Former senator accuses Van of misconduct

MORE VAN ALLEGATIONS

Senator David Van has confirmed allegations were brought against him three years ago but added he was friends with colleagues who complained about him, The Australian ($) reports. It comes as former Liberal senator Amanda Stoker accused Van of touching her backside twice at a work event, one day after independent Senator Lidia Thorpe alleged he had sexually assaulted her. Stoker’s statement alleged Van “inappropriately touched me … by squeezing my bottom twice” in November 2020 — she added that “by its nature and by its repetition, it was not accidental”. She had a meeting with Van the next day and told him the alleged grope was “unacceptable” — he apologised, she said, and vowed not to repeat it. Stoker said a private “internal process” followed, leaving her satisfied it was in the past. After Thorpe’s allegations, “It is now clear that is no longer tenable,” Stoker said.

Meanwhile, Greens Senator Larissa Waters told the Senate that Thorpe’s allegation “reflects what she disclosed to the Greens leadership two years ago”, adding: “She was greatly distressed.” Liberal Leader Peter Dutton made it clear he wasn’t saying Van was guilty, as Guardian Australia reports, but he did boot him from the Liberal partyroom because other people came forward. What happens now? Van will now sit on the Senate crossbench, and the Parliament support service will probably investigate. Meanwhile, former Liberal media adviser Rachelle Miller said the leaking and coverage of Brittany Higgins’ text messages was a “disgusting” treatment of the former Liberal staffer, the SMH ($) reports. Miller, who alleged unproven abuse by former MP Alan Tudge, said Higgins had been used as a “political football”, adding she was blown away that the “Coalition could use their own women to tear down other women”.

TRIAL AND ERROR

Disgraced soldier Ben Roberts-Smith may never face trial if he’s charged with war crimes because it could be impossible to find an impartial jury, the SMH ($) reports. That’s according to defence barrister Robert Richter who said, constitutionally, federal charges must be decided by a jury, not in a judge-only trial — and media reporting has been so widespread. Meanwhile, independent NSW MP Alex Greenwich’s statement of claim in his defamation action against NSW One Nation Leader Mark Latham says he implied Greenwich was not fit to be an MLA, The Age ($) reports, and further, a “disgusting human being who goes to schools to groom children to become homosexual”.

Speaking of buffoons in Parliament — former UK PM Boris Johnson “deliberately” misled his Parliament over what he knew about parties held at his Downing Street residence during lockdown, the ABC reports. Partygate, as it was known, saw a series of media revelations about boozy get-togethers while the government was urging people to stay home — at first, Johnson denied they’d broken the rules, but the cops found otherwise. Then he said he thought the parties were lawful at the time, but a parliamentary committee was like, that’s crap. Staying on the pandemic a moment and Australia’s population grew at its fastest rate in more than 13 years in 2022 — 1.9% — Guardian Australia reports, partly because of the post-pandemic migration boom. Our population at 31 December 2022 was 26.3 million.

YOU BET WE WON’T

Guardian Australia won’t accept advertising dollars from gambling giants, excluding lotteries, even though it could cost the paper “multi-millions”, the SMH ($) reports. Managing director Dan Stinton said wagering ad revenue has grown “massively” and the rivers of gold make it “uncomfortable” because it isn’t in line with its values. Guardian Australia’s editor Lenore Taylor notes Australians lose more on gambling per capita than any other country, and a stat that there were 948 gambling ads a day on free-to-air television in Victoria in 2021. It also comes as independent MP Zoe Daniel introduced a private member’s bill to ban gambling advertising on TV and radio, including streaming.

Meanwhile, it’s a sad week at the ABC. The broadcaster has scrapped its state-based Sunday night news bulletins and its arts department, Guardian Australia says, and political editor Andrew Probyn was made redundant. 7.30, Australian Story, Four Corners and the investigations team will lose a collective 41 journalists, editors, camera and sound operators, some of the 120 jobs to go at Aunty as it tries to become more like YouTube, Spotify and Netflix, the AFR ($) says.

And a quick correction, folks: yesterday’s Worm reported 18% of Aussies pay for news, but the most recent figure is actually, happily, 22% — up four points from 2022. Check out the Digital News Report here.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE

It’s 25 years since a film about an orphan mouse’s adoption by a human couple for reasons unclear began production. Stuart Little deals with the rejection from his new brother, George, several murder plans hatched by deuteragonist cat Snowbell, and an apparent kidnap by two imposter mice posing as his late parents before a message that “family is what you make it” precedes the credits. But Gergely Barki finished watching the flick in 2009 with a much more pressing thought: namely that a long-lost avant-garde painting, Sleeping Lady with Black Vase, was hanging in plain sight in the Little’s lounge room. The researcher at Budapest’s national gallery told The Guardian back in 2014 he almost dropped his kid Lola when he spotted it.

