Cover it up

A transformation is underway - even if Scott Morrison and his government cannot see it ... Woman seeking a change in the justice "culture" ... Rule of law myths for the protection of AG Porter ... Barely Legal is happy to be on the cusp of the revolution  

TO be shamed, you must have the capacity to feel shame. In the hours, days and weeks following Brittany Higgins' allegations of rape, and more recently the historical allegations against Christian Porter, it has become abundantly clear that this a capacity our government - perhaps the nation - lacks. 

Prime Minister Scott Morrison seemed to wear his wife Jenny's advice as a badge of valour: think about it "as a father". This suggests indecision and indifference if someone else has to calibrate your emotional compass. 

Procreation should not be a prerequisite for action, empathy or leadership. 

Moreover, it reveals why progress on gendered issues like sexual assault, domestic violence and coercive control is only now reaching a transformative point.

Women are made, time and again, to explain ourselves. Our femininity is the scapegoat: don't wear tight dresses, don't get drunk, don't look at men like that. 

And if we have the courage to speak up, we are not believed. Brittany Higgins' allegation was treated as a political problem, a "security breach", a couch to be steam-cleaned.

When Brittany said that she was cautious to report for fear of losing her "dream job", my stomach twisted. It had been knotted since the allegations made by associates of former justice of the High Court, Dyson Heydon. 

I think I would share that hesitation, even though I know I shouldn't. Now it emerges that PM & C secretary Phil Gaetjens was quick to drop his investigation into what Morrison's office knew of the Higgins' allegations, because of "overlap" with an AFP  investigation. 

It emerged that the PM's right-hand man had not even interviewed Higgins and no intention of doing so. This was all kept under wraps for weeks

Morrison himself has said: 

"It's important that [women's] stories are believed and that they know if they come forward, their stories will be believed." 

That was when the behaviour of the then-leader of the opposition, Bill Shorten, was in question.

It's entirely different belief mechanism at work when his attorney general is accused. Morrison didn't even read the allegations.

Morrision in promo mode

I am glad to be in the midst of this transformation, where women are on the battlements, demanding to be heard. 

Indeed, we are. Grace Tame is Australian of the Year, a taskforce into coercive control has just been established in Queensland, and on March 15 women around the country marched for justice. 

Yet the burden of change cannot solely be ours to bear. The rest of society must meet us halfway, accept responsibility and take up the challenge.

Despite being a law graduate, inculcated with rule of law notions since day dot, I do believe the system is broken. In recent weeks, it has been but a self-congratulatory rhetorical device used to shirk responsibility. 

Morrison in as many words says that whatever the police decide - that's the rule of law. No surprise given his father was a policemen. 

This is nothing less than a shirkers deflection.

The "rule of law" and our legal system fails victim-survivors - of sexual assault, of domestic violence, of coercive control. As Louise Milligan deftly explored in her latest book, Witness, it is frequently another form of trauma and fails to provide any meaningful redress. 

Describing her own experience as a witness in the George Pell trial, her exhaustion is palpable through the pages. Victims, treated clinically as "witnesses", are voraciously cross-examined on minuscule details of their account, picking for inconsistencies.

Victims and survivors do not see that as a decent way to arrive at justice. It is consistent to, on one hand, have the ability to deny allegations and assert the presumption of innocence, while on the other, have a system and culture that is not hostile to victims. 

The serious allegation against Porter, backed by credible supporters of the victim, has not been the subject of any deep or meaningful police investigation. 

Morrison's friend and former neighbour, NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller, closed it down saying there was "insufficient admissible evidence". 

Porter had the privilege of taking two weeks' mental health leave and the cloak of the Prime Minister's authority. 

A defamation trial is one thing - it does not determine whether Porter is guilty or not, or even if he is fit for office.

What must be changed is our culture, our attitudes, our beliefs. 

Porter, teary-eyed and pallid, claimed that stepping down would set a career-destroying precedent for others facing similar allegations, that it would destroy the rule of law. 

As the country's first law officer, it would actually affirm the rule of law to accept responsibility and step down in the face of serious criminal allegations, as any other citizen may have to do. 

It would be an admission of the gravity of the situation, not of guilt. 

Though women have been burned on the stake we are not now mad witches seeking to rebuild the stake under others.

Rather, we seek equality. 

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