Remembering Kate

Kate Thornton, the woman at the centre of the allegations against Christian Porter, Australia's former Attorney General, was my friend and colleague for over ten years. I thought I should write something about her because much of what the press has been doing to her is, in my view, unethical, extraordinarily stupid and largely speculative. For instance, they have written that she only came up with the 'fantasy' of having being raped two years ago, after the 'false memory' or 'delusion' of her rape was 'recovered' by some shady psychotherapist. This is victim blaming by any name - a sadly typical response to rape amongst many men, especially those who have never been forced to question their entitlement, or who have suffered no violent injury themselves.

Kate was certainly never 'delusional' when I worked with her, and it seems to me that it was only after she had decided to go to the police that her mental state began to deteriorate, leading eventually to her tragic death. The woman I knew as a friend and colleague was an intelligent, witty, widely-read, articulate and supremely practical person, a 'doer' as well as a thinker. She was a generous friend and colleague to myself and many others, and a much-in-demand researcher in the small research centre where we both worked. A gifted historian, and probably the best editor I have ever worked with, she was also a skilful collaborator, producing papers, chapters and articles with others, as well as at least one very good book herself. I remember her as a woman well suited to academic life, who would have achieved much more if circumstance, and her deteriorating health, had permitted.

After the news finally broke that it was Christian Porter who was the subject of her allegation of rape, many of her other friends stepped forward to recall what she was like as a person, and some to bravely counter the attempts by Porter's friends in the press to traduce her memory for cynical political purposes. I confess I was particularly offended by one piece in The Australian that concluded from her private diaries (selectively quoted) that she was 'delusional'. This was especially offensive since the writer did not disclose he was a friend of Porter's, a new low even for our daily broadsheet.

I guess I am one of her many friends who cannot bring myself to doubt Kate's story. She first told me about her early and traumatic rape over two years ago, some months before she went to the police. All I remember is that she had returned to Adelaide for a short visit from Melbourne where she was then working, and had asked me out for a coffee. I think she wanted to sound me out about her plans to go public with her story, inevitably a momentous decision. I confess I was really worried for her, and the impact it would have on her health and wellbeing, a concern that has been amply justified over the last the last six months, and especially over the last few weeks.

Unfortunately, Kate’s story will never provide sufficient evidence for a case to proceed against Porter, and even if she was alive today, it would be unlikely to succeed. The 'Law is open to all, just like the Ritz' as Oscar Wilde (one of Kate's own faviourites) might have added. Only a small proportion of those now charged with rape end up in jail, at the end of what can be an excruciatingly lengthy and harrowing legal process for the victim. In fact, you are now more likely to win big at the races than survive, financially and emotionally, the lengthy process it takes to get even a serial rapist identified, charged and sentenced. Of the three people I have known over the course of my life who have been raped, only one was successful in getting their attacker charged, and this was because: he happened to be already wanted by the police for murder..

A new approach is desperately needed. to protect women against rape and the ease with which so many men get away with it. The most obvious way to proceed would be to reduce the burden of proof for such a serious, life-shattering crime, an option the government, if it could focus on the problem at all, would no doubt reject in deference to their bully-boy mates in the right-wing media. So while these same men are happy to lower the burden of proof for terrorism (especially 'Islamist' terrorism), they are unable to do this to protect Australia's women, who some senior government ministers and their friends seem to believe are 'responsible' for their own safety, regardless of the circumstances, and regardless of the attitudes and behaviour of their attackers. This reminds me of the good old days when drunks on the road were not held accountable for crashes because they had been drinking.

Like Kate’s many friends I have no reason to doubt her story. And like a number of prominent lawyers, a formal inquiry would be the logical response, if this government was capable of any leadership in this domain. Unfortunately, Porter is himself mired in the storm, and has chosen to go to a defamation trial, a stupid blindly self-serving strategy, which will result in yet another media spectacle instead of any substantive change to a culture that consigns over 200,000 Australians to being raped every year, most of them without legal redress. But this is clearly the last thing on the mind of a man who is said to have been one of the 'Big Swinging Dicks' of this disastrous Coalition government.

In sum, the way Kate’s story is being manhandled in the media tells us more about the culture we need to change than about Kate herself or the crime she tried to report, or her tragic death. It also tells us something about the thread now connecting Brittany Higgins and last year’s other (estimated) 200,000 victims of sexual assault, the recent record-setting march on parliaments across the country, and the gut reaction of many other voters, including myself, who are totally sick of the awful behaviour of some powerful, or 'wanna-be' powerful, stupid men and their media cronies.