As the rain tumbles down on the east coast of Australia, flooding towns and washing homes into swollen rivers, more evidence of bad behaviour in Canberra emerges. Parliament House is the scene for Liberal Party staffers doing dirty deeds on the desks of their ministers. It’s raining lewd men in Canberra and Prime Minister Scott Morrison is not making any excuses for their disgusting behaviour. In a speech to the media Morrison passionately advocated the importance of women, like his daughters, wife, and mother. Alleged rapes by a Lib staffer and Attorney General Christian Porter refuse to go away, even in the midst of all this rain and flooding.
Hands Off the Hard Men in Parliament House
It’s raining lewd men in Canberra and Australian women are not going to silently put up with it anymore. The upper echelons of public life has been the domain of the hardest and most ambitious men in the nation. These blokes climb the slippery pole and don’t take any prisoners, whatever their gender. Work hard and play hard has been the mantra for a long time. The press historically had a ‘hands off’ unspoken protocol when it came to reporting the goings on in Canberra. Pollies getting pissed and up to mischief a long way from their home electorates had a get out of jail free card, when it came to the media in Parliament House.
Alleged Rapes by Lib Staffer & Senior Cabinet Minister
The ABC’s Four Corner’s reporter Louise Milligan is being sued for defamation by AG Christian Porter on the basis of her story about the alleged historical rape by a senior cabinet minister in the Morrison government. Brittany Higgins the former Lib staffer who has revealed her alleged rape by a male colleague at Parliament House in 2019 continues to eat up airtime across the national media. These stories refuse to evaporate with time and are growing daily in magnitude. Brittany, seemingly, has launched a movement, with Australian women marching in protest against sexual abuse across the country.
Wronged women are coming out of the woodwork, as the rain pelts down upon the eastern seaboard of Australia. Reports of snakes and spiders clambering aboard rescue boats, to the dismay of rescuers and evacuees, sounds like an allegory for the reptiles working in Canberra. Blokes who thought that they had carte blanche to misbehave in the big house are heading for the exits with some alacrity.
The Liberal Party has long been home to the unrepentant right, those politically incorrect climate deniers with a penchant for inappropriate behaviour with women. A light is finally shining on those at the top of the tree and the view is not as squeaky clean as some would imagine it to be. Bad behaviour by men happens on both sides of politics but women make up 47% of federal members of parliament in the ALP. This compares to just 23% in the LNP coalition. More women in positions of power reduces the amount of sexual misconduct, harassment and abuse by men against women in workplaces and the community more generally.
Men are growing up in Australia with a distinct lack of respect for women. This is clearly shown by the statistics of reported sexual abuse by men in Australia. One woman a week dies at the hands of her male partner. A third of all Australian women have experienced acts of violence against them by a man. 20% of women, over the age of 15yrs, have been sexually abused. 10 women a day are hospitalised due to violence perpetuated by a current or former male partner. Young women are more likely to be sexually abused. However, elderly and disabled women are also physically and sexually abused by men in Australia at alarming levels. Of course, the amount of reported abuse is only a fraction of the volume of real violence committed against women in Australia every day, as much goes unreported due to the climate of cultural shame and judicial unfairness remaining in this nation.
The rain pelting down upon the nation’s landscape may be a symbolic representation of the cultural change coming to this former convict colony. Historically, Australia has been a brutal meritocracy for hard men in an unforgiving climate. Today, much has softened in most parts of the country due to the population’s wealth and access to technology, but, perhaps, Canberra has been holding out psychologically. The leaders of the land may have seen themselves upholding traditions and customs. Treating women appallingly, as sport (Australians love their sport), could be the secret agenda of the Big Swinging Dicks in the Liberal Party? Conservative politicians like to keep things the way they have always been. A rain-based change may be underway, washing the last vestiges of the lewd men from Canberra? Cultural change can take a long time, or it can happen in an instant at the hands of a weather event or a national movement.
©Robert Hamilton