Barnaby Joyce has fired back at what he calls the ‘salacious’ inquisition given to Attorney-General Christian Porter after he publicly denied rape allegations.
Mr Porter fronted the media on Wednesday and repeatedly denied raping a young woman after a debating competition in Sydney in 1988.
In a lengthy Facebook post on Saturday, the former Nationals leader called for a ‘confidential’ inquiry into Mr Porter and his accuser, and not one in front of the ‘media’s camera’.
Referencing allegations he himself had faced, Mr Joyce said he didn’t want Mr Porter ‘sitting at the back of the chamber under the exit sign where my colleagues have kindly placed me’.
‘I have had allegations placed against me and no one ran to my defence,’ he wrote.
Barnaby Joyce has fired back at what he calls the ‘salacious’ inquisition given to Attorney-General Christian Porter after he publicly denied rape allegations
‘Christian Porter may not want an independent inquiry but he has got one by default. A demeaning, cathartic inquisition by the press and Opposition.
‘It is achieving little beyond ratings as salacious dissonance and certainly not offering any solace to any party involved.
‘The alternative should be an inquiry, in camera, the confidential one, not the media’s camera.’
Mr Joyce said he feared the sexual assault allegations would ‘hang like fog’ over Mr Porter’s ‘quite remarkable’ career if the public inquisition did not stop.
In 2018 a woman from Western Australia made a sexual harassment complaint against Mr Joyce.
He stepped down from his role as Deputy Prime Minister and Nationals Leader in February of that year.
Christian Porter fronted the media on Wednesday and repeatedly denied raping a 16-year-old girl after a debating competition in Sydney in 1988
‘Christian knows, many in the Opposition and some on his own side don’t want the truth unless it comes with his head on a plate,’ Mr Joyce continued.
‘They just want his scalp.’
Police said there was ‘insufficient admissible evidence’ to continue with the investigation into the rape allegations.
The alleged victim took her own life in June, 2020, after reporting the incident to police a year earlier.
The emotive message from Mr Joyce comes as further details regarding the statement of Mr Porter’s accuser emerged.
The alleged victim said while she had ‘always remembered these things’ about the alleged rape she had a ‘better understanding’ of her memories after reading a book on the therapy of repressed memory theory.
The therapy has been discredited and is used to target horrific memories individuals may have forgotten because they were so traumatic.
The accuser said in her statement she was referred to by her psychologist in September 2019 to read the book The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind and body in the Healing of Trauma written by Bessel van der Kolk.
‘I had not previously heard of it, nor had I read it,’ she said, Crikey reported.
‘Bessel van der Kolk explains that for survivors of torture and trauma our bodies will store traumatic events and only allow them to resurface when our minds are able to re-examine them, usually several decades later.’
The alleged victim said she had a ‘better understanding’ of her memories after reading a book on the therapy of repressed memory theory written by Bessel van der Kolk
Dr van der Kolk is an American psychiatrist and director of The Trauma Center in Boston.
The repressed memory therapy method has been criticised by psychologists including Harvard’s Richard McNally who labelled it ‘the worst catastrophe to befall the mental health field since the lobotomy era.’
Friends of the alleged victim have claimed she told them about the allegations well before she read Dr van der Kolk’s book.
‘This is wrong. Our friend sought professional help for her trauma years before 2019,’ friend Jo Dyer, the director of the Adelaide Writers Festival told news.com.au.
‘Her memories never had to be ‘recovered’ as she lived with them constantly. An inquiry would establish this beyond a shred of doubt.’
Another friend who spoke to the woman after she met police in February last year said she had a clear mind at the time.
‘She was lucid, calm, rational, attentive, forensic,’ Rick Kalowski told The Sydney Morning Herald.
‘In no way was she delusional or away with the fairies.’
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