May 30, 2003

WHAT DID BEATTIE KNOW?

Bernard Slattery posted this on Sunday morning:

It's no good for Hollingworth to claim that he acted out of concern for the priest's family and parishioners. He has to go because he did not act according to today's standards. OK, if that's what the witch hunters want, let it be. But a little consistency please. And lets' start with Hollingworth's main accuser, Peter Beattie.

The next day Gareth Parker republished an e-mail sent to Slattery alleging that Beattie may have known of pedophile claims against Queensland ALP deputy Bill D'Arcy, to which Parker added a message to Simon Crean:

So now let us see you and the media turn your attention to the premier of Queensland.

And on Wednesday, all hell broke loose:

Pedophile allegations rocked ALP governments in Queensland and NSW yesterday, prompting accusations by Peter Beattie of a smear campaign by the Howard Government as payback for Labor's stand against Peter Hollingworth.

The Queensland Premier was forced to defend claims that in 1997 he protected former state MP Bill D'Arcy - a convicted pedophile - when he knew he was a child abuser.

The question is legitimate. Several journalists have noted in recent years that the activities of D’Arcy and Keith Wright were well known in Queensland, yet most were silent on the subject during Hollingworth’s incineration. Advantage: Slattery and Parker.

Posted by Tim Blair at May 30, 2003 12:52 AM
Comments

Peter Beattie is the only good politician in the labor (Australians can't spell labour) party and I was under the impression that Hollingworth was a labor party supporter??? (wasn't he a Hawke mate?) I remember seeing Hollingworth being praised on "60 minutes" about 10 years ago for helping out homeless people (and for having strong ties to the labor party) ..... seems everyone has forgotten .... I geuss thats why they call it 60 minutes.

Posted by: Jonny at May 30, 2003 at 04:02 AM

Why stop with the ALP? They are no more hypocritical than the church leaders (which must be an oxymoron) sitting quiet as nuns while Hollingworth is hung, drawn and quartered. To be totally parochial, I nominate Cardinal Thomas Williams, Archbishop of Wellington, as the first Catholic prelate to be hounded out of office.

Posted by: Craig Ranapia at May 30, 2003 at 06:19 AM

ALP dug a deep hole for themselves in persecuting Hollingworth.A piece of rot is, Hollingworth was covering up the incident for which the ALP hung him.
One will not go into details so no pack drill, but seems no one considered how extroadinaryily difficult it is to act on cases of child molestation. `By todays' standards', besides the fallacy of anachronism, is so vague as to be meaningless, no guide as to what to do.

The case lobbed onto Hollingworth's lap when Ab. of Brisbane involved an event some years before, further complicating matters.There is no indication Hollingworth was protecting the culprit. Hollingworth only acted on the facts before him. In so far as his response was inadequate,that does not amount to a cover up. He confronted the cleric, and sought to find a solution which would not protect the cleric but serve others .

Wednesday night's 7.30 report, following the televising of Hollingworth's resignation speech, Mottram once again demonstrated her limited intellect, the reason why she is now in deep trouble along with the ABC, in her vacuous comments on his speech. Noetable was this bit,of stupidity: Hollingworth showed no grasp of `the issues surrounding peodaphilia', the vulgar twaddle which stamps the dumbed down mutterings of Australia's pseudo-middle classes.

What Hollingworth had to deal with , no astier matter could have been lobbed on such a gentleman and very apostolic a bishop as Hollingworth is.Certainly wouldn't care to have been in his shoes that day, quite invidious.And thus why have just one more differnce between what Hollingworth faced and what is now emerging of the ALP and, in particular, its NSW and Queensland branches.
Beattie and Carr scream foul but the mud sticks to their fences far more firmly than does that thrown by ALP, some libs, Bob Brown,the Democrats,the ABC and other soddomite media outlets.

Posted by: d at May 30, 2003 at 10:46 AM

Before we all get caught up on the "happened so long ago" bandwagon, let's recall that the Anglican inquiry reported that Hollingworth had been misleading and evasive to it WHILE HE WAS GOVERNOR-GENERAL.

In my book, that alone is sufficient grounds to require his resignation: the GG should simply be beyond reproach on matters of probity and character.

And, without wanting to defend anyone who protected Wright and D'Arcy . . . and I suspect there were many . . . the standards of behaviour that we have a right to expect are clearly different between a GG and a politician: after all, we can vote a politician out.

Posted by: Mork at May 30, 2003 at 12:09 PM

Sorry Jonny, Beattie may be good at being a politician, but he is not "good" per se. Scrutiny shows him to be morally and intellectually bankrupt and a liar. Remember the vote rorts? Sure he didn't know about it. Just a populist prick if you ask me.

Posted by: PJ at May 30, 2003 at 02:38 PM

Beattie claims he didn't know about D'Arcy when most of Queensland did. He claims he didn't know about the ALP voting rorts when most of Queensland did.

So there are two possibilities. He is a liar. Or he is an idiot.

I think we're entitled to know which it is.

Posted by: The Main Event at May 30, 2003 at 05:13 PM