Niki Savva didn’t seek Abbott’s or Credlin’s responses to her devastating new book

NIKI Savva is right that Tony Abbott can come forward and deny the rumours and alleged events in her book. But there are other characters involved.

Not all about Abbott and Credlin

OPINION

TONY Abbott has dismissed as “scurrilous gossip” a new book that puts rumours of an affair between the former prime minster and his chief of staff, Peta Credlin, to print.

Ms Credlin, his right-hand woman while in government, has called out the “so-called journalist” on her lack of ethics and called an anecdote detailing her feeding her former boss from her own fork, and laying her head to his shoulder “laughable” and “offensive”.

But there are other characters involved, who would be just as affected, potentially embarrassed, and upset by stories detailed in the explosive novel, whose views we haven’t heard, and would be unlikely to pay as much attention if they voiced them.

Like the two high profile political players the book centres around, Mr Abbott’s wife Margie and Ms Credlin’s husband Brian Loughnane weren’t asked for their side of the story when the book was being published, and since it hit shelves this morning we haven’t heard from them either.

It’s an unusual move for an experienced journalist not to play by the rules and refuse to put reports to their subjects. It gives those they’re writing about an opportunity to reply, confirm, deny, refuse to respond to, or ignore what they plan to print, and covers the reporter’s credibility as well.

Author and journalist Niki Savva, who has published claims from both named and unnamed “primary sources” about Abbott and Credlin’s unusually close relationship in her new book Road to Ruin has explained why she chose not to do this.

“We have a 24 hour news cycle and they are both still very powerful people,” she told ABC radio this morning.

“They can go out there any day, any night, any day of the week and say what they think happened or give their version of history, which, I might add, is completely at odds with almost everybody else’s version of what took place.”

Savva said people she spoke to for the book “do not have that option” and had “suffered in silence” while working under Abbott and Credlin for years.

“I decided it was time for them to have a say.”

But others caught in the crossfire, the partners and family of the controversial pair, haven’t been asked to present their story or had a chance to be defended by their partners this time around either.

Savva is right that Abbott can come forward and deny the rumours and alleged events her book, though he prefers to focus on having “stopped the boats” in his responses, but his wife doesn’t have quite the same platform.

Stories detailed in the book indicate Mrs Abbott was totally sidelined almost as soon as her husband’s successful election campaign concluded. The couple’s three daughters, who would surely be affected by some of the book’s more scandalous content, hardly carry the power of a government press team or the accountability expected of elected officials either.

Mr Credlin’s husband, Brian Loughnane, is nowhere near as likely to make headlines as his attention-grabbing partner.

Indeed, when the former Liberal Party federal director stood down from the position last year, this news website carried the headline “Peta Credlin’s partner calls it quits”.

The partners and family members of these two political figures have no doubt been dealing with rumours about the pair’s relationship and commentary around the way they behaved together privately for years.

Gossip on the topic has been threatening to spill on to newspaper pages since well before Tony Abbott became prime minister.

Savva doesn’t put forward any direct accusations of an affair in her book, but writes the pair were confronted by a Liberal senator concerned over the way the perception of their relationship was effecting the success of the government. She’s also written the pair refused to acknowledge or address this perception.

There’s little doubt the unusual relationship, or at least speculation around it, contributed to Abbott’s downfall as PM. This is of course Savva’s justification for bringing it up.

The author is right that Tony Abbott and Peta Credlin have ample opportunity to stamp out these rumours, but as they apparently failed to realise when they controlled the prime minister’s office, it’s not all about them.