ABC Playing Politics

Last week taxpayer funds were used by their ABC to do a hatchet job on two Liberal Ministers.

Their crime, according to the ABC was one of adultery. It’s the same crime I know is committed by some ABC journalists but they never seem to cover that.

Frankly I don’t care about the personal lives of those involved but I do care about the actions of some of the players.

Firstly, let me be clear no one should be bullied or sexually harassed. We all have a right to feel safe – at work or anywhere else.

But this event has taken on some new dimensions, mostly involving the whistleblowing ‘victim’ Rachelle Miller. She is a married woman with two children who worked for and had an affair with a Liberal Minister.

Ms Miller now wants systemic change to create a new ‘parliamentary culture’

It makes me wonder why Liberal insiders tell me that Ms Miller spent months trying to get a new job within the very system she now condemns.

There were no takers, so last Thursday she lodged a 14 page workplace bullying claim against two of her former employers.

Here is a bit of background.

Ms Miller left Minister Alan Tudge’s office after accepting a promotion with Minster Michaelia Cash. This was signed off by PM Turnbull’s office at the time.

According to Miller,  Cash was ‘supportive and kind’ when she confided in her about having an affair with Tudge.

But things took a turn for the worse as Miller’s superiors complained that her private life had spiralled out of control. If that were the case, it’s not that unusual

When a  spouse finds out about their partner’s infidelity it generally leads to distrust, anger, family disruption and a lot of emotional pain.

Sometimes that distress impacts your work capacity which would explain why the Cash CoS discussed with Miller how her ‘personal issues were impacting on her work performance’.

At the time, Cash had a super portfolio after being given an additional department and administrative team.

A super portfolio requires super performance from everyone and Cash claims she offered continuing work support to Miller

Ms. Miller was made redundant some-time later due to an office restructure.

This process is always undertaken by the Department of Finance to ensure it complies with every required legal standard. I know exactly how it works because unfortunately, I had to make those calls myself when I was a Senator.

Ten days ago, and two years after these events took place, Miller lodged a claim for compensation, in excess of what she received as a redundancy payment, with the Department of Finance.

In her statement of claim, Miller says she was humiliated because her first boss (Tudge)  could be ‘charming and caring one day’ and 'belittling' the next. Miller claims he even subjected her to criticism about her work.

Wow! Breaking news: A boss critiquing an employees work…whatever next

Well, Miller now alleges that things were no better at her next gig where, despite acknowledging the support offered,  she now claims to be victimised when the CoS questioned her performance.

Do you see a pattern here…discussing concerns about an employee’s work performance is tantamount to bulling or as Miller says in her claim “gaslighting”.

What the heck is gaslighting? Well I didn’t know what that was so I looked it up.

Gaslighting is a tactic in which a person or entity, in order to gain more power, makes a victim question their reality….It is a common technique of abusers, dictators, narcissists, and cult leaders.

This was dutifully reported by the ABCs Andrew Probyn who even rushed to name the alleged gaslighter…remember that’s the person whose job it was to performance manage Miller.

Such was his enthusiasm, Probyn didn’t even bother to contact the former Chief of Staff to seek a response. He simply rushed to publication, naming her and in doing so, effectively labelling her as an abuser and a dangerous phycological manipulator.

As well as incredibly shoddy journalism, it’s a clear case of defamation which is probably why they took her name out of the piece later. But it is too late after the event. The damage had already been done to another innocent victim of the ABCs loathing of conservatives.

It wasn’t long before the anti-conservative newspaper known as the SMH, was also off the mark.  Journalist David Crowe contacted Minister Cash, asking her to respond to the allegations before the Minister knew they even existed.

Given Crow and the ABC clearly have all or part of  Ms Miller’s complaint before the  people involved knew anything, it begs the question:  why is a normally confidential and sensitive process, drip fed through the media to be played out to inflict maximum damage.

After all, these are merely allegations which are sure to be strongly contested.

The ABCs hatchet job of last week has been given another burst of life because an adult who had an extramarital affair has suddenly realised that “the impacts on my marriage and my family, as well as our financial situation, have been extensive and shattering”

Who could have guessed that might be the case?

Only everyone who has been caught being unfaithful, or is married to a cheat, or has employed or knows someone whose marriage is under pressure due to cheating.

The personal damage infidelity can do is hardly a secret .

Again, I cast no moral judgements but I can always spot the tell-tale signs of self-serving BS.

One of them is when the media campaign supporting a demand for compensation is launched more than two years after the event and is more carefully thought through than the decisions that led to the unravelling in the first place.

The ABC started this unedifying media farce and has clearly sought to maximise the pain for all involved.

This was simply a hit job on a government whose political stripes are not sufficiently woke for the collectivists at the public broadcaster.

Remember, we all pay for this garbage but the benefits seemingly only go to a relative few.