstances) still form the view that it was more likely than not that the complainant was telling the truth.