For all the questions Senator Katy Gallagher is being told to answer regarding claims she misled the Senate in 2021, there are much bigger questions that remain not only unanswered, but mostly unasked.
Like, just how did the contents of Brittany Higgins’ phone end up on the front pages of our national newspapers?
And, what does the leaking of these text messages do to the confidence of current and future victims of sexual assault in coming forward?
Higgins initially resisted handing her phone over to police, frightened its content might get leaked. But she was forced to do so as part of the police investigation into her allegation she was raped at Parliament House in 2019. As Samantha Maiden writes on the matter, what’s happening now shows she had plenty of reasons to be concerned.
Text messages between Higgins and her fiancé David Sharaz have been shared across multiple news outlets over the past week, with The Australian publishing story after story on the these private messages for the past five days. The messages include Sharaz suggesting he approach his “friend” Senator Gallagher regarding Higgins’ allegation, in the days before the story broke on The Project.
The justice system is already stacked well against survivors of sexual assault, where less than a third are reported and just a third of those that are reported ever being prosecuted. From there, around 50 per cent result in a conviction, as Anthony North QC has previously outlined as head of the Victorian Law Reform Commission.
These are the bigger – and frankly more consequential questions – that are being asked by some, but mostly going unanswered, regarding the many column inches and airtime across breakfast TV and radio stations that are being devoted to allegations against Senator Gallagher.
But such questions are being washed over, particularly by certain aspects of the media in pursuit of the much biggest opportunity feature Senator Gallagher over allegations she misled parliament back in 2021. The Opposition has found its opportunity in these allegations, especially with leader Peter Dutton claiming the case against the Labor senator is an “open and shut case”, and he will no doubt take the rest of the sitting week to further prosecute the matter. Dutton also has support from his deputy, Sussan Ley, who says the Albanese Government has a Minister for Women who “politicised an alleged rape”.
Today, Senator Katy Gallagher has emphatically said she “did not mislead the Senate”.
Gallagher declared she has always conducted herself with the highest levels of integrity, and that she rejects the allegations made against her by “coalition members, including those at the centre of the rape allegations” who claim she misled the Senate two years ago.
She noted how strange it seems to her that she is the one providing a statement to the Senate today, while “those that were much closer to the events in 2019 have not done so.”
And she shared her fears for women who want and need to come forward, who are being sent a message to “watch out”.
“The events of the past week, with the media coverage, the questions surrounding the publication of a young woman’s personal phone records provided for use in a court, splashed across TV and newspaper, with opposition members giddy with the courage, has done nothing but seriously damage this confidence,” she said.
“I fear the message out of this for women who want and need to come forward is watch out. Women who may now choose to keep allegations of serious sexual or violent abuse silent. To suppress the trauma and feel as though justice will always elude them.
“Women who may feel like the system won’t properly protect their welfare and may let them down, and I’m not going to stand for that.”
Gallagher also declared that much has been incorrectly written about her role over the past few months in the settlement that Brittany Higgins received from the Department of Finance. She noted that the minister for finance has no decision-making role in the process regarding significant legal matters, and that the Attorney General has made clear that he was the decision-maker on behalf of the government on this matter. She said many outlets are continuing to misreport this.
Around the same time that Gallagher made her statement today, former prime minister Scott Morrison was also delivering a statement, defending his handling around the events surrounding the allegation back in 2019.
There was one line that particularly stood out, notably his assertion that “allegations of sexual violence against women should be addressed in our justice system.”
If only, it were that simple. And if only women could have the courage to not only pursue allegations within the justice system but to also trust that the details they confidentially hand over to police don’t become breakfast television gossip and conversation.