Sharri Markson: It’s time to stop turning a blind eye
Luke Foley’s resignation raises huge issues around how we treat claims of sexual misconduct, especially for NSW Labor which failed to properly investigate their leader.
Opinion
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AS a politician Luke Foley counted on a woman’s silence and timidity — regardless of the truth or falsity of his accuser’s claims. He staked his career on the assumption a female journalist would never dare speak up, knowing that if she did he would have to resign to protect the party’s electoral chances.
He relied on the premise Ashleigh Raper would watch him fight a state election campaign, and possibly rise to become premier, without breathing a word about the alleged incident nearly two years ago.
Such was his confidence about her acquiescence he strode confidently outside of Parliament House and described the allegation that had been made against him as a “desperate smear” and called his accuser David Elliot, who had raised it under the legal protection of parliamentary privilege, a “coward.”
According to Raper, Foley knew he had “offended” her and apparently said as much during a 19-minute phone call on Sunday.
Raper didn’t have to come forward, despite the immense media and political pressure on her to do so.
The repercussions for her, personally, and for her family are significant, particularly now that it will be subject to defamation action in the Federal Court.
As Raper reports on stories in the future, people will bring up this incident that she would rather never have to speak about to anyone or be constantly reminded about.
She will be known as the journalist whose allegations led to the resignation of Luke Foley.
She will be subject to grossly unfair attacks from strangers on her private Facebook account and on twitter. Labor politicians and supporters of Foley will treat her differently.
Perhaps worst of all, it may even be mentioned to her children at school and into their future. If the allegations are true, her decision to make a public statement is unquestionably courageous. She deserves admiration.
Had it been up to Raper, this matter would never have been brought into the public domain.
The fact is, the majority of Australian women who experience sexual harassment will not come forward for perfectly understandable reasons — concerns for their career, family and the prospect of legal action.
The impact is exacerbated if the behaviour allegedly involves someone high-profile and will become a matter of intense media interest.
Without commenting on the Foley case, this also means the disgraceful and unacceptable behaviour of politicians, actors, sports stars, executives or ordinary blokes in regular workplaces is never exposed, when it absolutely needs to be.
This behaviour also isn’t party political. There are grubs and gropers on both ends of the political spectrum.
Some argue that it is the new age of #MeToo that has deemed this sort of sexual harassment unacceptable. That’s bollocks. It has always been unacceptable.
John Brogden resigned as Liberal opposition leader in 2005 when news surfaced that he had pinched one journalist on the bottom, propositioned a second journalist and made a racist remark about Bob Carr’s wife after he downed six beers.
For societal norms to change, for the culture in workplaces and towards women to be re-set, men need to be held responsible for their actions. There needs to be accountability. For this to happen, complaints need to be made and dealt with. This may be rendered impossible given the nature of Australia’s defamation laws and our legal system.
It’s a grossly unfair scenario that women who make complaints usually end up suffering and men continue with their lives as if nothing happened.
Barnaby Joyce was accused of pinching two women on their bums while a third woman, Catherine Marriott, made a complaint of sexual harassment. Joyce vehemently denied the allegations and no further action was taken.
An investigation by the National Party into Marriott’s complaint was inconclusive and now Joyce is in the running to return to the Nationals leadership.
It’s distressing Raper was forced into a position where there was pressure on her to make a decision about going public with her complaint.
To have that very personal decision ripped away from her, for political purposes, is sad.
Liberal MP David Elliott will continue to come under sustained attack for his role in first bringing to the public domain the allegations against Foley.
His motivations were purely political and reactive after Foley called him a grub.
However, this situation — and others like it — present an immensely difficult ethical conundrum.
If there are allegations against Foley of sexual harassment and if others hear about or witness it, is it still Raper’s story to protect?
Or are others obligated to look into the allegations of someone who is campaigning to become premier, a position of immense power?
In my view, irrespective of whether Raper wanted the allegations to be made public, irrespective of the veracity of her claims, it was the responsibility of the Labor Party to thoroughly investigate the conduct of the man they were putting up to be Premier of NSW when they first became aware of them many months ago.
This failure to investigate falls on every Labor MP and factional leader who knew of the allegations but turned a blind eye for the sake of political expediency.