Scott Morrison’s Private Secretary, Yaron Finkelstein, and his Chief of Staff, John Kunkel, were the 2 senior figures tasked by Scott Morrison to cover-up the alleged rape of Liberal Party staffer Brittany Higgins for 2 years until it was exposed in the media on Monday (15/2/21). They were aided in the cover-up by Fiona Brown who is another senior staffer from the Prime Minister’s office who was temporarily seconded to work as Chief of Staff in the office of Defence Minister Senator Linda Reynolds.
The Prime Minister is denying there was a cover-up but there are now holes bigger enough to drive a truck through, in the stories being told by Scott Morrison and Linda Reynolds, that make their denials unbelievable.
One example is that Scott Morrison says he only found out about the alleged rape on Monday morning (15/2/21) when it broke the in news, but his staff were contacted by the media, News.com and The Project on Channel 10, last week who sent them questions. Scott Morrison wants us to believe his staff had questions from the media, since last week. about an alleged rape of a Liberal Party staffer in parliament house but none of his staff bothered to tell him and let him find out when it was published in the media? Only a fool would believe that.
Scott Morrison’s Private Secretary, Yaron Finkelstein, and his Chief of Staff, John Kunkel are part of Scott Morrison’s senior leadership team, as the below 2019 picture shows with Mr Kunkel and Mr Finkelstein on the far left, so it’s a fair question to wonder how many others knew about the alleged rape. (Click here to read more)
Scott Morrison on Thursday with his leadership team, clockwise from right, Josh Frydenberg, Michael McCormack, Simon Birmingham, Greg Hunt, Christian Porter, Peter Dutton, Mathias Cormann and Bridget McKenzie, and in the outer circle, from left, Yaron Finkelstein, John Kunkel and Julian Leembruggen. Picture: Adam Taylor/PMO
The cover-up gets more obvious when Senator Reynolds was asked numerous questions in the Senate today and it all got too hard. The SMH reported:
Senator Reynolds confirmed she terminated the man in question after advice from department officials, but she did not say if he was a favourite employee in her office, as Ms Higgins claimed.
When Labor asked the minister if she had written a reference for the man or seen him in the time since he left her office, she said she would have to seek advice on how to answer.
“These are complex matters,” she told the Senate. (Click here to read more)
The question Senator Reynolds was asked was very simple: “if she had written a reference for the man or seen him in the time since he left her office” She claimed the question was too hard “she said she would have to seek advice on how to answer” the questions as “These are complex matters,” What she meant to say is she will have to check with the Prime Minister’s office to work out what lies she should tell.
An overview of the scandal is:
A Liberal Party staffer has alleged she was raped at Parliament House in Defence Minister Linda Reynolds’ ministerial office by a colleague, and claims she felt forced to choose between reporting it to the police or keeping her job.
In explosive allegations detailing the Morrison Government’s handling of the incident, media adviser Brittany Higgins has told news.com.au that she spent the last two years “internalising the trauma”.
She has also revealed that she was brought to a formal employment meeting about the incident in the room where she was allegedly raped — a decision the Morrison Government has now accepted was an error by the then Defence Industry Minister Linda Reynolds.
Ms Higgins was just 24 at the time of the incident and only months into her “dream job” of working at parliament.
She said the horror night quickly emerged as a crisis to be managed by her successive chiefs of staff, cabinet ministers and even staff in the Prime Minister’s office. (Click here to read more)
The full story is in the below interview which aired on Monday night (15/2/21) on The Project on Channel 10.
Morrison threw up a smokescreen at a press conference today (16/2/21) and spoke about he had talked to his wife Monday night and she had told him he needs to deal with the matter like it had happened to one of thier daughters. I think the chances that conversation happened between Morrison and his wife are zero and he had watched The Project TV interview with the alleged rape victim Brittany Higgins and Morrison saw what I saw, and many others saw. Brittany Higgins named Scott Morrison’s Private Secretary, Yaron Finkelstein, as one of the people involved in the cover-up and Morrison knew he was in a lot of trouble as Finkelstein is Morrison’s right-hand man and it makes it impossible for Morrison to credibly say he knew nothing for 2 years.
