Vikki Campion: Leaks and treachery all part of the Canberra culture

Parliament House’s corridors are lined with political wannabes who think nothing of destroying another person’s reputation and the system is set up to let them get away with it, writes Vikki Campion.

The political blowhard at the centre of the Brittany Higgins rape allegations had a God-complex fed by some members of the press gallery and other staffers using him for their own means.

He was viewed by some prominent gallery reporters to be a reliable source and given more stature than he deserved.

He in turn worshipped them.

In his mind, the relationship validated him as a substantial political player.

Sometimes his leaking of information to the media were genuinely in the public interest. Those leaks were mere burley for the other allegations he made against personal rivals. From his dark corner he could rake his colleagues through the mud while they fought to clear their names of allegations made by a “senior source”.

This pattern of behaviour was reported to senior staff in 2018, almost a year before the alleged rape — and that should have been the end of it, and his political aspirations.

Instead, he switched political allegiances, resurrecting his reputation in another organisation. The Department of Finance contributed to this culture of secrecy by requiring offices to maintain confidentiality of any complaints against employees.

Brittany Higgins has made a formal complaint to the Australian Federal Police regarding an alleged sexual assault.

If there was mandatory reporting of alleged inappropriate behaviour, perpetrators might think twice — and they certainly would struggle to find employment somewhere else. In this environment, gossip is weaponised to destroy political careers.

Even trying to shutdown old washerwomen corridor whispers can be impossible. “You know what they say, where there’s smoke there’s fire …”

Sometimes the smoke is a malicious fire lit by the narrator. A make-believe, a figment of imagination cooked-up on a pyre of self-promotion. A belief that destruction of another creates room for oneself to leapfrog through the ranks of those oblivious to their nefarious colleague.

It is used in Parliament House to control and coerce. Even the clique known as the “star chamber”, which is a few individuals who get to veto the employment of any ministerial employee they don’t like (and often haven’t met) no matter how much that employee’s boss rates and trusts them, invents gossip to block the employment of competent staff.

Sometimes the star chamber makes an example of an employee who has spoken out against bad culture or bullying, or having a friend whom the overwhelmingly male star chamber does not approve of. Yet the over promotion of a mediocre young male who went on to be accused of sexual assaults was given a big tick by the star chamber.

Parliamentarians and senior colleagues have stooped to the level of the “schoolyard bully”.

The accusation that stops the staffer from being considered is never put to the staffer and they are not given even a chance to defend themselves.

A letter from one staffer, a victim of unfounded gossip, sent to his superior made the point that it was not a personality clash with the other person, but ‘consistent malicious speech’ about the superior to others, both in the building and to stakeholders outside.

This gossip remains employed by the Department of Finance – and the staffer she set out to malign? Well, he has left.

The taxpaying public should not be happy that parliamentarians and senior colleagues, people who influence the legislation that governs this country, would stoop to the level of the schoolyard bully scrawling mean graffiti over the toilet doors of the internet.

As much as the alleged perpetrator made it clear in his leaking that he was no friend of mine, he has now unfortunately been identified on digital platforms.

Vikki Campion. Picture Simon Scott

Google and Twitter have prevented him from remaining anonymous until charged.

Despite the serious allegations made about him, under criminal law in this country he has the presumption of innocence until proven guilty.

Naming him at this stage, can jeopardise Brittany’s case, which at least two publishers, and the intellectual giants on Twitter have already breached with the misplaced idea that his name has not been officially released because of some cover-up conspiracy.

It is members of the public, as much as the insiders, who just wish an external HR authority could swoop in, set strict protocols so that both politicians and their staff can focus on doing their job.

Meanwhile the police have been clear that failure to report alleged criminal behaviour, choosing to communicate or disseminate allegations via other means, such as through the media or third parties, risks prejudicing investigations and subsequent trial and possible conviction.

Twitter and the various conspiracy kooks online need to shut up about Higgins alleged rapist – even though that was a courtesy he did not afford the targets of his own whispering campaigns.