The leftist activists and political warriors have exposed their cynicism. For more than a year - on the back of Brittany Higgin’s alleged rape and Rachelle Miller’s ex post facto complaints about a consensual affair with then minister Alan Tudge - the broader Left have weaponised issues of sexual assault, bullying and harassment against the Coalition and the Prime Minister.
Yet in the wake of Labor Senator Kimberley Kitching’s untimely death, and the subsequent revelations about detailed and specific claims of bullying, the same cohort went quiet. The so-called “mean girls” senators - so dubbed after a teen movie by Kitching before she died – denied they were bullies.
Their most senior member, Senator Penny Wong, confessed to one of the crucial accusations, a cruel taunt about Kitching’s childlessness, and claimed to have apologised. Yet Wong, and Senators Katy Gallagher and Kristina Keneally, won more sympathy from Labor Leader Anthony Albanese and many leftist journalists and commentators than was ever afforded Kitching.
Albanese refused to call an inquiry, laughably claiming there was no complaint “in a formal sense”. And while former frontbenchers Michael Danby and Jennie George said an investigation was warranted, no Labor sitting member, male or female, publicly urged an inquiry.
So much for Kitching’s comrades. So much for the war on bullying. So much for reforming the “toxic culture” of parliament.
Even as they eulogised Kitching in the Senate, the “mean girls” confirmed their meanness, acknowledging Kitching’s work and her international human rights award as they never did while she was alive. As a sop to Kitching’s friends and supporters, and to manage the politics, Labor has named a human rights prize in her honour – without first inquiring into how her rights might have been trammelled.
As if this episode had not already exposed the hypocrisy and opportunism of the entire controversy about parliamentary behaviour, the same crowd have doubled down this week. An embittered Liberal conservative factional warrior who has lost her Senate pre-selection, Connie Fierravanti-Wells, and two Senators whose political model is to chip votes away from the Coalition, Pauline Hanson and Jacqui Lambie, expressed their disdain for Scott Morrison and pointedly called him a bully.
Told you so
— Grace Tame (@TamePunk) March 29, 2022
Suddenly, all those who were strangely muted about bullying these past weeks were hysterical about it again. Led by former Australian of the Year Grace Tame, who never pushed Labor over Kitching but ran strident and erroneous claims of a media cover-up over Fierravanti-Wells, the usual Twitter crowd were quick to seize on the taunts from the three senators.
Apart from the partisanship and hypocrisy on display, the lack of intellectual honesty was profound. If Kitching’s case warranted an inquiry, went the argument, then so should the claims of the disaffected Senators.
This is silly, coming from people who never supported an inquiry into Kitching’s treatment. Also, the differences are stark.
All three Senators have worked with or against Morrison for a decade, and could have made their claims at any time in any way. Instead, they hurled what seemed to be opportunistic abuse rather than allegations.
The Kitching case was never public when she was alive because she did not seek to damage her party or seek public retribution. Clearly, she was only after fairness and respect, and worked internally, unsuccessfully, to get it.
Still, from her private complaints, documents, text messages and comments made to others, there are plenty of specifics to inquire into. But Labor resisted.
This week’s attack from Fierravanti-Wells was made under parliamentary privilege only after her pre-selection was lost - it has all the hallmarks of the vengeance of the vanquished. Lambie and Hanson then just piled on, publicly, without specifics.
Political players such as Zali Steggall who have sought to equate these claims are kidding themselves and diminishing the real issues of bullying and mistreatment.
With Fierravanti-Wells, Lambie and Hanson there is only a tag, a word of abuse, and no specific accusations aside from obscure factional shenanigans in the highly factionalised NSW Liberal Party branch. If there are specific instances of bullying behaviour, then detailed accusations should be made and inquires could be made – but all that has fallen flat so far.
The reality is that the caravan will move on. In the political arena and media circus this episode will be used to continue avoiding substantive policy debates in favour of personal attacks on Morrison.
Still, I am prepared to make two predictions on the back of this bilious instalment. Labor now will never be pressured to reveal what really happened to Kitching; and Senators Fierravanti-Wells, Hanson and Lambie will never have human rights prizes named after them.
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