QED

A Minister’s Choice: Grovel or Go ‘Em?

At some point this afternoon — the exact time varies according to which media report you care to go by — a senior government minister will go before the cameras to deny he is a rapist. The question is just which one of two options the minister might pursue after taking up the microphone as a white-noise blizzard of  whirring shutters and camera lights capture what his detractors must be hoping is a bunny-in-the-headlights  moment.

On the one hand, there is the orthodox track taken so often and to their detriment by conservatives. It might go something like this:

‘Ladies and gentlemen of the press, let me begin by saying there is no crime so vile as rape, and that the victims of such predators deserve our support and warrant our belief. You will have seen the public service ads this government produces that illustrate why telling a young boy he ‘throws like a girl’ sows the seeds for rampant masculinism and domestic violence in later life. Likewise, the ad that equates maleness with brutality, which is a message all boys and young men need to absorb.

‘That said, what brings me before you today are accusations which I emphatically and absolutely deny.

‘Further, the NSW Police have looked into these allegations and decided not to proceed.’

At this point the minister might venture a few tentative words about a possible case of mistaken identity. Or it might be that, sotto voce, he alludes to his now-deceased accuser’s mental state, although it will be no more specific than referring to her as ‘sadly troubled’.

It will do him no good, of course, because the questions from the press will be loaded and they will come in a clamourous barrage.

‘Do you specifically deny anally raping this unfortunate young woman and wrecking her life forever?’

‘Are you concerned about other women who might come forward with accusations against you?’

‘What do you say to critics on Twitter who describe you as the dictionary illustration of the sexism that permeates the Parliament and all of Capital Hill?’

You get the picture. The questions will keep the minister on the back foot, obliged to deny what there is no possible way to refute. Plus there will be the likely prospect of being asked how anyone can urge in one breath that victims be believed and, in the next, insist that just such a victim be dismissed?

Inevitably, the news reports will prefer ‘the police found insufficient evidence to proceed with the case’ to the equally accurate but, for the media jackals, the infuriatingly redemptive ‘no case to answer.’

If he is lucky, the minister will limp away, secure for the moment in his job but with the reek of suspicion, smear and innuendo destined to dog him ever after. Being a realist, he will have to accept that his political career can never again follow the upward path he once imagined, that the slurs will never be erased and that, when the next Cabinet shuffle comes about, he’ll be regarded as damaged goods fit only to be shunted sideways or out.

There is precedent for such grim realism, as the minister will know from the ‘getting’ of Victorian Labor minister Theo Theophanous, who was accused ten years after the alleged event of raping a woman on his office desk. It was toxic nonsense growing out of the lurid fantasy of a disturbed woman, the blood lust of an irresponsible newspaper, an eagerly gullible reporter and a Victoria Police detective who obligingly fine-tuned the ‘victim’s’ allegations through some 15 amended iterations of her original (and improbable) account. Worth noting is that same detective some years later played a key role in framing accusations against George Pell. Theophanous was ruined, as would have been Cardinal Pell had the High Court not seen through the travesty of justice that is the rule of law these days in a court system packed thick with Daniel Andrews’ judges.

But then there is the second approach the minister might take, one that could just save his career and, in the process, hearten conservatives who are so thoroughly sick and tired of watching those they elect genuflect before the Left’s narratives of the moment,  whatever they might be. Just look at the shunning of Craig Kelly for daring to note that, contrary to the Therapeutic Goods Administration, there are valid early-stage treatments for the COVID virus that are achieving good results and lower death rates in places such as Mexico and India. GetUp is targeting his seat of Hughes with all the stratagems and financial resources it deployed against Tony Abbott in Waringah. Now a candidate has been driven from the party and, quite likely, a seat is lost. With the exception of NSW’s Matt Kean, one of the invasive Photios cuckoos pushing sound principles out of the Coalition nest, how many Liberals truly and genuinely believe the green guff they spout about  the majesty of wind turbines, the ‘hydrogen economy’ and the wisdom of pumping water uphill that it might cascade down again? It is an understatement to note that conservatives would appreciate seeing a politician whose first instinct is to fight, not grovel. This is the minister’s opportunity to say something along these lines. Who knows, it might even be a good career move.

