ALP's rotten moral core

THE ALP's moral core has been placed under scrutiny with the pre-sentencing hearings of former NSW minister Milton Orkopoulos, allegations of harassment involving the Western Australian Premier Alan Carpenter and senior MPs and charges of rank hypocrisy laid against the federal ALP by the ACT Chief Minister, Jon Stanhope.

For a party that regularly trumpets its claims of moral superiority, it has been a dismal experience. But the ALP, the self-proclaimed party of ideas, the party of so-called public intellectuals, of school teachers and academics, the party that perpetrated the 2020 scam on the nation, the party that has just floated another ideologically-based "think'' tank, has not yet addressed even one of its flock's profound moral failings. Orkopoulos, for example, a former minister for aboriginal affairs and minister assisting the NSW Premier for citizenship, was found guilty in March of a total of 30 charges, including 18 counts of supplying a prohibited drug, seven counts of homosexual intercourse with a male below the age of 18, two counts of indecent assault and one count of possessing child pornography. His colleagues in the scholarly party would have us believe the revelations of his behaviour came as a complete surprise to them. Of course, they did not. Parliamentary staffers knew of his evil acts, his depravity had been noted, discussed and complained of, long before the police finally acted. Two of his former colleagues were in court to lend him support, when three of his former victims told of the lasting effects his predatory assaults had upon their lives. When one 20-year-old victim spat out a final remark: "Burn in hell, you grub'' before leaving the courtroom, the former Labor minister managed to smirk, according to a report in one newspaper. That victim had told the court he had suffered nightmares ever since Orkopoulos indecently assaulted him at the 2004 ALP national conference. Let that be a warning to parents who might encourage their teenage children to see politics in action. "I felt betrayed by the NSW Labor Party for protecting Milton politically,'' he said. Those in the ALP ranks who protected Orkopoulos should "hang their heads in shame''. "There are certain people in the party that knew that the message was given to the Deputy Premier (John Watkins) some weeks before Milton was arrested,'' he later told reporters. "I don't think it's been fully investigated and perhaps it should be.'' The Deputy NSW Premier and Police Minister, John Watkins, has been insistent that he knew nothing of the investigation before Orkopoulos was arrested, though Labor MLC Jan Burnswood told the court she was aware of the matter six months before charges were laid. Ms Burnswood was at the court last week, lending her support to Orkopoulos as his counsel sought reduced jail time due to his "special circumstances''. The former Labor MP for Swansea, Don Bowman, was also there. That should come as no surprise, as the ALP has still to come to terms with the conviction and jailing of former Queensland Labor MP Bill D'Arcy, who was sentenced to a 10-year prison term for raping young girls while a teacher in the 1970s, and the sentencing and jailing of former Queensland Labor leader Keith Wright, who was sentenced to nine years jail in 1993 for indecently dealing and rape involving two girls. He is currently on release in home detention. Nor has the ALP addressed the charges brought against the former Hawke and Keating minister Bob Collins, who died last September before standing trial to face allegations that he abused his position of trust to prey upon vulnerable Northern Territory youth, both indigenous and non-indigenous boys, while sometimes using his ministerial office in Canberra (as Orkopoulos used his NSW Parliament office). Just as Orkopoulos was said by his barrister to be suffering from "ego-dystonic homosexuality'', a condition which a NSW Health spokesman said referred to a homosexual living in denial of his sexual persuasion, so, too, could it be submitted that the ALP suffers from an ego-dystonic disability in its denial of the erosion of its morality. This erosion was highlighted by the ACT's Chief Minister, Jon Stanhope, who accused Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Attorney General Robert McClelland, and a slew of other federal Labor MPs of gross hypocrisy after the Rudd Government recanted its post-election promise of support for the states and territories to make their own laws in relation to gay marriage. Mr Stanhope went as far as to liken Mr Rudd to Labor's arch-bogeyman, the former Prime Minister John Howard. Mr Stanhope urged voters to read the speeches made by his federal colleagues, among them the now Minister for Climate Change, Penny Wong, who said at the time the Howard government's position was more extreme and conservative than that of the United States President George W. Bush. Other federal Labor supporters included in the charge of hypocrisy were ACT MPs Annette Ellis and Bob McMullan, Queensland Senator Joe Ludwig, now Minister for Human Services, and ACT Senator Kate Lundy. "If one was to look at all of the speeches, the grand speeches, they're wonderful speeches, they're inspirational speeches, that my colleagues gave in the Senate two years ago, and then reflect on the position that they've now reflected over these last few days, then they can be rightly accused of gross hypocrisy,'' Mr Stanhope told the ABC. "And that what hurts me so much is the attitude of Kevin Rudd and Robert McClelland is no different than the attitude of John Howard and Philip Ruddock.'' It was, he later said, a breach of "fundamental principles''. Well, get used to it. For, apart from a lot of window dressing, the Rudd Government has ignored those who elected it and doubtless the Budget will do the same, no matter what spin is placed upon it. As Tuesday's Budget triggers increased unemployment, consider whether the nation is under the control of its first ego-dystonic government.