ABC ignored plea from family of alleged rape victim

The family of the woman who alleged she was raped by a Lib minister asked the ABC not to broadcast the claims, friends say.

Dhanya Mani says her late friend ‘would not want for her family to be re-traumatised’. Picture: Adam Yip

The family of the woman who alleged she was raped by a current cabinet minister three decades ago had requested the ABC not to broadcast the claims and were distressed at potential politicisation if the matter were made public, friends of the complainant say.

Former Liberal staffer Dhanya Mani, who became close friends with the woman after publicly disclosing her own experience with alleged sexual assault in politics, said the public broadcaster had breached the trust of family and friends after reporting details about the allegations on Friday.

“In all of the last conversations we had … she spoke about how much she loved her family, how much she cared about them, how much she wanted to build closer relationships with every member of her family,” Ms Mani told Sky News Australia on Sunday.

“She would not want for her family to be re-traumatised, which is what’s happening right now by waking up and seeing this splashed all over the news.

“Not even referred to as a person with a personality, traits, passions, beliefs (but) as a body. Why did they need to mention one specific detail of what happened to her with that crime

“It felt like obvious attempts at sensationalism, to try and make something seem perverse, to try to appeal to public outrage at her direct expense and at her family’s direct expense.”

Her friend, Ms Mani said, was a historian and academic who was “brilliantly funny, kind, no matter what she was going through” with a presence that was “magnetic”. She wanted to run for parliament.

The woman, who died last June, alleged a current cabinet minister had raped her in 1988 during an event in Sydney.

NSW police established a taskforce, Strike Force Wyndarra, to look into the matter and were preparing to interview her when she took her own life last year. Hours earlier, the woman had told police she no longer wanted to proceed with the investigation.

However, she collected extensive material in recent years to support her allegation including diaries, journals and scrapbooks.

The ABC report was based on an anonymous complaint sent to Labor foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong and Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young — and forwarded to the Australian Federal Police — which also noted the family’s discomfort in having the allegations made public.

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young with Labor Seator Penny Wong.

The letter outlined fears held by the woman’s parents about the adverse publicity from a public disclosure and said they had asked the ABC not to broadcast the allegations ahead of a Four Corners episode into sexual misconduct in politics that aired in November.  However, it also noted that the woman and her parents had been estranged for periods of time and may have disagreed on whether the allegations should have been made public. Ms Mani said when the woman’s parents had been notified that Four Corners was pursuing the story, they “immediately registered their objections”.

The ABC contacted Ms Mani late at night “on the very day I found out that my friend had passed away”, she said.

“I was told this is the only way to honour my friend. But it doesn’t feel that way to me, it doesn’t feel that way at all … it felt like I was being told that I somehow needed to debase my friend as the only way to care about her and I couldn’t stand that at all.”

Hanson-Young calls for independent review

On Monday morning, Senator Hanson-Young called on the PM to appoint an independent reviewer to investigate the allegation of rape against a current cabinet minister.

“The Prime Minister could today announce an independent investigation, he could appoint an eminent former judge, somebody... and ensure that not just the victim has her voice heard. but this man might be innocent ... he too, needs an opportunity to clear his name,” Senator Hanson-Young told ABC radio.

“I don’t believe that we can have a situation now, where a senior member of the Prime Minister’s cabinet has such a grave allegation, to cast over them, and to allow that person to sit around the cabinet table.

“That’s why there is an avalanche now of legal advice and expertise coming forward, suggesting that there needs to be a process that deals with it in an independent inquiry similar to that, of course, as was done with the Dyson Heydon case.”

Scott Morrison’s office on Sunday said all complaints and allegations “of this nature made to anybody — whether they’re parliamentarians or journalists — should be referred to the AFP”.

While the AFP has begun making inquiries, those close to the matter said they expected it would not fall under their jurisdiction and would likely become a coronial inquiry in South Australia, where the woman lived.

Albanese: Remove the minister

Labor leader Anthony Albanese, however, said the Prime Minister should consider removing the minister at the centre of the allegations from cabinet until the matter was resolved. “This now will be very much a dark cloud over the parliament and over the cabinet,” he said.

An ABC spokeswoman said the story published on Friday was “separate” to the Four Corners investigation that aired in November. “The issues that are being reported on are difficult, but significant, and in the public’s interest to be informed about,” she said. “The ABC’s coverage has been accurate and carefully and appropriately handled.

“The ABC does not reveal details of how we investigate stories, or communications we may have had with sources in the course of those investigations, and it would be unethical to do so.”

But Ms Mani said the woman would be “furious, disheartened, feel disrespected and debased to see how they’ve approached the coverage because she was a brave courageous advocate”.

Ms Mani said her friend did not feel she was being supported and encouraged, even by the politicians she confided in. “After one attempt to speak to her, that was it. And this is a part of why she became so helpless,” she said.

Turnbull was approached by victim

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull told an Adelaide Writers’ Week event on Sunday that he and his wife, Lucy Turnbull, had been approached by the woman for advice in 2019.

“We wrote back to her, obviously expressed our sympathy and, really our concern for her and what she’d experienced, but said ‘You’ve got a lawyer, you’re seeing the police, that’s the right thing to do’, and that was,” Mr Turnbull said. He had contacted South Australian Police Commissioner Grant Stevens after the woman had died.

SA Police are preparing a report for the coroner.

Senator Wong has said she met the woman in November 2019 after she “ran into” her in Adelaide: “I facilitated her referral to rape support services.”

Additional reporting: Adeshola Ore