‘Ladies and gentlemen of the press, I’m here to address the topic of shame — not my shame, but yours.

‘According to what you have been reporting, 32 years ago I raped — anally raped, no less — a young woman of my acquaintance. You have reported that she was mentally unbalanced, was in and out of psychiatric facillities and took her own life after filing, and then withdrawing, a request that police investigate. Meanwhile, on Twitter and other social media, my alleged guilt has been ordained by a million tweets which you have reported as if they amount to something other than the bile of partisan and often anonymous slanderers.’

At this point, expect to hear muttering from the press squad, perhaps even angry shouts. The minister would be foolish to indulge them. The key at this point is to hike and further focus the attack.

‘I’d note that one of the prime drivers in the campaign to ruin my name and reputation is Ms Louise Milligan, whom I’m tempted to call ‘Seven Nilligan’ to reflect what the High Court thought of the case she mounted in a hatchet-job assault on a good and innocent man. Some weeks ago, she and the Four Corners crew attempted to depict me as some sort of satyr for taking a drink with a female in a Canberra bar. Nothing to it, but the game was afoot. The episode went to air and flopped dreadfully.

‘Now, thwarted in the first instance, Ms Milligan and Four Corners have returned for a second bite of the cherry.

‘You people here today, you talk a good game about serving as priests in journalism’s temple of truth — ho-ho, that’s a good one — but the questions that scream for answers go unasked.

‘Who penned those anonymous letters that plunged me, an innocent man, into this grubby nightmare? You haven’t asked me when I stopped beating my wife, but I have no doubt you will.

‘Is it not suspicious that those letters went to two of the most partisan operatives in the Parliament, Penny Wong and Sarah Hanson-Young, the latter so credulous she believed the TV series Sea Patrol was a documentary. Ms Wong is smarter, but apparently no more principled.

‘A third letter went to the Prime Minister — a third letter so he could be confronted with claims that he knew but did nothing.

‘I could go on, but I’ll limit myself to one last observation about your moral bankruptcy, which is this.

‘The family of my late accuser begged that the matter be dropped. They pleaded that it would cause them renewed grief and much pain.

‘They begged you and yet you ignored them. Get out of my sight. You disgust me.’

Roger Franklin edits Quadrant Online and waits, so far in vain, for conservatives with the spine to fight back

29 thoughts on “A Minister’s Choice: Grovel or Go ‘Em?

  • Elizabeth Beare says:

    Elizabeth Beare, Michael’s wife

    If only we could hear this then I would tune in right now, for it is supposed to be happening this minute. Sadly, I think the usual scene of ritual humiliation is what will occur and don’t want to enlarge the audience by tuning it. I hope I am wrong, and that some of the critique you mount manages to intrude into this set piece of Ministerial decline and fall.

  • Elizabeth Beare says:

    Well said, anyway, RF. This needs to be repeated constantly to drive the message home and thank goodness that Quadrant takes up that cudgel.

  • ianl says:

    It will make no difference, Elizabeth.

    Regard that as pessimism, gutlessness or whatever. Nonetheless, Roger F’s projections of the defence line is likely accurate, and will very likely mirror Morrison’s line. Something akin to arming with a plastic teaspoon for a gutter knife fight.

  • Peter OBrien says:

    Great commentary Roger.

  • Patrick McCauley says:

    Louise Milligan is a piece of work is she not …? where does such a level of hatred of men and maleness come from … ? was she educated by the nuns ? … what school did she go to … ? was it Star of the Sea ( which nun influenced her most) – She is a threat to all men – this woman rampaging through Christianity in the name of patriarchy – no man is safe – all men are rapists – guilty until proven innocent (and even then covered in guilt) She is consistently shown to be malicious and wrong and nasty … yet she continues like a Siren or banshee . She eats fathers and sows salt into the wounds of the fatherless.

  • Patrick McCauley says:

    The style and composition of the anonymous letter from the dead woman’s friends – has Louise Milligan written all over it …

  • Doubting Thomas says:

    Just watched the press conference. Your script was pretty accurate. Unfortunately, the camera clicking meant I didn’t get to hear most of the detailed questioning, but three journalists standing together dominated the questioning and simply repeated themselves ad nauseam. Apart from simply ignoring everything Porter had to say, they repeatedly refused to accept that it was not up to him to authorise the “independent inquiry” that the goon squad insisted he should do.

