I’m not much good at sums, but I can imagine the cost of repairing damaged egos as the allegations of rape and the ripple effect of that accusation hits the various courts around the country. The cost-of-living crisis is not being noticed by the army of lawyers involved.
Just before the 2019 election a young research assistant claimed to have been raped in Parliament House but does not pursue the allegation because of the impact it may have on the up-coming election, however, about a year later the accusation is made and a work colleague is charged with rape. And the gravy train starts chugging slowly gathering pace as snouts go into the very deep money trough seeking to repair the damages done.
And now a mere five years later the saga may, or may not, be coming to some kind of conclusion.
Throughout this saga there have been claim and counter claim of malfeasance, a juror doing some independent research causing the trial of the accused to be aborted, an inquiry into the public prosecutor handling of the case, police records leaked or withheld, the employer’s minister swearing at the complainant and later aggrieved because of a social media post she claims maligned her, the free to air TV channels buying exclusive interview rights, and all the while the most expensive lawyers circling to monetise this saga for all it is worth.
An interesting cast of characters claiming victimhood.
Victim No.1: Brittany Higgins
The young woman who claimed to have been raped is vilified at every turn. In what many see as fair after her (ongoing) ordeal, she walked away with a couple of million dollars on leaving her employment in the Commonwealth Parliament.
Victim No2: Bruce Lehrmann
Perhaps that is what is most concerning for the young man accused of raping the young woman. The sex, if it happened at all was so lousy that he claims it didn’t happen, so how come she walks away with millions while his ‘reputation’ is traduced while not actually being named. Seeing The Project interview his immediate response was that he recognised himself and so that was going to be worth millions for defamation of his character.
So far, it has netted him a few dollars too. Settlement with the ABC for broadcasting a National Press Club speech regarding The Project interview was $150,000, News Ltd for daring to publish a few words on this saga, $295,000, and the price for Chanel 7’s exclusive interview, free rent for a year in some very humble digs with coastal views near Sydney, golf in Tasmania, meals any normal person would take about a week to consume, expensive massages, recreational drugs and a bit of comfort from a prostitute or two. Rough tally so far, close on half a million dollars.
Is that enough to cover his mounting legal bills?
I wonder whether the ATO would see that as renumeration. The tax bill could take a fair slice of it.
Victim No.3: Shane Drumgold
In the meantime, there are of course the costs of the inquiry into the DPP handling of the case, again with a bit of skullduggery as the report was leaked to The Australian before being formally handed to the courts, not to mention lunches and numerous contacts with the press… nothing to see here though. The victim is sort of guilty of not having done a really good job in gathering and presenting evidence for the trial which was aborted.
Victim No.4: Linda Reynolds
And the minster involved has remortgaged her home to sue her ex-employee for damage to her ego over comments posted on social media despite having called Ms Higgins “a lying cow.” That case is currently before the courts in Western Australia.
Another sage awaits Mr Lehrmann as he faces more rape charges in Queensland in a couple of months’ time.
For five years this gravy train has been running. When will it stop, when will the dented egos be either panel beaten with a shit load of dollars back into shape or that evidence for a character to be defamed is insufficient for the purse strings to be loosened?
It will be interesting to see the verdict of this on Monday, as a price to repair the damaged goods is set or whether there actually was defamation of Mr Lehrmann’s character. Someone commented that should the court finds in Mr Lehrmann’s favour, the smallest denomination of Australian money is a 5-cent piece.
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What still intrigues me is the role of the parliamentary security detachment who allowed two young staffers into a ministerial office in the early hours of the morning, ostensibly to pick up some papers. Then left them to their own devices until some hours later finding the young woman asleep naked on the couch in the minister’s office and just covering her up and allowing her to sleep it off.
This whole thing could have been averted if the security personnel had done their job and accompanied the pair to the ministerial office, waited for them to collect the ‘papers’ and then escorted them off the premises as they should have done.
Let’s hope that security protocols have been upgraded since this fiasco.
Can you imagine if spies were considering how to get access to ministerial offices after hours and in particular the offices of the Defence Minister : well first you get on the piss with a couple of junior staffers and the rest is easy………even Maxwell Smart would cringe with embarrassment at the lack of professionalism.
Terence, the answer is probably pecking order. MP and staffers are a protectorate species. Prior to this incident, security guards would have likely weighed up the possibility of losing their job if they got offside with a high rank, as in stinking, official.
Pecking order and associated fear of losing employment is rampant, check with any of the 825k professionals mentioned below. AMPS (Aust Medical Professionals Society) recently expressed concerns about the right to medical free speech:” Contingent to a joint statement received from AHPRA and the National Boards on 9 March 2021, Australian Health Professionals numbering over 825,000 were essentially forbidden from publicly questioning the science underlying the emerging COVID-19 injectables . . we contend . . compromised proper and informed consent in Australia.”
The threat of being de-registered shut up most professionals. Since when has expressing an opinion based on experience or based in science been a sackable offence? Since 2021 at least.
Resigned to waiting till Monday to hear the close-out of this two-bit chapter in the ongoing saga of appalling behavior and exceptionalism of the ‘Canberra Bubble’, and the sharks that swim around it, the opportunism that arises in every bit of filthy collateral damage, and their arrant disregard of the public’s right to ethical governance, and the applying of their tax dollars to purposes other than protecting the arses of the ‘Canberra Bubble’ and their associated sharks and flunkies.
Should this saga get to the NACC, one would hope it meets the public interest criteria of ‘exceptional circumstances’.
Of course any hope of criminal prosecution would appear to be a thoroughly filibustered pipe dream.
Sticks in my throat that Brittany Higgins is being equated with Lehrmann and Reynolds. Given her treatment by her employers, the payout seems quite fair.
I’m not holding my breath but I would like to see the nasty, unpleasant, arrogant, smug and vile little shit get nothing but a huge bill for costs. I see that he’s been kicked out from the place he was staying. How very sad, who’s he going to attempt to bludge off next I wonder as he runs out of friends.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/karaoke-kid-kicked-out-bruce-lehrmann-evicted-from-sydney-house-20240412-p5fjc2.html
Is this creep even an Australian citizen? If not and if found on the balance of probabilities to be guilty of the charges levelled against him and not forgetting there’s still a committal hearing and proceedings pending in Toowoomba on a similar charge, then deportation is the best solution after any other penalties for crimes committed.
The fact that he worked as a political advisor for the Liberal Party tells you as much as you need to know about their baseline attitude to the personal qualities of employees of that ilk. Another one of them the go-to guy when the Amerikaner needed baggies of marching powder.