For Scott so loved the women's safety...

New leaked internal polling from the Liberal Party shows that just 38% of its voters are now women. The numbers mark a crisis for the Prime Minister and Saturday’s election, but for most women, they don’t come as a surprise. 

 In 2018, when he was still a newly minted Prime Minister, Scott Morrison offered an apology to victims of institutional child sexual abuse, telling us, “I believe you, we believe you, your country believes you.” 

 Following his swearing-in, he declared that as the new generation of Liberal leadership, “we’re on your side.” 

 For me, that’s hard to believe. His actions, or lack thereof, over my own allegations of sexual abuse have proved that when push comes to shove and he has the opportunity to show his support for victims in actions, rather than through hollow statements and well-worded sentiments, Scott is a man who loves to talk, but loves to shirk responsibility even more, as if his morality is just another thing to be outsourced to third party contractors.

 It’s been 32 years since I was sexually assaulted. My assailants were members of the church I attended as a child. 

 Despite the pastor learning of my allegations almost immediately after they occurred, there is yet to be adequate resolution or acknowledgement of responsibility from the church. Instead, I have spent the past three decades being thwarted every step of the way. 

 Anybody who has experienced sexual assault understands how hard it is to put into words the lasting impact this experience has had and still has on every facet of my life. Some days are good, some days are bad, some days are worse than bad, and sometimes, on the rarest of days, you get a reprieve and don’t think about it at all. In recent weeks, though, the decades of the pastor’s inaction have been constantly on my mind. 

 Scott has known my family for over half of his life. My older brother, Tim Stewart, is one of his oldest friends. Tim’s wife Lynelle, was an employee of Prime Minister & Cabinet until late 2020. Jenny was maid of honour at Tim and Lynelle’s wedding and enjoyed a few spins around the dancefloor with my other brother. Over the years they’ve stayed in touch, with Tim, Lynelle and the pastor’s family being part of the, now infamous, holiday in Hawaii in 2019. 

 Scott and Jenny began attending the same eastern suburbs Baptist church as my family back in the early 1990s. Eventually, Scott joined the leadership team, becoming an elder and giving the occasional Sunday sermon, no doubt honing speaking skills he’d later take with him to Canberra. 

 It’s impossible to know what he knew, if anything, at that time about the abuse I experienced. It took place well before he and Tim were friends and before he and Jenny became members of the church. 

 What I do know, though, is that without doubt Scott  has known the extent of my allegations since June 2021. This is when I first went public with my allegations, and my parents and I spoke to the ABC’s Four Corners program about my brother Tim’s growing involvement in the QAnon movement, and his proximity to the Morrison family. 

 As part of those interviews, I spoke of what happened to me all of those years ago at the hands of fellow congregants. 

 If the Royal Commission has shown us anything, it’s that churches like to keep secrets. I choose to believe Scott didn’t know of my abuse when he was an elder at the church, and that had he been aware of what Tim and my parents have always known to be true, he would have done something back then. 

 While, finally in 2018, the pastor of the church admitted a serious crime was committed against me, he still fails to accept responsibility for not having reported the matter to the police and, by extension, failing to meet the law’s mandatory reporting requirements. Even now, he remains unwilling to confront the full reality of the situation or support my search for justice. 

 By the time we head to the ballot boxes on Saturday, it will have been a year since Scott learned about what happened to me all those years ago and the impact that powerful men like himself turning a blind eye has had on my life, and the life of every other victim, every day since. 

 It will be almost 18 months since the allegations of former parliamentary staffer Brittany Higgins were made public and Scott told us all that Jenny had encouraged him to imagine one of their daughters was at the heart of the allegations. What about the little sister of your best mate? How should you think about it then? Sure, it’s good to pin a sexual assault awareness ribbon to your lapel, but victims want, need and deserve much more than that. 

 Saturday will also mark two months since Brian Houston, who is facing criminal charges over allegations he concealed his father’s sexual abuse, stood down from his position as leader of another powerful church. Just like the pastor from my family’s church, Brian too was once a close friend of Scott’s. 

 During an election campaign debate, while discussing former parliamentary staffer Rachelle Miller’s allegations against cabinet minister Alan Tudge, Scott said he believed that “all serious allegations should be investigated.” 

 To the best of my knowledge, Scott still hasn’t picked up the phone to have a frank conversation and ask the hard questions to the pastor we both know so well. If he really believes that all serious allegations should be investigated, though, why is that? 

 I imagine it’s for the same reasons that he didn’t think to invite Brittany Higgins to the parliament’s formal apology to victims of sexual harassment, sexual assault, and bullying. Or why he still fails to mention that Tim, Lynelle and the pastor’s family were all a part of his ‘last-minute surprise trip’ to Hawaii. Or why Christian Porter was allowed to accept almost $1 million from anonymous donors to cover his legal fees in a battle against the ABC, why Alan Tudge has stayed on as the Education Minister, and why Andrew Laming has been allowed to keep his job and continue to draw a six-figure salary from taxpayers even after admitting to bullying women. 

 Either Scott believes us, as he said he does in 2018 but doesn’t care enough to do anything about it or he’s been paying lip service to taking action. The problem for him now is that we are doing something about it. And unfortunately for him, victims - many of whom are women - outnumber even the most adept members of his spin team.  

 The culture of an organisation is shaped from their leaders’ behaviour. As a sexual abuse survivor, I refuse to remain silent when a man or his party protects and enables abusers, and won’t hold people to account. Scott may be surprised by how many other people feel exactly the same way come election day.