Parliament House sexual assault and harassment allegations

[roar]

Indeed.

Overland is another one.

[David]

Oh, that one used to be edited by an actual Nick's member (kind of, very briefly)!

[watt price tully]

You really have a bee in your bonnet over this issue.

Ms Higgins may have been raped, she may not have been. Who knows. As to whether she is brave or not, all you can really say is that her behaviour is unusual. Who goes to the media a couple of years after an alleged rape, then asks police to pursue it and then asks for her privacy to be respected? That is quite odd. Those in media are clearly not helping her. If they were they would have told her to go to the police then STFU as far as the media is concerned. Going to the media first could be enough in itself for police to decide not to lay any charges.

As for the suggestion that there should be an independent inquiry to examine this so that people can be safe in their workplaces, that is an inane suggestion for a number of reasons (it will probably happen though, because after all we are talking about politicians). Who will conduct the independent inquiry? What would the terms of reference be? Will they interview the only two people in the room at the time? Hint, no, they won’t. So we would have an inquiry into this incident that hears only from Ms Higgins. That will make everyone safe in their workplaces, won’t it ? Then, in the future, every woman that was about to be raped at work could whip out a copy of the recommendations and they will be safe.

I have a really strange, left field suggestion. Just to be different, if someone I knew had been the victim of a crime, I would tell them that there was a free, and normally confidential service that investigates crimes and can bring perpetrators to justice. That service is called the police. I would tell them to make a complaint and ask them to investigate. I would also tell them that a conviction is not going to make one iota of difference to whether or not people feel safe at work.

She’s very brave. Her actions hopefully will signal change in how women staffers are treated in Parliament.

Your flippant remark about going to the police excluded any sense of the position she faced at the time. I deal with trauma a lot ( and not just being a Pies supporter) not all victims want to go to the police and every person is individual.

Some do and good on them some don’t and good on them too.

By going to the media she is hoping to make changes such that other women don’t have to go through what she went through: report it to the police and lose your career.

At the same time the role of shock has not been mentioned but as a victim of rape waking up from intoxication with someone on top of you must leave one bewildered, shocked and confused. Add to this the reactions she got: police and now job, don’t make a fuss etc. grin and bear it etc

It can take time to focus one’s energies and think a way through this that reduces your own pain (protecting ones sense of self) by a greater good: making it better for other women in Parliament.

There are now 4 enquires I understand about this but the little turd has appointed ax staff member to look into who knew what and when and has so far refused to allow the fundings to be made public

An independent enquiry can assist in realising a few things:

1. An independent place like an HR department separate from the Dep’t of Finance for pollie employees
2. Removing what the Mad Misogynist Monks Svengali (Peta Credlin) set up with all staff employed by members of the coalition had to go through the office of PM) which has been continued
3. Where staff are able to enjoy the same rights and be afforded the same protections that one expects from employment anywhere but conspicuously lacking in Federal Parliament
4. While this won’t occur making a quota system mandatory: women are 50% of the population or near enough and should have 50% representation in Parliament: in so doing get rid of the blokey culture of parliament which is more rampant in the Libs Nats because of the low representation of women there.
5. Change the culture of don’t ask don’t tell although that would be one of the more difficult to achieve

I stand by my comments about the little turd, the happy clappy Scotty from Marketing.

Now we know lots of people knew in his office and playing word games doesn’t change that.

[watt price tully]

Indeed.

Overland is another one.

New Matilda

[stui magpie]

^

Look on the bright side, you've got years to work on your material. With Labor putting up unelectable blonks like Shorten and Elbow Kneesy they won't be getting in power any time soon.

[stui magpie]

On a separate note, I see Brittany Higgins has filed a formal complaint with the federal Police.

Can anyone explain why this is a Federal Police case? The ACT has a Police force, a claim of sexual assault is normally made to state/territory Police and is not in the AFP jurisdiction .

Is there something peculiar because this case happened in parliament house or involved ministerial staff that somehow makes it an AFP responsibility?

