ACCOUNTABILITY, NOW

Note: This story discusses sexual assault and suicide.

Friends of the now-deceased woman who accused a current cabinet minister of raping her in 1988 have urged Scott Morrison to hold an independent inquiry, ABC’s Four Corners reports, with a friend who was with the woman on the night of the alleged rape offering to make a police statement. Several have also paid tribute to the “smart”, “forthright”, and “extraordinary” woman at Guardian Australia, The Sydney Morning Herald, and The Australian ($).

The news comes after Morrison said the minister “vigorously rejected” the allegations, while Guardian Australia reports the prime minister was aware of “rumours” of the alleged assault earlier this year but said he had not felt the need to investigate further and was only briefed on last week’s 31-page dossier of allegations. He yesterday declined to launch an independent inquiry, declaring it is up to police to “determine the veracity of any allegations of this nature”.

As the woman’s lawyer Michael Bradley explained in Crikey yesterday, while it is a legal possibility for “a criminal rape prosecution to proceed despite the alleged victim having died” it realistically will not happen because “the evidentiary burden on the prosecution and the legal protections afforded the alleged perpetrator cannot be bridged.”

Bradley, along with other media voices such as Nine’s Peter Hartcher, have called for an inquiry similar to the High Court’s response to allegations against Justice Dyson Heydon. Lawyers have explained to The Sydney Morning Herald that an independent, confidential inquiry would be possible through contemporaneous notes or statements from people to whom she disclosed the allegations, and could be conducted in a way that protected the man’s right to a presumption of innocence.

Elsewhere, the Greens’ Sarah Hanson-Young had earlier accused Morrison of a “deafening” silence and left open the possibility of identifying the accused under parliamentary privilege.

PS: With sexual assault making daily headlines for the third week straight, consider checking out ABC Everyday’s guide to self-care amid the news cycle.

1800 Respect: 1800 737 732; Lifeline: 13 11 14. 

PRIORITISE PEOPLE, NOT PROVIDERS

The final report of the aged care royal commission has called for fundamental reform to a system based on John Howard-era legislation that commissioners criticised for focusing on funding requirements of providers rather than the care needs of older people.

With more than $9.8 billion cut from the annual aged care budget since the Aged Care Act 1997, Guardian Australia reports that Scott Morrison responded with an immediate $452 million package and a promise for a “comprehensive” response for further funding to address the commission’s call for a “generational paradigm shift” to a needs-based funding system.

The report Care, Dignity and Respect makes 148 recommendations, namely for a rights-based Aged Care Act, staffing ratios, and clearing the home care waitlist by the end of the year. While the majority are focused on “the quality and safety task”, the ABC explains that almost a third are split along governance and funding grounds i.e. the creation of a new, independent statutory agency v beefing up the Department of Health.

PS: The report was only released about 10 minutes before Morrison’s press conference, a point 7.30’s Anne Connolly thankfully brought up.

BUT WAS IT WORTH IT?

Finally, Al Jazeera reports that former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has been found guilty of corruption and influence peddling for having tried to bribe a senior magistrate with a Monaco job in return for confidential information about an inquiry into allegations he accepted illegal payments from L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt for his 2007 presidential campaign.

The court found that Sarkozy, a former lawyer, was “perfectly informed” about committing the offences and sentenced him to one year in prison and a two-year suspended sentence. The conservative former leader has 10 days to appeal the ruling, and the one year sentence means it is unlikely Sarkozy will physically go to prison considering France usually requires a jail term of above two years.