    The bottom line for me was that Porter conducted himself as well as could reasonably be expected, and the meeja every bit as badly as can be imagined.

  • Greg Williams says:

    Patrick, I think Milligan’s hatred spreads further to anything associated with conservatives. My admiration for Cardinal Pell is profound given his reluctance to take her to the cleaners over her maniacal and public pursuit of him. There’s a long list of people I would have the very best lawyers pursuing if I had happen to me what happened to the Cardinal. His has been a very Christian response.

  • rod.stuart says:

    It was exceptionally difficult to listen. Difficult due to the emotion exuding from an innocent man’s voice. But exceptionally diifficult to listen to the idiotic press corp and their accusative questioning. It is less disgusting to watch a pack of wolves tear a moose apart. It’s almost exactly the same thing.
    I reckon your right abouit the author of the letter………seven Nillagain.
    Sarah Sea Patrol is at her disgusting nasty self.

  • lbloveday says:

    “His has been a very Christian response”.
    .
    Yes, but what about handing it to “the very best lawyers” – the Cardinal would not need much personal input – with the proceeds to be given to an appropriate charity?

  • yofus says:

    Sales and Tingle have been leading the media pack of vultures all week on 7.30 with such vigour one can’t help but imagine the ABC maybe have a bit more to do with the story than will ever be known outside the anticonservative workshop they seem so obsessed with justifying their entire existence and output with.

  • Harry Lee says:

    The neo-marxist forces within Australia have been preparing for the next Federal election since the day they lost the last one.
    This fantasy/baseless attack on Porter is one of their tactics.
    And look at all the rest of the neo-marxist strategy:
    Destroying small and mid-sized business, undermining the ADF, elevating Identity over Competence in all institutions (obviously in the public sector, but elsewhere too), the continued dumbing-down in the state education systems, encouraging/endorsing parasitism and ignoring/denigrating proper contributing citizenship, anti-Westernist immigration/refugee inflow, the leftist anti-empirical drivel channeled by the ABC, SBS and 90% of the commercial media, the further dissolving of the criminal justice system, the anti-Westernist, anti-free enterprise and anti-free speech actions of public servants at al levels (Fed, State, Territory, Council), embracing China and/or the UN as the rightful masters of Australian destiny, oh and all the rest of it.
    The neo-marxist-inspired forces dominate all institutions in Australia.
    All enabled by a weak Constitution, combined with the sad fact that too few Proper Australians can be bothered to volunteer to save the place.

  • Stephen Due says:

    The same historical rape accusation tactic is commonly used by the brainless woke Left in America. Remember Brett Kavanaugh? It’s hilarious really. The ABC can’t even come up with an original idea for framing someone and destroying their reputation.

  • Sydgal says:

    What connections do the friends have with Milligan? Still unclear about the Inside the Canberra Bubble story last year – research/production etc. Did they want the poor woman to appear on that program?

  • Harry Lee says:

    Yes well.
    People say that unnamed sources have alleged that all denizens of the ABC have committed mis-deeds of various kinds, while on the tax-payer payroll.
    Indeed, some people say that these charges of mis-deeds apply to 90% of the members of SBS, and 90% of members of the commercial media, and 90% of public servants in the education, immigration/refugee, and Aboriginal sectors, and several others public service areas.
    Some people also say that charges in the case of ALP and Green politicians, and union bosses have also been made, but they are not passing these on for the moment.
    Meanwhile, I personally reject the authority of victims of child or any sexual abuse, or indeed anyone with a grievance, to tutor the PM and the Chief of the ADF about how to say things intended to encourage young females, and indeed young members of any gender, to take all precautions to protect themselves from sexual or other violence.
    And I condemn any person who says that young people should not act to protect themselves from sexual or other violence -reasons obvious, at least to people who deal with Actual Reality.

  • Macbeth says:

    Lizzie I agree. It’s a very sad thing. I’ve more or less given up on that other place. Disgusting people with one or tow exceptions.