Unfortunately, some in the media have fallen for Morrison’s smokescreen and have spent today writing articles about how stupid it was for Morrison to need to get advice from his wife. What the journalists should have been doing is asking what Morrison knew and when and how his story doesn’t add up. The media in Canberra should also have been trying to get Morrison’s Private Secretary, Yaron Finkelstein, and Chief of Staff, John Kunkel to front the media and answer questions. All the Canberra press galleries would have the email address and/or mobile phone numbers of Yaron Finkelstein and John Kunkel so there is no reason they could not put questions to them.
The government is in full crisis cover-up mode:
A crucial dispute has erupted over allegations of rape in Parliament House after Prime Minister Scott Morrison said his office was only told of the events last week, a claim at odds with statements from former staffer Brittany Higgins.
Mr Morrison said phone records and other files showed his principal private secretary, Yaron Finkelstein, did not call Ms Higgins late last year as she had claimed. (Click here to read more) Why didn’t Morrison get Yaron Finkelstein to front the media and answers questions?
I read today that Brittany Higgins plans to make a formal complaint with the police which hopefully won’t hit the same roadblocks they hit the first time when she initially made a complaint in 2019.
This matter has a disturbing similarity to Scott Morrison and his wife continuing to publicly support Hillsong Church Pastor Brian Houston even while he is still under police investigation for covering up the sexual abuse of children by his father. (Click here to read more) The NSW police initially answered questions about the Brian Houston investigation but when I asked the police whether Scott Morrison or his office had contacted them regarding Brian Houston they refused to respond anymore. (Click here to read more)
When someone like Scott Morrison has form on the board for ignoring sexual abuse victims and their rights it makes his claim he knew nothing for 2 years about Brittany Higgins’ alleged rape totally improbable and when you add the holes in their answers then it becomes blatant lies and an obvious cover-up.
This story will not go away fast and hopefully, it will encourage other whistleblowers to come forward.
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Categories: Prime Minister Scott Morrison
And to further add insult to injury the government is going to investigate Brittany Higgins claims but the investigation will be carried out by LNP people. What a joke. Are these investigators going to investigate the toxic culture within the government or just the Brittany Higgins affair? Answer: Just the Brittany Higgins affair. Will they be objective? Answer: Definitely not. I understand Brittany has approached the AFP. The AFP commissioner is a Morrison appointee. Morrison won’t appoint someone who he can’t manipulate for his own benefit. Good luck there Brittany. Morrison’s toxic influence has no bounds. He is a big part of the problem because of the corruption he has carried out and is currently carrying out.
Why did it take the wife of the PM to advise him to look at things as if Brittany was his daughter? That right their is a failure of Leadership, Compassion, Ethics, Justice, Humanity in spades!
Sounds like a politician devising a convenient excuse!
Brittany Higgins has released a statement following Parliament question time:
The Police will do their utmost to protect the Politicians. They couldn’t give a stuff about the victim. They will investigate on behalf of the Politicians – Not on behalf of the actual victim. Police are gatekeepers for the rich elite. BTW – it is also poinient that MP Dutton today said that p protecting children from sexual abuse and exposing paedophiles is a top priority of his office. Perhaps he could start with investigating and exposing the list of 30 paedophiles former Senator Heffernan spoke of….. Didn’t that story disappear overnight????
Remember the LIST….. included a former PM, judges Barristers, wealthy elites, politicians, media personalities??? Dutton might not have to look to hard to make arrests in Parliment?
So, is this the straw that will finally break the camel’s back? Are we going to finally stand up as ONE PEOPLE, hit the streets, demand total change in how we treat women everywhere (at home or in Parliament), tougher laws for protection of women (because unfortunately, our current society forces us to have these), show the government that we’ve had enough of the corruption and cover-ups AND demand new government?
Or are we just going to sit back, like we have the past 4 decades or so, commenting here and there and let this pass by, showing our children/grandchildren and the world that we have become completely numb to our government’s horrific misbehaviour?
Morrison (moron’s son) has past form for being a manipulating conman and a LIAR,the only time a politicians mouth is open is when LYING or gorging on the taxpayer trough.