The stitch-up of the Australian Federal Police

2

By Adam Piggott

Step one in how to compromise and subvert a public organization such as the Australian Federal Police – announce a study entitled, “Cultural Change: Gender Diversity and Inclusion in the Australian Federal Police”. Step two in the subversion process – appoint a feminist harridan such as former sex discrimination commissioner Elizabeth Broderick. Step three – make sure that the head of the organization is a scheming, duplicitous toad like Commissioner Andrew Colvin. Step four – profit.

An "alpha male" looking for someone to sexually harrass.
An “alpha male” looking for someone to sexually harass.

In The Australian newspaper on Tuesday, with the revealing title of, “‘Alpha male’ cop culture exposes AFP women to rape, bullying,” comes just such a report. On the face of it, you would think that working in such an environment would be nothing short of horrifying. Workers routinely face “sexual harassment” and “bullying”. It is an “alpha male culture” and women who work there are “now numb to the sexual harassment”. There were “numerous complaints” that staff members were “routinely reduced to tears”.

In the face of these “damning allegations” the AFP, under the stern eye of Colvin, who was “sickened” by the “appalling and criminal behaviour” declared that bullying and sexual harassment in the 37-year-old organisation “stops now”.

It’s too bad for them that we’ve heard this all before. Numerous times, in fact. It’s just getting a bit old. Maybe they need to come up with an alternative headline to jolt the lethargic general public into some sort of a response. I don’t know, something like: “Major investigation into Federal Organization finds no evidence of sexual harassment!” That would get the tongues wagging.

Elizabeth Broderick has form in these sorts of matters. She conducted a remarkably similar investigation into the Australian Defence Force:

“Ms Broderick, who led a sweeping review into the treatment of women in the Australian Defence Force, said her time spent interviewing and surveying police officers had uncovered common themes found in the military.”

Of course, the reason that she found such common themes was because she undoubtedly went in with a clear intention to find as such. These investigations always proceed along the lines of finding evidence to support their pre-established conclusions. They decide beforehand what outcome they want, which in this case was “lots of sexual harassment and obviously we need to blame it all on the men.” Then they go in and cherry-pick as much scuttlebutt as possible. I can’t possibly use the word “evidence” to describe what they find. Sources are never named for obvious reasons. They may as well just have made it all up and saved the taxpayer a bunch of cash, as they were always going to deliver this outcome. If you pull in some bint like Broderick then you know what you’re going to get, and it ain’t pretty.

The report also completely misses the mark on what it pertains to have uncovered. Instead of laying the blame squarely at the internal leadership for such apparent failings, we have the all too convenient labelling and attack against those sinister “alpha males,” who lurk in the corridors like devious minotaurs in a bureaucratic maze. Because what they’re after is a clean-out of the old guard, in other words, anybody who has to this point resisted the co-opting of the organization by the social justice warriors already in their midst.

Commissioner Colvin, who at this stage will most likely be the next Australian of the Year, had this to say:

“The report has exposed ­pockets of behaviour that I can only describe as criminal … All of this ends today,” Mr Colvin said. “The report makes it very clear that it is (a boys’ club) and it’s incumbent on all of us, particularly those in senior management … to stop, pause, and to reflect and to go ‘where in my career could I have done better?’ … The public will be shocked at these findings. I don’t think it says we’re not a good organisation … because we are … but what I think it says is we’ve taken our eye off the ball and we haven’t focused as much as we should on our organisational health.”

Unsurprisingly, he has adopted all 24 of the reports recommendations (no prizes for guessing what they entail), and “has moved to establish an independent office to support victims and investigate sexual harassment and abuse claims, and said the culture must change from the top down.”

So far it’s all going to the script. But for me the most hilarious part was this:

“It sickens me that there may be people in my organisation who have been the perpetrators of these (crimes),” Mr Colvin told Sky News last night.

“What we’re asking now is for those members to trust the organisation. I understand that’s a big leap because the report’s quite clear that they don’t necessarily trust the process — I want them to come forward (with their complaints) so that they can.”

It’s one thing to crap all over your most effective male staff with this sort of investigation. It’s another thing entirely to then parrot the lie of trusting the very organization which is now out to string up some of its own staff on trumped-up accusations. This is classic SJW projection. Far from engendering trust, everyone will now be looking over their shoulder trying to figure out where the Stalin-like whisper will come from. And the very best and most valuable staff members will likely not hang around for the inevitable internal humiliation, and just pack up and leave.

Which is exactly what they intended from the outset. Rejoice, Federal criminals. The AFP is about to be reduced to the general effectiveness of the ADF.

Adam Piggott blogs at https://pushingrubberdownhill.com/

Photo by DFAT photo library