Barki had only seen a grainy black-and-white photo of the painting by Róbert Berény, but he was possessed by the idea that the prop was real. He sent off a flurry of emails to Sony Pictures and Columbia Pictures urging them to keep it safe, but heard nothing back. Then two years later an email popped up in his inbox from a former Stuart Little set designer. She explained she had bought the painting for basically nothing at an antique shop in the late ’90s thinking it suited the elegant Little family’s taste perfectly. She’d since taken it to a collector who had joyfully verified it was the lost Berény and it was sold at auction. Barki was so pleased. Its last sale was to a “possibly Jewish” buyer in 1928 and the work had been lost before the onset of World War II, one of countless artworks that disappeared. But now it was found — all thanks to some daddy-daughter time.

Wishing you a sharp eye today, and a restful weekend ahead.

SAY WHAT?

I’ve been informed that the national broadcaster no longer need a political editor and that they want to reinvest the money into social and digital reporting roles.

Andrew Probyn

The “flabbergasted” ABC political editor is one of 120 culled in a massive restructuring for the broadcaster. Probyn said he was “still trying to come to terms with it” but remained proud of the “determination and vigour” he brought to his stories, which saw him win Press Gallery Journalist of the Year twice.

CRIKEY RECAP

Why the eerie quiet on Lidia Thorpe’s sexual assault allegation?

BERNARD KEANE

“But the issue here is less about the specifics of Thorpe’s allegations against Van — as serious and damaging as they are — than about our consistency in responding to allegations of sexual assault. If we’re to be consistent, Thorpe’s allegations of sexual assault should be met with the same public rage and widespread coverage that Higgins’ allegations elicited, rather than relative silence.

“Perhaps media outlets really are gun-shy and waiting to hear what Thorpe further reveals. But is the lack of coverage driven by perceptions of Thorpe as a troublemaker and a toxic personality? Because of her alleged ‘relationship’ with an ex-bikie? Because she’s Indigenous? Because she’s a loud, opinionated Blak woman who enrages many on the left as well as the right?”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Google, one of AI’s biggest backers, warns own staff about chatbots (Reuters)

Hungary–US arms deal halted as Orban blocks Sweden’s NATO membership (euronews)

Boris Johnson allies threaten to target Tories who endorse Partygate report for deselection (The Guardian)

Exclusive: US government agencies hit in global cyberattack (CNN)

US Supreme Court upholds Native American adoptions law (BBC)

North Korea fires two missiles after South Korea-US drills (Al Jazeera)

THE COMMENTARIAT

Don’t automatically write off the judge in the Trump documents case —  Nick Akerman (The New York Times) ($): “Judge Aileen Cannon, randomly assigned to preside over the prosecution of Donald Trump in the classified document case, is coming under intensely critical scrutiny from the left. Some point out that she was appointed to her position by Trump. Others highlight her actions last year, when she disrupted the documents investigation by issuing rulings favourable to him when he challenged the FBI’s search of his Mar-a-Lago resort — before an appeals court ruled that she never had legal authority to intervene.

“The criticism levelled at Cannon arises chiefly from her decision to appoint a special master to review the documents seized during last year’s FBI search. Her rulings were a major mistake, and the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals soundly, and rightfully, rebuked her for those errors in two separate decisions. In finding that she had improperly appointed a special master, the three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit — two of whom were also Trump appointees — made it clear that ‘to create a special exception’ for a former president ’would defy our nation’s foundational principle that our law applies ‘to all, without regard to numbers, wealth or rank’.”

Parliament can resolve many things, but not an allegation of rape — David Crowe (The SMH) ($): “The argument was bitter and personal. There were no winners. By the end of the week, the Coalition decision to settle old scores about an alleged rape in 2019 and a political firestorm in 2021 ended up rebounding on Opposition Leader Peter Dutton with a new sexual assault claim against a Liberal senator in 2023. There was no political victory here — and certainly no triumph for Parliament. Independent MPs wanted to lower the temperature but the argument only escalated to the point where independent Senator Lidia Thorpe accused Liberal Senator David Van of sexual harassment and assault. He denied this immediately.

“Thorpe withdrew her remarks and said she would not go to police, but what is said in Parliament cannot be unsaid … Parliament is now stuck in an argument without end about Higgins’ allegation that Bruce Lehrmann raped her in the office of then-minister Linda Reynolds in March 2019. Yes, Labor sought to maximise pressure on Morrison, Reynolds and others when this burst into the public domain, but the entire matter has gone from allegation to media report, from political storm to trial and mistrial, without settling the disputed facts.”

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Kulin Nation Country (also known as Melbourne)

• Journalist Kate Legge will talk about her new book, Infidelity and Other Affairs, at the Montalto.

Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)

• Writer Elyse John will talk about her new book, Orphia and Eurydicius, at Better Read Than Dead bookshop.

Yuggera and Turrbal Country (also known as Brisbane)

• The Australian Missing Persons Register’s Nicole Morris will talk about her new book, Vanished, at Avid Reader bookshop.