Allegations take toll
Her last words to him after he left were: “If I can’t have you I will make sure nobody else will want you.” And even if she never achieved anything else in her life, she sure achieved that.
The father-of-one has been left deep in debt, at times homeless, and forever smeared in his small town after he was accused by his former partner of sexual assault, saved only at trial by an admittance that testimony provided to police was false.
He now struggles, while she continues her life as normal.
There used to be no rules in love and war.
Now, there’s just no rules in war. The dilemma in many circumstances is the war involving love and relationships is a guerrilla one and truth is the first casualty.
If the consequence of an untested allegation is your life is destroyed, or you are possibly sent to jail, then it is based on an absolute injustice by either the perpetrator or the accuser.
Both have rights that should be preserved.
What is there to stop anyone from falsely claiming abuse if there is no consequence to a lie, an exaggeration, an omission?
I no longer subscribe to the theory that every allegation must be believed. I believe victims of criminal offences should be supported through the legal process but God help us when that inquiry is conducted by the parliament or the press. Through the history of humankind, the testing of an allegation is left to an expert body removed from the general public. It has to be. In the past, people could be hanged over an allegation. Today they are jailed. Mishandled, and lives can be destroyed by a contrived complaint.
A person who has been wronged should find justice through the proper prosecution of the perpetrator but a spurious allegation means the accuser is the perpetrator.
This complexity is the reason
“We must support victims of sexual assault but not at the expense of the presumption of innocence.
courts are so austere. An old woman whose earliest memory is being raped by her uncle remembers her mother telling her: “Hush! Don’t talk about that!”.
The difference now is we can and must have these ugly, uncomfortable conversations that were silenced by generations before us. But for the victims of crime to be supported to report and, in turn, attackers to be stopped, we cannot allow false or untested accusations to fly. Rape is one of the worst crimes, but being falsely accused as a rapist is also an injustice. We must support victims of sexual assault so they feel emboldened to go to police and go to trial but not at the expense of the presumption of innocence. Men lie.
Women lie. People have different versions of the same truth. Absolutes in stories inevitably are found to have gradations. Without going through the process of defamation, which is really only available for the very wealthy, there is little threat of retribution for the person who whispers lies.
In vexed issues, everything requires balance, denial is not a defence. Facts are required but the primary burden of proof lies with the person who makes the allegation.
In Australia, everyone is innocent until proven guilty — if we abandon this principle for cancel culture then we just strayed off the path of almost 1000 years of jurisprudence.
In the state of NSW that
presumption of innocence does not exist in politics. On the same day that Attorney-general Christian Porter stood up in tears in Western
Australia and begged the media pack to imagine him just for a moment as innocent, across the Simpson Desert in NSW John Sidoti resigned from the ministry because of ICAC launching a public hearing. The
ICAC often makes recommendations which never proceed to prosecution. In recent memory, 12 people have resigned from NSW politics and not a single one has been found guilty of any crime.
My argument is not whether or not the Attorney-general is guilty or innocent, I have no idea, and nor am I suggesting his accuser is lying, but the process that some elements of the media have followed would be enough to make Judge Judy blush.
Public opinion is an essential element of reality TV shows, it is not an essential element of a liberal Western democracy. A person can be disliked, obnoxious, distasteful and utterly innocent, just as they can be magnetic, charming, gregarious and guilty as hell. Unfortunately though, the court of public opinion would find them otherwise.
In a nation that goes back to Breaker Morant and the conveyancing solicitor who was given one day to defend him before he was executed in South Africa, we have in our DNA, a zeal for a fair trial. It’s more proficient than “the vibe”.
THE Australian sharemarket fell for the second straight day after another negative lead from Wall Street, where tech stocks were hammered, rubbing off on our local stocks.
The benchmark S&P/ ASX200 index finished 0.74 per cent lower at 6710.8 while the All Ordinaries Index slumped 0.82 per cent to 6943.
However, the ASX200 still finished the week 0.56 per cent higher, said Commsec.
Openmarkets Group chief executive Ivan Tchourilov said Friday’s fall followed an extremely volatile session on US markets, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq “almost technically in correction territory” as investors became very edgy about rising interest rates.
He said the ASX200 had endured a lacklustre week, with tech stocks – particularly the buy-now-pay-later sector – hit the hardest. BNPL market leader Afterpay dipped 2.47 per cent to $115.40 while smaller rival Zip Co sank 5.25 per cent to $9.56.
Software company Wisetech retreated 1.93 per cent to $26.94 and online business platform provider Xero gave up 2.36 per cent to $113.17, a day after announcing it was acquiring workforce management tool Planday.
Commsec analyst Steve Daghlian said a rare bright spot on the local bourse was the energy sector after the oil price lifted by 4.2 per cent following a meeting of oil producing nations, which surprisingly agreed to keep their output targets steady into next month.
Santos rose 4.72 per cent to $7.76, Oil Search appreciated 4.99 per cent to $4.42 and Woodside Petroleum gained 3.12 per cent to $25.46.
