Using rape as a weapon

is abhorrent but using it as a political weapon is doubly abhorrent. 

If what is being currently said in the very nasty defamation trial between a current Senator and her former staffer is correct then we all need to be appalled. The Senator is now suggesting it was one of the factors which led to the death of another Senator. 

The Senator died of a heart attack on the side of the road. It might of course happen to anyone but it is well known that she was under a great deal of stress at the time...from colleagues on her side of the house. She allegedly chose to pass on allegations of a rape or a possible rape being covered up to the police rather than her colleagues. If that is correct then she did the right thing. 

Politics is a nasty business at the best of times. There are very few politicians who have not been guilty of deliberately undermining others, even those on their own side. They will do it if they can see it as another step on the ladder to the top. It might be possible if you are an "independent".

There was an independent senator in another state who seemed able to actually do his job without putting his values to one side. There was a local independent member here who also did the same. I knew him and I liked him. He took the train along with the rest of us. (He considered it an opportunity to talk to people or for them to talk to him.) Neither man would have countenanced what is currently going on. 

I have no doubt at all that the additional stress contributed to the death of the senator mentioned in yesterday's court proceedings. It is clear she was unhappy before that. She was not part of the little clique headed by a senator for whom I have little time. It would have made life in federal politics very difficult. Taking an anonymous letter of a rape allegation to the police would have been difficult. To do this without informing your colleagues is surely an indication that she knew it would be used as a "weapon" against the Opposition? If all this is true then it is something which should never have been done. It was a major issue at the time, one which almost certainly cost the Opposition the election.

Those responsible for the mess no doubt take the view that all is fair in love and war but I wonder if they have considered they are using an alleged rape victim to do all this? Was it really "juror misconduct" which aborted the trial - or was that deliberate? At very least it was convenient. 

We may never know what really happened but it is clear that, for some, it has been a weapon. Rape is so abhorrent that it should not be used that way - and allegations about it should not be used as a weapon of electoral war.