I'm assuming the AFP would have minimal expertise or experience in investigating and prosecuting this kind of thing, if there was a choice in picking which one to go to, it seems like a poor one to me.

[doriswilgus]

I’ve never heard of these so called left wing publications,they must be very niche publications if that’s the case.Which backs up the point I was making about the media in Australia.

[stui magpie]

Or, your lack of knowledge on a subject is just,,,,,,,your lack of knowledge.

[David]

To be fair, none of them are newspapers / news sites: Overland is a literary journal; New Matilda only publishes opinion with the odd investigative report; and Arena also does analysis, as does Crikey, which has also recently moved into a little on-the-side investigative reporting. The closest we have to a moderate-profile left-leaning newspaper is The Saturday Paper, which is pretty good quality but only publishes weekly (there also smaller weeklies like Green Left, but they’re pretty niche).

[David]

On a separate note, I see Brittany Higgins has filed a formal complaint with the federal Police.

Can anyone explain why this is a Federal Police case? The ACT has a Police force, a claim of sexual assault is normally made to state/territory Police and is not in the AFP jurisdiction .

Is there something peculiar because this case happened in parliament house or involved ministerial staff that somehow makes it an AFP responsibility?

I'm assuming the AFP would have minimal expertise or experience in investigating and prosecuting this kind of thing, if there was a choice in picking which one to go to, it seems like a poor one to me.

As a former Canberran, I can answer this one easily: the ACT police are the AFP! Quite why that is so is another question, but I always presumed that was the reason I so rarely saw them around when I lived there (compared to Victoria Police, at any rate).

[doriswilgus]

Or, your lack of knowledge on a subject is just,,,,,,,your lack of knowledge.

So droll,Stui,so droll.Stui.Have you thought about taking up a career as a comedian?

[doriswilgus]

To be fair, none of them are newspapers / news sites: Overland is a literary journal; New Matilda only publishes opinion with the odd investigative report; and Arena also does analysis, as does Crikey, which has also recently moved into a little on-the-side investigative reporting. The closest we have to a moderate-profile left-leaning newspaper is The Saturday Paper, which is pretty good quality but only publishes weekly (there also smaller weeklies like Green Left, but they’re pretty niche).

Exactly my point,David.And you managed to say all of that without taking a cheap shot at me.Well done.But then again,you always have been one of the more thoughtful posters around here.

[stui magpie]

Or, your lack of knowledge on a subject is just,,,,,,,your lack of knowledge.

So droll,Stui,so droll.Stui.Have you thought about taking up a career as a comedian?

Thanks, I have actually but these days you need to be very left wing and totally un-funny to be a comedian, so I'll stick with my day job.

But cheers for the compliment.

[stui magpie]

On a separate note, I see Brittany Higgins has filed a formal complaint with the federal Police.

Can anyone explain why this is a Federal Police case? The ACT has a Police force, a claim of sexual assault is normally made to state/territory Police and is not in the AFP jurisdiction .

Is there something peculiar because this case happened in parliament house or involved ministerial staff that somehow makes it an AFP responsibility?

I'm assuming the AFP would have minimal expertise or experience in investigating and prosecuting this kind of thing, if there was a choice in picking which one to go to, it seems like a poor one to me.

As a former Canberran, I can answer this one easily: the ACT police are the AFP! Quite why that is so is another question, but I always presumed that was the reason I so rarely saw them around when I lived there (compared to Victoria Police, at any rate).

OK. The NT has it's own Police, there must be some obscure reason likely related to how/why the ACT was created that explains why the AFP is the local Police.

[Pies4shaw]

The ACT had its own police. They merged with the old Commonwealth Police about 40 years ago (after some UK plod appointed by Fraser reviewed Australia's anti-terrorist capacity following the Hilton Hotel bombing) and the new entity was the AFP, as we know it. I think the formal arrangement now is that the AFP provides police services to the ACT under contract.