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May 24, 2003
Little needs to be said
The Governor General should go. He may want to stay in the office; he may see himself as being crucified by public opinion (ie., the mob baying for his blood), and see himself as denied natural justice by the Anglican Church inquiry that criticised his actions in dealing with a previous pedophile scandal and found that found his actions were "untenable" in allowing a known pedophile to continue as a priest.
Christopher Pearson, writing in the Weeked Australian ('Last sex taboo turns sacred', 24 05 2003, p. 18, no link) may dismsss most of this as:
"Sex with minors and adults, especially clergy, has become as national obsession and generated a lot of cant and hypocrisy."
The political reality is that Hollingworth's public reputation is in tatters. He no longer unifies the nation.
He should walk into the night by himself, allow himself to be swallowed up in darkness, do the honourable thing and fall on his sword.
Let the darkness envelop him in his solitude. Nothing more needs to be said.
Addition
There is a good article on Hollingworth by Michelle Gratten here
The Governor-General has resigned
Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at May 24, 2003 08:23 PM
Comments
Agreed. I must admit to a certain form of sympathy for Hollingworth, in that he won't have his day in the sun now, and stands to be painted into history as another of those bureaucratic failures who should never have taken the chair in the first place. More a victim of his own ineptness & incapacity to handle responsibility as a victim of public opinion.
Posted by: Niall at May 24, 2003 11:03 PM
I disagree. The issue should not be left to die. He was Howard's appointment. By his support of Hollingworth after the charges became known and by covering up the rape allegations for 5 months, Howard is guilty of endangering the Australian democracy and the powers and role of the Executive. He should be hounded until he resigns.
Pigs might fly too.
Posted by: robv at May 25, 2003 02:48 PM
Well it would seem that Howard has taken responsibility for his mistake --judging by the 7.30 Report interview on Monday night.
A rare event for Howard to admit that he has made a mistake. All carefully qualified of course.
But it looks as if that's the best you will get.
Posted by: Gary Sauer-Thompson at May 27, 2003 08:57 AM
Another misrepresentation of the facts, astonishing!
"covering up the rape allegations for 5 months". Excuse me? These allegations were the subject of a supression order sought by Hollingworth's accuser. How is this Howard's fault?
Posted by: Gareth at May 27, 2003 11:08 AM
I concur Gareth.There should be a big separation between Howard and Hollingworth: between PM and GG.
For the record I thought that Howard showed a lot of courage in appointing Hollingworth, given his background as a public figure fighting for the poor and being a critic of the government
Its a tragedy. I have a bit of a go attrying to work out why over at junk for code
Posted by: Gary Sauer-Thompson at May 27, 2003 11:56 AM