PM faces a double political problem-solving challenge

Defence Minister Linda Reynolds is doing the sensible thing in following medical advice and extending her sick leave. Accommodations are being made in her absence, as they would in any workplace, and all wish her a swift recovery of health. However, she is a cabinet minister in the eye of a political storm and, while her medical leave is perfectly proper, it has unfortunate and inescapable political consequences.

Obviously, the sexual assault allegations made by Senator Reynolds’ former staffer, Brittany Higgins, must be dealt with independently by the legal system. But the minister’s handling of this incident is bound to be the subject of further hostile questions from Labor and the Greens in the coming parliamentary sitting week. Senator Reynolds will be absent, and she will also miss the scrutiny of Senate estimates. It’s true that a good deal of this interrogation has been weaponised for partisan political purposes but, even so, there are legitimate questions for the minister. Delay may only intensify the pressure upon her return.

She has already been rebuked by Scott Morrison for failing to tell him in a timely manner about the alleged events in her ministerial office out of hours. In her initial round of cross-examination, she had to correct her evidence to the Senate twice. The fact that she referred to Ms Higgins as a “lying cow” when her former staffer went public with the allegations and complaints about a perceived lack of support — as revealed exclusively by this newspaper — has raised additional questions. Senator Reynolds has apologised, both to the staff who heard this inappropriate remark in an open space of her office, and also to Ms Higgins, following a legal letter threatening defamation proceedings. And the minister has made clear she was not commenting on Ms Higgins’ disturbing allegations but on her ex-staffer’s suggestion that she had not been given adequate support.

Even so, this goes beyond a question of temperament and workplace courtesy. The fact this incident leaked invites questions about whether or not there are broader or deeper problems to do with morale and operations in the minister’s office. The Prime Minister’s public characterisation of this explosive, overheard remark by Senator Reynolds as a lapse during a “period which was very traumatic and very stressful” may seem plausible. But Mr Morrison will not be oblivious to the possibility that the Reynolds office is suffering a more general dysfunction, which would be bad news for the carriage of a portfolio as sensitive and important as defence. Again, it is unfortunate that the minister herself will not be available to clarify these matters in parliament. Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne, herself a former defence minister, will have been intensively briefed in order to cover for her colleague, both in an administrative and parliamentary sense, but this situation is far from ideal.

It was Mr Morrison himself who drew a parallel between the dramatic recent deterioration in Australia’s strategic and security outlook, and the ominous and unstable 1930s that exploded into a world war. Our geographic location, and our status as a key ally of the US and major trading partner of China, have put us in a difficult and risky position at a time of militant self-assertion by Beijing and uncertain American leadership. Before Ms Higgins’ going public put Senator Reynolds under intense political pressure, the minister and the government had been at a very delicate point in the renegotiation of Australia’s troubled $90bn submarine program. Naval Group global CEO Pierre-Eric Pommellet recently left Australia after failing to meet the minister, who had to go into hospital with heart problems on the day they were scheduled to meet. A new contract, guaranteeing 60 per cent Australian content in the boats, is yet to be signed. The apprehension is that Senator Reynolds’ extended medical leave will further delay things. Also on the agenda are difficult and sensitive decisions flowing from the Brereton inquiry into alleged abuses by some elements within our special forces in Afghanistan.

All these threads come together to present the Prime Minister with an acute problem of political management and crisis resolution. At the same time, Attorney-General Christian Porter is also on leave following the surfacing of allegations of sexual assault dating back 33 years, which he denies categorically. Friends and family of the complainant, who took her own life, have sought to do justice to her memory, but it also true that Mr Porter has been on the receiving end of a reckless campaign by sections of the media and non-government politicians indifferent to the rule of law and the presumption of innocence. Mr Porter’s brief absence may provide a circuit breaker, but the government still faces demands for a misconceived extrajudicial inquiry, which cannot resolve the matter following the inevitable conclusion by police that they could take it no further. A coronial inquiry into the complainant’s death, if one goes ahead, appears unlikely to encompass the sexual assault allegation, and yet it could well require some participation by the nation’s first law officer. Mr Porter’s predicament presents Mr Morrison with another thorny political problem, and one that he must solve as leader of a government that, were it not for these challenges, would rightly be seen as being in a strong position.