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By Situation Theatre 23/06/2020
It’s a comedy of errors/sex crimes.
Yesterday, a High Court inquiry found former High Court justice Dyson Heydon sexually harassed six young female associates. He was on the panel which awarded Tony Abbott his Rhodes Scholarship, was the legal advisor to Australians for a Constitutional Monarchy when Abbott was in charge, and was appointed by the former PM to head of the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption in 2014.
A few years ago, was at a posh SCG Test cricket lunch seated next to Dyson Heydon.
— Mike Carlton (@MikeCarlton01) June 22, 2020
"You're that left-wing columnist at the SMH," he sniffed.
"And you're the token fascist on the High Court," I replied cheerily. He tried a wintry smile, but there was not much to say after that.
In December 2018, a jury unanimously found George Pell guilty of sexually abusing two 13-year-old choir boys inside St Patrick’s Cathedral. He was sentenced to six years in prison. In April of this year won an appeal in the High Court on a technicality and he has since been released from prison. In May this year findings from Australia’s child abuse Royal Commission found that Pell was aware of abuse by notorious paedophile priest Gerald Risdale and “considered measures of avoiding situations which might provoke gossip about it”. Tony Abbott described Mr Pell as “a very fine man indeed”.
In 2006, investigative journalist Chris Masters used his biography Jonestown to allege inappropriate behaviour by Jones as a teacher at Sydney’s King’s High School in the 1970s. This included actions in the showers which one boy described as “weird and uncomfortable and voyeuristic” along with love letters to students. As Alan Jones retired from radio recently, Abbott called in to describe the “big loss” that he “felt very deeply”.
In May 2003, Peter Hollingworth was forced to resign as Governor-General after an inquiry found that as Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane in the 1990s, he had allowed paedophile priest John Eliot to continue working until retirement, despite Eliot telling him he had sexually assaulted two boys. Around the same time, Hollingworth was forced to deny allegations that he had raped a woman in the 1960s. Regarding his actions with Eliot, Tony Abbott said Hollingworth should not be forced to quit over “a simple error of judgement made in good faith”.
In 1996, Father John Gerard Nestor was charged with indecently assaulting a 15-year-old boy. He was initially convicted and sentenced to 16 months in prison before this was overturned by the Wollongong District Court. Tony Abbott gave a character reference in Nestor’s trial, describing him as “an upright and virtuous man”.
The Australian version of “Friends” will follow Abbott and his five besties as they get up to all manner of crimes and misdemeanours.