Just as the dawn of post-covid recovery begins to break, Scott Morrison’s government has been engulfed by a 30-year old rape scandal based on allegations made about Attorney-General Christian Porter in 2019 by a now-deceased woman.
The scandal comes on the heels of another 1980s rape allegation, this time relating to a Labor frontbencher. After investigating that matter, the Australian Federal Police did not press charges
The politics of these scandals will, inevitably, play out in time. But at this stage, they raise important questions about our commitment to upholding key principles of Australia’s criminal justice system.
Rape is a serious and horrific crime. In recent years, courts have gone to very great lengths to make it easier for women to give evidence and to have their identities protected in the pursuit of justice.
And this is as it should be. Yet procedural processes are now improved for rape victims, it is important that they do not undermine essential protections afforded the accused.
The death in 2020 of the woman who made the allegation against Porter makes it impossible for police to test her testimony. Indeed, the police have declared the case “now closed”.
A key factor is that the alleged offence took place in 1988, when both Porter and the woman were still at school, so no forensic evidence survives.
And then there is the capstone of our criminal justice system: the presumption that an accused person is innocent until proven guilty.
But all parliamentarians need to remember that the tragedy of rape will not be eased by a wholesale abandonment of the principles of justice.
As a number of commentators have noted this week, witch hunts played out in the press and trials conducted on social media do nothing to preserve and uphold those principles.
Scott Morrison was right to stand firm both in support both of his minister and of the operation of our justice system. Once the rule of law is subverted, the rights of each one of us are threatened.
Home > Commentary > Opinion > Don’t abandon rule of law
Don’t abandon rule of law
The scandal comes on the heels of another 1980s rape allegation, this time relating to a Labor frontbencher. After investigating that matter, the Australian Federal Police did not press charges
The politics of these scandals will, inevitably, play out in time. But at this stage, they raise important questions about our commitment to upholding key principles of Australia’s criminal justice system.
Rape is a serious and horrific crime. In recent years, courts have gone to very great lengths to make it easier for women to give evidence and to have their identities protected in the pursuit of justice.
And this is as it should be. Yet procedural processes are now improved for rape victims, it is important that they do not undermine essential protections afforded the accused.
The death in 2020 of the woman who made the allegation against Porter makes it impossible for police to test her testimony. Indeed, the police have declared the case “now closed”.
A key factor is that the alleged offence took place in 1988, when both Porter and the woman were still at school, so no forensic evidence survives.
And then there is the capstone of our criminal justice system: the presumption that an accused person is innocent until proven guilty.
But all parliamentarians need to remember that the tragedy of rape will not be eased by a wholesale abandonment of the principles of justice.
As a number of commentators have noted this week, witch hunts played out in the press and trials conducted on social media do nothing to preserve and uphold those principles.
Scott Morrison was right to stand firm both in support both of his minister and of the operation of our justice system. Once the rule of law is subverted, the rights of each one of us are threatened.
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