Listening to Labor leader Anthony Albanese pontificating about the unsubstantiated – and strongly denied – rape allegations against Attorney-General Christian Porter, it was hard to fight down the gut-wrenching nausea. The stinking hypocrisy from not just Albanese and nearly every single politician on the opposition benches is exceeded only by that of the media.
Not one journalist pointed out the glaring contradiction of Albanese’s claims that we must absolutely respect the presumption of innocence – but that the PM must stand aside the minister. Neither did any of the press gallery think to ask how Albanese could square his “believe women” sanctimony with the fact that he went to the last election with a leader under investigation for alleged rape.
In fact, it is the latter case which set a clear, rational and above all honourable template for how the media and politicians should behave when it comes to such allegations.
And that’s not how they have been behaving in this febrile, highly politicised few weeks.
Parliamentarians, politicians, media and victims’ advocates all have a template based on their own behaviour when Bill Shorten, who had been subjected to a decades-old rape allegation, was told Victorian police would not proceed with the case for lack of evidence he identified himself.
The then opposition leader said how terrible it had been, how abhorrent the allegation was and how it was untrue.
It was a difficult but correct decision and it received the correct and proper response from his colleagues, the media, the prime minister and his political opponents, including Malcolm Turnbull.
But, in the current case of a conservative government minister subject to precisely the same allegations as Shorten, the behaviour of the opposition and media has been shamefully opposite.
When the allegation was made against Shorten and police began to investigate there were no anonymous calls for action, no letters to Labor leaders and frontbenchers, no allegations on the ABC and no calls for him to step aside.
When the police investigation into the allegations was first reported there was no name of the alleged perpetrator only that it was a “senior Labor figure”.
There were no calls for the person to self-identify, no calls for someone to stand down from their position, no broadcast of the evidence and no suggestions that anyone but the police should deal with the matter.
This isn’t a matter of political partisanship, either. When Shorten was accused, his political enemies behaved with honour.
Turnbull, then communications minister, said Shorten did the right thing in coming forward and sympathised with how terrible it would have been facing an “unjust accusation”.
Tony Abbott, as prime minister, said there had been allegations “in the ether” and Shorten had done the best thing. Tanya Plibersek, then the deputy Labor leader, said it was time to “draw a line under” the events because it had been so stressful for Shorten.
The Australian
The media in particular did their level best not to “believe women”.
Even when the complainant sought to revive the allegations in the final days of the 2019 election campaign — by going to the police seeking a reopening of the case — the media barely reported it and Plibersek, Kristina Keneally and Penny Wong all continued on the campaign trail with Shorten without comment.
So when Anthony Albanese pontificates about “leadership”, it’s his that ought to be held under the blowtorch of opprobrium. PM Scott Morrison and his cabinet have all taken the legally and morally correct stance: let the law take its course and stand by the presumed innocence of a colleague.
The government have nothing to be ashamed of here.
Unlike Labor, the Greens and the mainstream media.
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