STEEL magnate Sanjeev Gupta has told his top Australian executives its main banker Greensill Capital will likely file for insolvency.
The embattled Uk-based industrialist, owner of South Australia’s Whyalla steelworks, said he was preparing for the insolvency action to change the relationship between the high-flying duo.
Mr Gupta’s GFG Alliance is seeking to protect its position by making repayments on Greensill loans to an administrator rather than direct to its financier.
While Mr Gupta told senior management it was a routine safeguard for the business, given the swift unravelling of its main funding line, the move underscores an accelerating fallout between the two industry titans as they battle to keep their empires afloat. GFG failed to make one payment to Greensill on Monday, according to a Financial Times report.
Sources close to Mr Gupta said that could reflect a move by GFG to withhold regular payments given increasing uncertainty over whether Greensill would trade its way through the current crisis.
London-based Greensill was founded a decade ago by Lex Greensill, 45, the son of a Bundaberg farmer who in recent years has found himself named among the billionaires on Australia’s rich lists. His company offers finance that allows businesses to extend the time they have to pay bills.
Greensill’s main insurer cut a $4.6bn policy this week as it grew uncomfortable over exposure, triggering Credit Suisse to suspend $Us10bn ($12.95bn) of funds invested in loans arranged by the financier.
Lawyers for Mr Greensill this week pleaded in the NSW Supreme Court to force the extension of the insurance policies, the loss of which would trigger a chain of events that could lead to the insolvency of its clients, they argued.
“(This) would put at risk more than 50,000 jobs, including over 7000 in Australia,” they said.
Mr Gupta told executives on a Wednesday phone hookup that he was in talks with alternate banks amid mounting pressure to find a stopgap solution to refinance his large debt pile with Greensill.
Although he stressed a business-as-usual message for GFG in Australia, the nearterm challenges for Mr Gupta are mounting, given his risk profile has partly proved the undoing of Greensill itself.
Despite dire warnings of the loss of the insurance policies, on Wednesday Greensill Capital withdrew its legal bid to force an extension of the policies, raising questions about the group’s next move. While Greensill remains in talks to spin off some of its business at a huge discount to private equity giant Apollo, any deal would not include Mr Gupta’s sprawling empire.
ACROSS
1. Different line of thought (7)
6. Robber (5)
9. Water flower (5)
12. Stadium (5)
13. Toilet (inf) (3)
14. Elderly (5)
15. Small and elegant (Fr) (5)
16. Sea froth (5)
18. Buzzing instrument
20. Foul-smelling (5)
21. Tiff (7)
23. Grim, sullen (4)
25. Pace (5)
27. Tax (4)
29. Film (5)
31. Stylish (4)
33. Unleavened bread (4)
34. Instead (4)
36. Haphazard (3-2-4)
39. Cap (3)
40. Icecream dish (6)
43. Screen area of a computer (7)
45. Search for food (6)
47. Stride (4)
Solution in Monday’s paper
49. Area of cultivated DOWN grass (4) 1. Calm (8)
51. Layered (6) 2. Pest (8)
53. Crease (7) 3. Keen (5)
55. Take no notice (6) 4. Footy move (6)
57. Signal (3) 5. Exclamation of
58. Gun dog (9) surprise (inf) (4)
62. Tidings (4) 6. Forbidden (5)
65. Otherwise (4) 7. Harm (6)
67. Portent (4) 8. Downy (6)
68. Hot nightcap (5) 9. Misplaced (4)
69. Condemn to 10. Heavy, dull sound (4) destruction (4) 11. Mince and potato
71. Spicy stew (5) dish (9,3)
73. Repeat (4) 17. Swivel (5)
75. Spread from (7) 19. Smell (5)
77. Range (5) 22. Engrave (4)
79. Make amends (5) 24. The best (8)
81. Smooth and glossy 26. Came across (3)
(5) 28. Hollow container (6) 82. Shoelace end (5) 29. Bland (4)
83. Principles laid down 30. Car attendant (5) by an authority (5) 32. Large, clumsy (7)
84. Intention (3) 35. Diamond (inf) (3)
85. Bring to mind (5) 37. Sprite (3)
86. In the ___, naked (5) 38. Rancid (3)
87. Harvest (5) 41. Close (4)
88. Set aside (7) 42. Stupid and silly (7)
43. Food shop (12) 44. US cookie (4)
46. Additional hours of work (8)
48. Home sound system (6)
50. Brandish (5)
52. Expire (3)
53. Misery (3)
54. Dispirited (3)
56. Prying (4)
59. Gold bar (5)
60. Energy (3)
61. Area in a house (4)
63. Put at risk (8)
64. System of waste pipes (8)
66. Infer from data (5)
69. Romantic (6)
70. Otherwise (2,4)
72. Pager (6)
74. Old-fashioned (5)
76. Political assistants (5)
77. Origin (4)
78. Satisfactory (4)
80. Musical instrument (4)