  • Ian MacKenzie says:

    It seems Ms Milligan has learned from her failure to destroy Cardinal Pell. In that case only half of the “victims” were deceased, leaving the other alive. It was his evidence describing an impossible scenario that ultimately lost the prosecution’s case, as soon as it left the clutches of the deeply corrupt Victorian legal system. Ms Milligan has now found an accusation against another conservative male with no other surviving witnesses, which can therefore never be proven or disproven. The courts can’t try the case, so there’s no role for the pesky High Court and it’s annoying habit of following the law.
    The attack on the federal government by the ABC’s Four Corners “Inside the Canberra Bubble” last November, which started this whole witch-hunt, was the most blatant example in a long line of biased leftwing reporting by the ABC. It is clear that the ABC Charter’s requirement for balance means nothing, and hasn’t for a generation. The ABC has been waging war on the Coalition and other high-profile conservative people for all of the 21st century. Each incident of bias becomes more blatant and each time the government has two options, much like those described by Roger Franklin above. Firstly it can ignore taxpayer-funded Green-Left bias by the ABC and continue to suck-it-up. Alternatively it can push back. Given the state of the post-pandemic federal budget, there has never been a better time to defund the ABC. Sadly, much like Attorney-General Porter this afternoon, I suspect the government, as it has always done in the past, will choose the former option rather than the later.

  • Harry Lee says:

    This anti-Porter campaign is simply part of the Left’s preparations for the coming Federal election.
    The Left was stunned when it failed, by a whisker, to win last time.
    Since then the ALP and the Greens and their allies, operatives and agents at the ABC, SBS and in 90% of the commercial media, and in the law industry, and in the public services, have been putting things in place to rip the Libs and Nats.
    Obvious that the several local St Greta’s, now being displayed in the media, are orchestrated by the Left -the anti-Westernist lawyers, media-people, public servants and politicians -and their allies and puppeteers in the shadows.
    And while we are saying the obvious, we note that the CCP/China wants ALP governments here -at all levels.

  • March says:

    Another ABC driven witch burning exercise where the facts are overlooked in the media’s rush to light the pyre.

  • ianl says:

    A possible pushback tactic: accuse 7-Nilligan of plagiarism.

    No need for detail in the accusation. Just insist an “independent inquiry” examine the dishonesty that has been alleged.

    Meltdown …

  • Karnjirrwala says:

    Christian Porter did as good a job as feasible of articulating civilised principle before these media savages. None of them engaged with the ideas so filled with malice and intoxicated with the smell of blood. Tingle was supremely revolting on 7:30. These people are the perfect mimics of Donald Trump whom they purport to despise: narcissistic, incapable of argument, propagandists of vulgarity.

  • Michael says:

    We are now seeing the attempt to set up a ‘Kangaroo court’ at the highest level in Australia. A start chamber show trial of the Attorney General Christian Porter, on a decades old rape allegation from a person now dead, who never filed a complaint for decades, and when she finally did, withdrew it. Any evidence could only be circumstantial; what she might have told her friends over the years is not even admissible evidence, it is hearsay; nor could anything she may have said to the police now be cross-examined. Moreover, that Porter, as a youth of 17, raped a girl of 16 while on a debating competition, is highly improbable.

    The rule of law is at stake in Australia. The Government must absolutely stand firm in rejecting these calls backed by Labor for a star chamber inquiry and defend the rule of law. This includes that an accused person be presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt in a properly constituted court of law, under established rules of evidence, is able to test evidence and cross-examine witnesses, and is afforded due process rights, including the right to be told clearly what the charges are, the right to remain silent, and the right to legal representation.

    What we’ve seen in the past fortnight or so, not just with Porter, but Reynolds and Nicole Flint, is more evidence, if more were needed, that the left fully intends to hound any and all conservatives from public life in Australia.

  • Sydgal says:

    Harry Lee, Thank you for your comment. I was thinking about the May 2019 Fed election last night and how the ALP was very quiet in the following months. Perhaps various plans were put in place then. It is so sad to see our national broadcaster’s journalists social media posts promoting so much hatred and division in our society. Also very sad to see a number of lawyers’ social media posts, including tweets about the Fed AG last Friday night. I contacted the Law Council of Aust to ask them to point me to the Aust Lawyers Code of Conduct but I believe they are still updating this document.

