More names mentioned

At short notice, David Morrison, the reclusive Australian of the Year, has pulled out of giving a long-planned speech to the National Press Club next week. There is a feminist march to purge all our institutions of masculinity, from the military to universities. The former chief of Army is running scared as his past catches up with him. A leaked police report now shows Morrison was aware of the “Jedi Council” pornography scandal for 10 months before he made the thundering YouTube speech in 2013, which brought him worldwide acclaim and a lucrative career as a “diversity” champion. His YouTube histrionics accompanied a vicious witch-hunt of male soldiers with even the most peripheral involvement with emails containing inappropriate sexual images from defence contractor Hastings Fredrickson. Fredrickson used to email the “travel diaries [of] the Wolf of Woolloomooloo” describing his sexual exploits, real or imagined, to a group of former Army acquaintances, whom he once angrily labelled the “Jedi Council”, because they were sceptical about his tales. He came to the attention of police after he filmed himself having sex with a woman and emailed screenshots to the Jedi Council group, without her consent. Fredrickson’s employer Thales sacked him in 2012, after the emails were found on his work computer, and he was convicted of using a carriage service to cause offence. None of the serving Army personnel were involved. Morrison claims he only found out about the scandal in April, 2013, but the report by Kings Cross Detective Sergeant Mark Carter concludes this is, “patently false or deliberately misleading ... “It is clear that on the evidence of [Morrison’s then military adviser] Lt Colonel John Fenwick and [Morrison’s deputy chief of staff] Colonel Leigh Wilton, the Chief of Army was notified on approximately 1 August, 2012, and this was recorded in the daily summary.” The police report is the last piece of the Jedi Council puzzle, which suggests that Morrison sacrificed innocent officers such as Lieutenant-colonel Karel Dubsky, 44, to save his own skin and to enhance his reputation as a feminist change agent. It was the Gillard era, the first misogyny-obsessed Prime Ministership, and a new defence minister, Stephen Smith, was keen to curry favour by railing against the Army’s “hypermasculine” culture. Smith opened combat roles to women and created a climate of fear among the top military brass. It was clear he “had no respect for those who chose to serve in uniform for their country”, as retired major-general John Cantwell put it. Along came the 2011 ADFA scandal, in which a cadet filmed himself having consensual sex with another cadet and broadcast it via Skype without her knowledge. It was the perfect opportunity for Smith to “bring the military to heel”, as another former general tells me. At great expense, Smith appointed former Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick to conduct six reviews to change the ADF’s attitude to women. As soon as Broderick came on board, Morrison, a dark horse candidate for Chief of Army, appointed by Smith, became consumed by her demands. Morrison had seen Smith’s appallingly unjust treatment of ADFA boss, Commodore Bruce Kafer, after the Skype scandal broke. Yet here he was, sitting on the Jedi Council scandal for almost a year before acting. He had “failed to be aware” of a sex scandal bigger than Skype. His career must have flashed before his eyes. No wonder he overcompensated with YouTube histrionics and excessive punishment of any soldier associated with Jedi Council, even if they never even opened an offending email. Under the tutelage of his new BFF, Broderick, Morrison suddenly was reborn as a feminist change agent. He trashed Australia’s proud military history with false accusations of systemic misogyny and sexism at a time when the ADF members are already under enormous mental stress after continuous deployments for 15 years. Broderick and her all-female team at her private company Broderick & Co, is now working her magic on the Australian Federal Police. University of Sydney Michael Spence has just sicked her on to the university’s colleges which have been deemed too blokeish. Only St Paul’s College has held out, and good for them. At the AFP, just as she did with the Army, Broderick produced a “shocking” report claiming “pervasive” sexual harassment, bullying and under-representation of women, especially in frontline roles. One complaint highlighted was from a woman who said if she had known about shift work, she would not have joined the police force because she wanted to start a family. The AFP is at the frontline of counter-terror operations so such snowflake sensibilities are hardly conducive to national security. But lo and behold, no sooner had Broderick completed her report in August, than his partner in diversity, Morrison popped up to offer his services to the AFP. He has been charging a whopping $15,000 per speech, and $200,000 for 25 days work a year as a “diversity adviser” for Deloitte Australia. We don’t know if Morrison will offer his services to Sydney University, but Broderick is charging the six colleges half a million dollars to conduct the diversity review of their “culture”. A university spokesperson last night confirmed the fee was $83,500 per college, “with the University picking up the remainder of the costs”. The vice-chancellor Michael Spence is concerned about damage to the university’s reputation from media beat-ups about the colleges which are portrayed as bastions of male privilege, even though most are co-ed. But there is no evidence that behaviour at colleges is any worse than behaviour at other less salubrious university residential establishments. What is the duty of care of the colleges participating in Broderick’s reviews? Are students expected to answer loaded questions, without legal representation, and without understanding the underlying agenda. Parents of students at the colleges being reviewed should not allow their sons and daughters to participate in what is only going to be another exercise in politically correct social engineering.