This looks very very bad indeed..
If this isn't a prelude to a massive cover up then we don't know what is.
Today in the Senate Linda Reynolds took the easy and incredulous way out with , "Not My Story to Tell" , in answer to a question from Penny Wong as to why she did not tell the PM.
We have also learnt that Morrison refuses to commit to making the Gaetjens reports on this matter public.
This is getting more thoroughly disgusting as it goes along.
We are not really that surprised though, are we ?
I mean we are talking about Morrison and his cabal of corrupt liars.
Here are the transcripts from Hansard.
YOU BE THE JUDGE!
Start of update:
Labor in the Senate is back to Linda Reynolds. The defence minister has been asked whether she ever told Scott Morrison about the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins. Reynolds says not, because it wasn’t her story to tell.
“You always take the lead of the individual, and that’s what I did,” Reynolds said.
Labor asks whether or not she told staff in the PMO. Reynolds says Higgins’ story was not “mine to reveal”.
Labor asks whether she told other ministers about the alleged rape – and if so, when? Reynolds supplies the same rationale: "not my story".
Labor’s Senate leader Penny Wong notes that isn’t actually an answer to the questions and says Reynolds is accountable to the chamber for her conduct.
Labor’s Senate leader Penny Wong is getting irritated in the Senate. “One wonders about the purpose of question time if ministers are allowed to obfuscate in this way.
”
Wong notes, after Linda Reynolds has declined again to engage with specifics.
The questions relate to when Reynolds had specific knowledge about elements of the Higgins matter.
“I became aware of this incrementally,” the minister says.
Labor senator Louise Pratt wants to know why Reynolds told Higgins that if she intended to make a police complaint, “we need to know now”.
Why was this said, Pratt asks? Reynolds sidesteps again, saying this is Higgins’ story to tell.
Wong has had enough.
The minister should not hide behind Ms Higgins’ courage” Wong says.
Question time is finished now in the Senate.
The House of reps' question time ;
Peta Murphy to Scott Morrison:
Eleven days after her reported rape in March 2019, Brittany Higgins received a text message from a government staffer which read, “spoke to PMO, he was mortified and how things have been handled. He will discuss with COS and no one else.”
Isn’t it beyond belief that the prime minister’s office didn’t know when two years ago a member of the prime minister’s office was mortified and discussed the need for counsellor for Brittany Higgins?
Morrison:
I’ve advised the House about when I’m advised my office first knew about these matters and that is the information that’s available to me.
I note the report that you make reference to and that is a matter that’s within the scope of the process that the secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet is looking at right now, Mr Speaker.
That is in the scope of those processes and I will await for the secretary of the department to provide that report to me.
Scott Morrison won't commit to making PM&C report public.
Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:
Will the prime minister guarantee the report by the secretary of the department of prime minister and his cabinet and his former chief of staff, Philip Gaetjens, will be made public as soon as it is received?
Will he guarantee Mr Gaetjens will interview himself and anyone in the prime minister’s office who may have had contact related to the reported sexual assault?
Morrison:
The secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet is undertaking his inquiries and he’s undertaking those with the relevant members of my office. And I’m looking forward to receiving his report and I’m looking forward to receiving his report, as I am also looking forward to receiving the recommendations that would come from the deputy secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and I look forward to reporting further on those matters at that time.
End of update.
If you find this as utterly unbelievable as we do then Never forget this act of nasty, malevolent bastardry.
We only have to look at how they have treated that beautiful family from Biloela.
So none of this should come as a surprise, more like a disgusting and sick forewarning of what the the LNP will do.
Guardian live updates/Katharine murphy AuspollBulletin
Comments