Andrew Bolt: Put faith in the justice system

There’s one thing missing in the political brawl over the alleged rape at Parliament House of Brittany Higgins.

Brittany Higgins with Scott Morrison.

There’s one thing missing in the political brawl over the alleged rape at Parliament House of Brittany Higgins.

Why is she not being treated as an adult woman, strong and with a mind of her own?

Rape is a terrible crime, and we hear Labor and journalists smash the Liberals for not giving Higgins enough support (but on what evidence?).

We hear Higgins accuse her then boss, Minister Linda Reynolds, of making her feel she shouldn’t report the rape to police (yet Higgins admits Reynolds suggested just that).

But what we don’t hear much about is Higgins’ own responsibility to go to the police.

If Higgins was indeed raped during her drunken encounter two years ago with a former colleague, shouldn’t her rapist be punished and taken out of circulation, for the safety of other women?

Yes, she did go to police at the time but did not progress the matter past early stages.

She says the Liberals made her too scared of losing her job, although how they did that is very unclear.

True, Higgins was just 24 at the time. She seems traumatised, and I suspect felt betrayed, humiliated and confused by whatever happened.

But Higgins is also an adult, savvy enough to have been a media advisor to federal ministers.

She obviously now feels strong enough to discuss her alleged rape on prime-time TV, brief
journalists against the
government and discuss her case with embittered former Liberal prime minister Malcolm
Turnbull.

Yet even now she still has not progressed the matter with the police.

She says she will, but so far prosecutes her case in the media instead.

Can the media and Labor now really demand everyone else do something for her but not ask this capable woman to take the most important step herself?

That’s not just because a potential rapist meanwhile stays unpunished.

We should also remember we’ve heard only one side of this alleged rape. The man she accuses may have a different memory of what happened.

Police and courts are best placed to find the truth. But right now, journalists and politicians
just pick the “truth” that suits
their agenda.

Shouldn’t we know the facts before we start the finger-pointing?

Higgins could start the police investigation we need.

It’s patronising to think such
a woman is so weak that we can’t expect her to have done that already.

Originally published as Andrew Bolt: Put faith in the justice system