Gallagher must come clean for the sake of the Albanese government
Finance Minister Katy Gallagher has finally admitted she had prior knowledge of the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins, so why is it now good enough simply to take her word that she didn’t then weaponise the information?
A thorough and independent inquiry needs to be held into whether Gallagher crossed the line.
In the same Senate hearing where she denied any prior knowledge – thus potentially misleading parliament – she had already weaponised the accusation.
Why else did senator Linda Reynolds precede Gallagher’s and Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s denials with the line, “Oh, so you want to discuss this here and now, in public”?
Gallagher appears to have been so keen to be fitting in with her new pals, Wong and former senator Kristina Keneally, she forgot entirely the duty of care she had to Higgins. Scoring political points against Reynolds takes all the skill of clubbing a baby seal.
Anthony Albanese will stick to Gallagher for as long as possible. Once Gallagher falls, then his even closer ally Wong similarly comes under pressure to step aside. The question for Labor was, did the party’s Senate leadership help themselves politically instead of protecting solely the interests of Higgins and her achieving justice?
There’s no doubt in the dark days of opposition Albanese took comfort in the adoration of his Senate leadership team of Wong, Keneally and Gallagher.
They might have been his loudest cheer squad outwardly, but what we are now seeing after the revelations about Gallagher and Higgins’s fiance David Sharaz’s political plotting is something much more concerning.
We know already the Prime Minister’s fan club took it on themselves to be enforcers. Treating fellow senators like mushrooms and in the case of senator Kimberley Kitching allegedly engaging in coercive control and bullying. Little wonder they were also known as the “mean girls”. What an independent inquiry needs to find out is whether they also chose to weaponise a criminal allegation.
We all know the more recent history of the three key players. Wong is Labor’s leader in the Senate and has never faced an investigation into bullying. Keneally was booted out after running a scandal-riddled NSW government.
She then went on to become a campaign bus captain and loser of the once-safe Labor seat of Fowler. Keneally broke recently from time on Scotland Island to announce what we all knew – her time in politics is at an end.
The collective sigh of a long-suffering NSW public was audible.
Gallagher is Albanese’s Finance Minister while being a willing Sharaz whisperer and, according to Sharaz’s text to Higgins, was said to be “fully invested now ha ha”.
The issue Albanese faces with Gallagher goes to the heart of the “new politics” he promised when in opposition.
To be fair, Albanese also promised cheaper electricity and hasn’t delivered. He also promised cost-of-living relief, and aren’t we all feeling that promise being delivered, after the 11th interest-rate rise on his watch, and still no end in sight for punishing inflation.
The issue of ministerial integrity, though, is very much within the Prime Minister’s complete control.
Gallagher is looking tricky. The evidence tendered in court and covered clearly in The Australian shows Sharaz boasted of his close relationship to Gallagher and of her being an “old friend” before any publication of the allegations.
What is particularly damning, however, is that Sharaz also says he briefed Gallagher in detail as to what Higgins would eventually say publicly about the alleged rape in Reynolds’s office. Gallagher can’t stonewall forever, nor should the Prime Minister have his good name tarnished.
Labor’s best performers, Tanya Plibersek and Jim Chalmers, are out there using their good names to try to clear Gallagher’s.
Instead, what Gallagher should do is release all her texts with Sharaz, as well as stand down while an independent inquiry is held into her actions.
Labor is in overdrive hoping this all goes away, when instead Gallagher should just do what’s best for the Labor Party and her Prime Minister.
What the public deserves – and for the sake of Albanese’s own reputation – is a similar level of sunlight shone on Gallagher’s actions. Did she or did she not seek to gain political advantage from an alleged rape in Reynolds’s office?
What seemed to have been forgotten by all the sorry actors in this sordid affair is that there was a criminal matter that needed to be tried. A rape was alleged and the victim and the accused deserved their day in court.
Neither now have that closure. Both have been let down by a prosecutor and process that is itself under intense judicial scrutiny by Walter Sofronoff KC.
Albanese would be well served by outing the truth and let Gallagher clear her name lest this does lasting damage to his own standing as Prime Minister.
Labor was elected on a small-target policy platform and a solemn promise to deliver a better level of politics than under the Coalition and Scott Morrison.
Now is the time for Albanese and Labor, however inconvenient it is, to honour that commitment to the electorate.
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