The Attorney General must stand down and there must be an independent inquiry into the rape allegations, otherwise there will be a chilling effect on survivors speaking out, said the Greens today following the revelation of the identity of the cabinet minister.
\n\u201cToday\u2019s press conference by Christian Porter denying the rape allegations will have been extremely distressing to sexual assault survivors everywhere,\u201d said Larissa Waters, Greens Leader in the Senate and spokesperson on women.
\n\u201cAfter the powerful speech by Grace Tame encouraging survivors to speak out, the subtext of the Attorney-General\u2019s denials and of the Prime Minister\u2019s dismissal of the allegations earlier this week, is that the government doesn\u2019t believe women.
\n\u201cMr Porter\u2019s statement is a message to all survivors of sexual assault and rape that this government does not believe them. It will have a chilling effect on survivors and will almost certainly dissuade others from coming forward.
\n\u201cWomen don\u2019t need any more discouragement from reporting sexual assault and rape, already they face disbelief from the justice system and this is why so few rapes are reported and even fewer rapists are convicted.
\n\u201cThe Prime Minister said two years ago that he believed victims \u2013 but actions speak louder than words. The Prime Minister exonerated Mr Porter after a brief chat, but didn\u2019t even read the 30 page dossier of allegations from the woman.
\n\u201cThese are serious allegations made in circumstances in which a police investigation is no longer possible. Rather than simply dismissing the claims on the basis of Mr Porter\u2019s assurance, the Prime Minister should initiate an inquiry to satisfy himself as to whether Mr Porter is suitable to hold a position in his Cabinet.
\n\u201cMr Porter must stand aside for the duration of an independent inquiry into these allegations. It is untenable for him to remain in the role and untenable for the Prime Minister not to order an independent inquiry.
\n\u201cThe Greens support calls from the alleged victim\u2019s lawyer, family and friends for a Heydon-style independent investigation. Parliament should be setting the standard for good behaviour, not using flimsy arguments about precedent setting and ancient history to protect the boys club.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Attorney General must stand down and there must be an independent inquiry into the rape allegations, otherwise there will be a chilling effect on survivors speaking out, said the Greens today following the revelation of the identity of the cabinet minister. \u201cToday\u2019s press conference by Christian Porter denying the rape allegations will have been … Continue reading “Greens say Christian Porter must stand down pending an independent inquiry”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10524\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}