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Issue No. 129 | 22 March 2002 |
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Not So Happy Campers
Interview: Pulling the Pin International: At the Crossroads Unions: A Case Of Lost Identity History: Rocking the Foundations Industrial: Rocky Road Economics: Cracking a Coldie Poetry: The Right Was Wrong Satire: Heffernan�s Evidence Conclusive: Proves He's An Idiot Review: Upstairs, Downstairs
The Soapbox The Locker Room Postcard Cole-Watch Week in Review
 Letter to Howard #1Letter to Howard #2Letter to Howard #3Jump Before You're Pushed
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Tool Shed Back Where He Belongs
Even before we open the door to the Shed we should make it clear up front - pedophilia is an outrage that ruins young lives and should be dealt with by the criminal law in the most punitive manner. That is why we have police and courts - to catch and punish wrong-doers. But having seen the pedophilia debate unfold in this country for some years now - culminating in the Heffernen allegations over the past few weeks - it has become clear that some people making these allegations are driven to the point of zealotry - fueled by their sincere belief that the young should be protected, but sometimes seeming to have an, at best, tenuous grip on reality. One only has to cast the mind make to the franca Arena affair, where the NSW Upper House MP used Parliamentary privilege to make similarly extravagant claims about a high-level network of child abusers only to see the evidence collapse when asked for substantiation. In a parliamentary system that allows MPs to make allegations without the normal rules of defamation - with the media reporting such statements - you have a situation that is open to abuse. In short, when the appropriate avenues are not followed, allegations of pedophilia can easily be made to attack high-profile homosexuals. For once it was the Fourth Estate that acted as a buffer against Bill Heffernan's attack on the democratic system. The attack on High Court judge, Justice Michael Kirby was so outrageous and such an inappropriate use of Parliamentary privilege that the story became the messenger. Within 24 hours, the PM's Mr Fixit had stood down from his position and Parliamentary secretary as members from both sides of the House expressed their outrage at the misuse of power. By the end of the week the claims were resting on a couple of pieces of paper, purported to be Comcar records, but on scrutiny found to be forgeries. Heffernan was left with nowhere to go but to make a sincere apology. The Prime Minister, who had allowed the issue to drift as it wiped his own troubles with the Governor-General off the front pages and then actually widened the scope of the attack with the outrageous comment that the judge could be removed without any proof of criminality, has now wiped his hands of the issue. He refuses to apologise, but has paid a personal price by being forced ot sack one of his closest confidantes. Which brings us to Piers. While the rest of the media was responsibly scrutinizing the extraordinary actions of Bill Heffernan, Akerman used his column in the Daily Telegraph to repeat the allegations. That's right, vast swabs of the offending speech are reproduced under the cover of the Parliamentary privilege that had been so abused. And in vintage form Piers took pot-shots at the victim of the attack, implying that the rebuttal lacked the vehemence to be convincing, before calling on him to stand down from the High Court. That was last week. After the revelations of the forgery removed, Piers alone refused to condemn the man who had abused Parliament. Instead he castes Heffernan as the honourable innocent, his "wholehearted and unreserved apology ... set(ting) a political high-water mark". The real villains, in Piers account, are the ALP, the Greens, the Australian Democrat and, of course, the ALP for attacking Howard government over the issue. No mention of Heffernan's impulsiveness and destructiveness, just a cheap swipe at Piers' enemies for having the temerity to be on the side of truth. Indeed, he twists this concept so far that by the end of the column it is these people who seem to be to blame for the whole affair. What to make of Piers rationalizations? Well, it's not the first time Piers has targeted Justice Kirby. When the judge declared his homosexuality some years ago, he ran the malicious line that as homosexuality was illegal in the sixties, that Kirby had broken the law and should therefore resign. This particularly grubby proposition created its own momentum, culminating in Workers Online's well publicized bounty on Piers' head. But the recent events suggest there may have been a thicker plot. We all suspect Piers has had great access to the PM's office; what latest episode implies is that Heffernan may have been the source. Whatever, Piers' handling of this outrage is a disgrace. He has allowed himself to become the vehicle for a misuse of parliamentary privilege that will become a text- book example of the dangers of zealotry. It's fine to be a professional skeptic, but a public profile carries responsibility. As Heffernan has failed this test, so has his mouthpiece.
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