Scott Morrison has angrily defended his handling of the Brittany Higgins rape claim and other parliament sex scandals in a fiery TV interview.
The prime minister repeatedly slapped down accusations by A Current Affair host Tracy Grimshaw as she pummelled him on Thursday night’s program.
Mr Morrison insisted he was not ‘judge and jury’ and police investigations should be allowed to play out.
He defended not opening an independent investigation into allegations that Christian Porter raped a 16-year-old girl in 1998 when he was 17.
Police closed the investigation as there was not enough evidence to proceed after the alleged victim took her own life last year.
Tracy Grimshaw grilled Scott Morrison over why Brittany Higgins’ rape complaint was so badly handled and she was essentially left ‘on her own’ when the process failed her
Mr Morrison attempted to draw a line under many of the issues, and frequently rejected the premise of Grimshaw’s questions.
He said he found it shocking and daunting when he first learned of Ms Higgins’ allegations that she was raped by a male colleague in defence minister Linda Reynolds’ Parliament House office in 2019.
Grimshaw grilled him over why her complaint was so badly handled and she was essentially left ‘on her own’ when the process failed her.
‘Why was she on her own? You don’t need processes to know how to act humanely,’ Grimshaw asked.
‘You don’t need processes to make them a cup of tea, drive them home, make an appointment for a counsellor.
‘Don’t just give them a number and say “here, call this number, do your best “. She was abandoned, wasn’t she?’
Scott Morrison has angrily defended his handling of the Brittany Higgins rape claim and other parliament sex scandals in a fiery TV interview
The prime minister repeatedly slapped down accusations by A Current Affair host Tracy Grimshaw as she pummelled him on Thursday night’s program
Mr Morrison agreed Ms Higgins was failed and abandoned by the ministerial staff who were made aware of the claims several days after the alleged rape.
‘I agree with you that clearly that did not pass the test and failed Brittany. No one is disputing that,’ Mr Morrison said.
‘Why weren’t they fired?’ Grimshaw asked, bluntly.
Mr Morrison shot back: ‘They were trying like everyone else would be trying in those circumstances.’
‘We have to fix this and you don’t have to tear things down to build things up. What we need in this place and around the country is much better systems and resources to help people in these situations.’
He’s yet to speak to Ms Higgins six weeks after the allegations were made public and says the offer remains on the table.
‘She hasn’t asked to speak to me directly,’ he said. ‘But I’m happy to have the conversation. If she’s happy to, we can arrange it.’
The prime minister then clashed with Grimshaw when he was accused of ‘immediately believing’ Mr Porter’s denial of the rape allegation.
Mr Morrison defended not opening an independent investigation into allegations that Christian Porter raped a 16-year-old girl in 1998 when he was 17
Mr Morrison has repeatedly refused to open an independent inquiry, insisting the closure of the police investigation ended the matter.
He stuck to this line of argument when questioned again about it by Grimshaw, and compared Mr Porter’s case to when sexual assault allegations against former opposition leader Bill Shorten were dismissed in 2014.
‘What I have done is to respect the rule of law in this country and how people need to be treated under that rule of law. An allegation can be made against you, me, against anyone else,’ he said.
Grimshaw countered: ‘There really wasn’t an investigation because his accuser died, she took her life. There really hasn’t been an investigation.
‘There has been no investigation, prime minister, you have just believed him.’
Mr Morrison hit back: ‘The right way to answer that question to anyone satisfaction is not for me to play judge and jury, or anyone else who are given those powers.’
Mr Morrison is yet to speak to Ms Higgins six weeks after the allegations were made public and says the offer remains on the table
Grimshaw brought up that Ms Higgins was called a ‘lying cow’ by Ms Reynolds, which Mr Morrison agrees was ‘disgraceful’.
‘It was very out of character for Linda’ he said.
This set off Grimshaw, who brought up Mr Morrison’s backing of Liberal senator Eric Abetz, who is accused by former Speaker of the Tasmanian House of Assembly of making shocking ‘victim blaming’ comments about Ms Higgins’ rape.
‘The pattern here is that women are always liars. Brittany Higgins, Sue Hickey, Christian Porter’s accuser,’ she said.
Mr Morrison said he didn’t agree with Grimshaw’s assessment.
‘In this country, people will make allegations and we have ways of dealing with it. I am not making that judgement about the truth of neither statement,’ he said.
He hinted both Ms Reynolds and Mr Porter will remain on the frontbench as he considers a cabinet reshuffle.
But the prime minister did not deny he planned to move both ministers said they will ‘continue to play a very important role in my cabinet’.
‘I am working through those issues now. One is on mental health leave and the other is on physical health leave. Linda in particular, had a very serious coronary condition,’ he said.
Defence Minister Linda Reynolds has extended her leave raising questions of her future in politics after she called alleged rape victim Brittany Higgins a ‘lying cow’
Mr Porter is expected to be demoted because his defamation lawsuit against the ABC for publishing the rape claim was a conflict of interest to his role as attorney-general.
Peter Dutton is expected to replace Linda Reynolds as Defence Minister.
Mr Morrison’s assurances he was doing ‘the best a bloke can’ to address violence against women also sparked exasperation from Grimshaw.
At one point in the testy segment Grimshaw asked Mr Morrison if he was ‘living in a bubble’ to which he accused the veteran TV host of being unfair.
‘Where have you been?’ she asked.
‘I think that’s a bit unfair, Tracy,’ Mr Morrison fired back.
‘I think there are many people across this country who live with it every day, you have lived without your whole life. You have. Almost every woman has.’
He was then interrupted by Grimshaw.
‘But you are not on an island, or maybe you are in a bubble. You must know, you have a wife you love, orders, you have referenced them several times. How did you not know the depth of it?
Grimshaw brought up Mr Morrison’s backing of Liberal senator Eric Abetz (pictured), who is accused by former Speaker of the Tasmanian House of Assembly of making shocking ‘victim blaming’ comments about Ms Higgins’ rape
‘This is the difficult part of this. You understand it in a way that only you could,’ Mr Morrison said.
‘I have a different experience to yours but I can tell you, for many Australians, this has been like a big wake-up call and it’s been like a red light to say ‘stop, look, listen and that’s what’ we’re doing.’
Grimshaw countered: ‘It hasn’t been a wake-up call to 52 per cent of Australians.’
She went on to criticise Mr Morrison for refusing to join a march of 100,000 women around the country earlier this month protesting violence against women.
Instead he only offered to meet with a few of the protest leaders in private, but was rebuffed.
‘You said to them ‘I will meet a couple of you on my turf, on my time, on my turns, or nothing’,’ Grimshaw said.
‘And then you said, ‘and my minister for women, she things what I think’.’
