Sexual harassment and a shocking failure by the Canberra press gallery
What we call the mainstream media has largely been absent from the New England by-election. The consensus wisdom apparently is that Barnaby Joyce will win easily so there is nothing to report. Let the yokels of the local papers do their thing reporting on the 16 other candidates. We smarties of the Canberra press gallery will get on with covering important matters while the deputy Prime Minister coasts to victory. Not for them to stick their bib into the questions of sexual harassment and worse that are continuing to surface in the wilds of the social media. The commentators on what they regard as the important matters of political life have decided that the private life of a politician should stay private and is not a legitimate concern for the voters.
This attitude of the Canberra press gallery stands in stark contrast to the approach of their peers in other countries to matters of sexual harassment by elected politicians. And I am not writing here about the stories of a Coalition minister having a sexual liaison with a member of his staff that did or not result in an abortion. The seemingly uninvestigated matter is one alleging that an MP chased a young women into a toilet & molested another after the 2012 Rural Women Awards. And the allegation comes not from some anonymous miscreant on Twitter but from the highly regarded former independent member for New England Tony Windsor.
You will find references to the incident in my report Trying to make sense of the social media references to the problems of Barnaby Joyce. As Mr Windsor has tweeted, "If sexual harassment to be really dealt with ppl need to out these people ..silence means complicence , time to stare it down." And in another tweet from Mr Windsor: "Petrified girl ,Mother worried about consequences , prominent figure ...frightened ppl believe the system will fail them."
Surely that's a matter of sexual harassment deserving of investigation.
But in one sense, I suppose, it does not matter. In small cities like Armidale and Tamworth it does not need a report on the National Nine News or in the Sydney Morning Herald for news to spread. Rumours true and false spread widely enough by word of mouth.
The issues raised by Mr Windsor will have their influence on the result on 2 December despite the virtual mainstream media blackout.
This attitude of the Canberra press gallery stands in stark contrast to the approach of their peers in other countries to matters of sexual harassment by elected politicians. And I am not writing here about the stories of a Coalition minister having a sexual liaison with a member of his staff that did or not result in an abortion. The seemingly uninvestigated matter is one alleging that an MP chased a young women into a toilet & molested another after the 2012 Rural Women Awards. And the allegation comes not from some anonymous miscreant on Twitter but from the highly regarded former independent member for New England Tony Windsor.
You will find references to the incident in my report Trying to make sense of the social media references to the problems of Barnaby Joyce. As Mr Windsor has tweeted, "If sexual harassment to be really dealt with ppl need to out these people ..silence means complicence , time to stare it down." And in another tweet from Mr Windsor: "Petrified girl ,Mother worried about consequences , prominent figure ...frightened ppl believe the system will fail them."
Surely that's a matter of sexual harassment deserving of investigation.
But in one sense, I suppose, it does not matter. In small cities like Armidale and Tamworth it does not need a report on the National Nine News or in the Sydney Morning Herald for news to spread. Rumours true and false spread widely enough by word of mouth.
The issues raised by Mr Windsor will have their influence on the result on 2 December despite the virtual mainstream media blackout.
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