Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Monday stood by an unidentified Cabinet minister against calls for him to step down over an allegation he raped a 16-year-old girl more than 30 years ago.
The accusation has created a cloud over the 16 men in Morrison鈥檚 22-minister Cabinet and is feeding complaints of a culture within Parliament that is toxic for women.
The allegation was contained in an anonymous letter sent to the prime minister鈥檚 office and to three female lawmakers last week.
The letter contained a statement from a complainant that detailed her allegation of a rape she said occurred in New South Wales state in 1988.
The woman, who has not been publicly identified, reported the allegation to police before taking her own life in June at age 49.
Morrison said the Cabinet minister 鈥渧igorously and completely denied the allegations.鈥�
Morrison said he forwarded the letter to police and discussed the allegation with the federal police commissioner. Morrison said he did not intend to take any further action.
鈥淲e can鈥檛 have a situation where the mere making of an allegation and that being publicized through the media is grounds for ... governments to stand people down simply on the basis of that,鈥� Morrison said.
The Ministerial Code of Conduct states a 鈥渕inister should stand aside if that minister becomes the subject of an official investigation of alleged illegal or improper conduct.鈥�
Some within the government argue that because the complainant is dead, her allegation is no longer under official police investigation because a conviction is unlikely.
Sen. Sarah Hanson-Young, a minor Greens party lawmaker who received the anonymous letter, said the minister must step down pending an independent investigation by a former judge.
鈥淚t is just not right to suggest that this type of allegation could linger, hang over the heads of the entire Cabinet,鈥� Hanson-Young said. She said the accusation erodes the belief that the government takes sexual assault seriously.
Marque Lawyers managing partner Michael Bradley, who represented the complainant when she took her accusation to police, said the allegation cannot be resolved through the criminal justice system because she has died. The minister should step down while some independent inquiry investigates the evidence, Bradley said.
鈥淗is position is pretty clearly untenable and he should step aside or be stood aside until this matter can be addressed and resolved,鈥� Bradley said.
The disclosure comes two weeks after Morrison apologized in Parliament to a former government staffer who alleged she was raped by a more senior colleague in a minister鈥檚 office two years ago.
Brittany Higgins quit her job in January and reactivated her complaint to police after initially not pursuing the case because she felt it would have affected her employment.
The colleague, who has not been named publicly, was fired for breaching security by taking Higgins into a minister鈥檚 office following a night of heavy drinking.
Three other women have made sexual misconduct allegations against the same man since Higgins went public with her complaint. A government staffer who alleged she was raped by the man last year told The Weekend Australian newspaper the attack wouldn鈥檛 have happened if the government had supported Higgins鈥� initial complaint.
Morrison responded to Higgins鈥� public complaints by appointing government lawmaker Celia Hammond to work with political parties to investigate Parliament House culture, improve workplace standards and protect staff.
Hammond and opposition Labor Party Sen. Penny Wong also received anonymous letters about the 1988 rape allegation.
Wong said she met the complainant in 2019 and the complainant detailed her allegation against the man, who was not in Parliament in 1988.
鈥淚 facilitated her referral to rape support services and confirmed she was being supported in reporting the matter to NSW Police,鈥� Wong said.
Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, whom Morrison replaced in a power struggle within the ruling conservative Liberal Party in 2018, said the complainant wrote to him in 2019 seeking advice on what she should do with her allegations.
Turnbull described her allegations as 鈥減retty harrowing鈥� and said Morrison should remove the minister.
Turnbull said he had sent the woman's email and his reply to police in the woman's home state of South Australia in expectation that they would be used as evidence in a coroner's investigation into her death. An investigation has not yet been announced.
Morrison said that before he was told of the rape allegation last week, he had heard 鈥�
The program accused the Liberal Party of tolerating and condoning inappropriate sexual
The program exposed an extramarital affair between Population Minister Alan Tudge and a female adviser in 2017. It also alleged Attorney General Christian Porter had been seen 鈥渃uddling and kissing鈥� a female staffer in a Canberra bar, which he denies.
The government has condemned the program. Communications Minister Paul Fletcher has asked the ABC board to explain how the program was in the public interest and complied with the state-owned broadcaster鈥檚 obligation to produce accurate and impartial journalism.
Minister for Women Marise Payne on Monday described the recent allegations of sexual
鈥淭his is most definitely the most difficult, most confronting and most distressing period of my work life in this environment,鈥� Payne told Sky News.
鈥淏ut distressing for me is meaningless in comparison to those people who have had to endure issues around sexual assault, the experience of sexual assault or harassment in its many forms, and we want to make sure that that stops now,鈥� she added.
Rod McGuirk, The Associated Press
