Liberal Senate candidate's past criticism of Howard, Catholic Church resurfaces as preselection looms

EDITOR'S NOTE: The High Court overturned Cardinal George Pell's conviction for historic child sex offences in a judgment handed down April 7, 2020. In a unanimous decision all seven High Court judges found Victoria's Court of Appeal should not have upheld Pell's conviction It found the evidence could not support a guilty verdict.

A series of opinion pieces Liberal Senate candidate Sarah Henderson wrote more than a decade ago criticising former prime minister John Howard and the Catholic Church have been circulated in party circles as she fights to return to Canberra.

Ms Henderson and Victorian Liberal official Greg Mirabella are the front runners in the seven-person preselection race to replace former communications minister Mitch Fifield, with both camps conceding it is "neck and neck".

Sarah Henderson, with the backing of Prime Minister Scott Morrison, is a front runner for the Victorian Senate vacancy.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

A former tabloid columnist and lawyer, Ms Henderson wrote in 2004 that the Howard government's treatment of former Guantanamo Bay detainees David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib would go down as "one of the most pitiful abdications of a country's responsibility to its people".

"John Howard's shameful pandering to the United States has compromised one of the most fundamental tenets of the rule of law: the right to a fair trial," Ms Henderson, who is attempting to win over Victoria's conservative bloc ahead of this weekend's preselection, wrote in her Herald Sun column.

"I am sure even the US administration is scratching its collective head in wonder that Australia could be such a pushover."

One conservative Liberal member, who will vote with up to 500 party delegates on Sunday, said Ms Henderson's past writings "shows she is not a true conservative".

"People see through her pitch - she is clearly left-leaning but she needs us because the moderates are not prepared to back her," they said.

Ms Henderson's criticism was in line with attacks from others in the legal community at the time amid years of scrutiny over the Howard government's handling of the affair.

Both Hicks and Habib later returned to Australia amid claims they were tortured while detained. In 2015, Hicks won his challenge to his terrorism conviction before a US military court, while the federal government paid an undisclosed sum to absolve it of legal liability in the torture case of Habib in 2011.

Another column urged then Labor leader Mark Latham to "do more" if he won the 2004 election, saying he needed to assure Australians that "such a flaccid, pathetic defence of the rights of two Australian citizens would not occur under a Latham government".

Ms Henderson also lashed out at the Catholic Church as a columnist, revealing she had refused to advise now-disgraced cardinal George Pell on a media strategy because he was incapable of "listening to any alternative view or engaging in any serious debate".

"The Catholic Church is very good at articulating the so-called failings of others. It is not so good at turning the mirror on itself," she wrote in 2004.

The re-emergence of the columns in Liberal circles, which supporters say is aimed at dissuading Victorian conservative factions from supporting Ms Henderson, comes as both camps claim they are the victims of "dirty tricks" and "mud slinging".

Mr Mirabella has come under fire from rival factions in the past week over his business interests and regional credentials.

Ms Henderson would not comment when contacted by The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, citing preselection rules that forbid her from responding to media questions.

A supporter said the columns were written "more than 15 years ago" and had only re-emerged "in a sign of desperation". Ms Henderson had been proved correct on both topics and had criticised the Catholic Church at a time when it was denying there was a culture of sexual abuse and paedophilia, the supporter said.