  • Peter Dare says:

    Roger, thank you for a marvellous article. Please send a copy to Christian Porter. I’d like him to come out, guns blazing, in two weeks time after he has recouped. No other attitude is warranted nor will it do. Two ghastly people seem to have escaped mention in your piece – the disingenuous Albanese and Slimy Malcolm. In particular Slimey’s call for a Coronial Inquest.by positing that the woman’s death may not have been by suicide. What a shameful suggestion.

  • DougD says:

    Now that the complainant is dead and a police investigation therefore at an end, the line being run is that because of the office Porter holds, his fitness to be a minister must be investigated by “an independent enquiry chaired by an eminent retired judge”. Such concern for the integrity of our political system is commendable. But the integrity of the members of the Opposition, the alternative government, is also important and the cross-bench members all wield considerable power. So if Porter’s fitness to hold his office is so important a matter, there should be an enquiry into the fitness of each MP to sit in Parliament. How Bob Hawke or Harold Holt or indeed various other prime ministers would have fared if they had to be fitness-tested in such a way is an interesting speculation. Then there is the question of selecting an eminent retired judge. A couple of recent ones would no doubt be disqualified by their behaviour to staff or a conviction for perverting the course of justice. An enquiry would therefore be necessary to ensure the eminent retired judge was truly a man or woman of unimpeachable integrity.And you couldn’t have just anyone choosing the retired judge. Somehow – another enquiry perhaps? – judge – choosers would have to be selected in a way that would ensure they were themselves fit and proper persons to select a fit and proper (and of course eminent) retired judge. And so on… The suggestion for an enquiry into Porter now is so obviously politically and ideologically-driven that hopefully we will see this Prime Minister ignoring the opinion polls for once and firmly stating there will be no enquiry by his government (though he cannot intervene of course in any inquest into the woman’s death, even though the monomaniacally vengeful Turnbull will try to use it to repeat his sad murder imputation that the ABC was happy to let Turnbull use them to do that.)

  • Alice Thermopolis says:

    Thanks Roger.
    Another Christian thrown to the lionesses.
    Do hope his inner Spartacus stays strong and he returns in a few days as A-G.

    From NSW Police statement today:
    Strike Force Wyndarra said on February 27, 2020, detectives attached to the Child Abuse and Sex Crimes Squad met with the alleged victim and a friend at Kings Cross Police Station.
    “The woman disclosed to investigators during this meeting that she had a number of health issues. She also advised investigators that she dissociates and wanted to ensure when supplying her statement that she was ‘coherent and as grounded as possible’,” the statement said.
    “At the woman’s instigation extensive discussion was had in relation to also having a support person with her during the making of her complaint statement.
    “Investigators had ongoing contact on at least five occasions with the woman over the next 3 months.
    “During the contact had with her, her ongoing welfare was discussed along with a plan for how and when her statement would be taken.”
    The situation changed on June 23, 2020, when the woman sent detectives an email indicating she no longer felt able to proceed with reporting the matter, citing medical and personal reasons.
    “The woman very clearly articulated in that email that she did not want to proceed with the complaint,” the statement said.
    “She also thanked investigators in this email. She was very grateful for the time and support the Investigators provided to her.”
    On June 25, a day after that, South Australia Police advised NSW Police investigators that the woman had passed away.

  • Harry Lee says:

    The marxist/ALP/pro-China/pro-UN agents running the anti-Porter campaign are now suggesting that Porter is responsible for the death of this accuser.
    This is the accuser who, before she died, asked the NSW police to drop the case, possibly having comprehended that she fantasized the entire alleged rape, and its imagined consequences.
    We are at War, and the marxist forces have just about secured their final victory, though non-marxists few realise it.
    Note:
    The marxists -that’s the entire Left in the ALP, Greens, ABC/all media, the entertainment-arts industry, the education systems, the law industry, and all the public services- are superbly effective in puppeetering naive idealists and fantasists generally.

  • Alice Thermopolis says:

    International Women’s Day Pledges:
    Never refer to another member of the Sisterhood as a “lying cow”,
    The personal is always political.

  • Harry Lee says:

    The anti-Westernist Left -with the ABC as front-line spox- is now running a pre-election campaign to impugn/destroy Lib ministers and MPs.

Leave a Reply