Talking with Georgie about the horrible crime committed against Brittany Higgins.

I hope Brittany finds some justice, somehow.

Here's the thing: nothing that matters will change.

A thread:

Two side notes:
* Content warning for trauma and sexual assault
* I initially drafted this and was going to delete it because it's too cynical and very bleak, but it's also the truth and Georgie asked me to be brave and post it.

A Royal Commission has changed nothing.
Paris Street's revelation about St Kevin's changed nothing.
Grace Tame's bravery has changed nothing.
The Pell case has changed nothing.
The Wilson case has changed nothing.
The Redress Scheme has changed nothing.

Georgie burning two careers to jail a serial child rapist has changed nothing.
The National Apology has changed nothing.
The hundreds, if not thousands, of people who report sexual assaults each year have changed nothing.

Because the rules don't apply to the people at the top.

If you're at the top, it doesn't really matter if you're a politician, a political staffer, a journalist, a senior police officer, an ADF officer, a bishop, a business tycoon, or anything else.
If you're in the club, you're in the club.

And the club has one overarching rule: we don't rat each other out.
You can disagree about politics, economics, football clubs, religion, or anything else.
But you never rat out another club member.

Occasionally the evidence is too clear and someone has to go under a bus, because they were just too careless and lacked discretion. They pushed too hard, they were too obvious about what they were doing, and a Court does its job.

Then the club all act surprised and shocked.

But nobody else in the club ever knew what was happening, never heard the stories, never saw the closed doors, never noticed the women who unexpectedly quit their dream jobs, because he (or she) just isn't like that! And we would have said something if we'd known!

Only they all know. Everyone working at Parliament House knows who's safe to be alone with and who's to be avoided.

Everyone at the diocesan office knows which priests are normal and which can't be trusted around kids.

Same thing at the universities. Same at the best schools.

This sounds impossible, right?
Georgie was raped multiple times in Canberra.

People in the club - bishops, a Press Gallery journo, elite music teachers - knew. They looked the other way, because he was an important musician doing great work.

And he was firmly in the club.

We know these people knew, because we have the letters talking about him - they were used at his trial.

We have emails from some of these people admitting what they knew, but saying "it was a different time" and "you don't understand how important he was in our community".

Because when you're at the top, the rules don't apply to you.

And everyone at the top knows it.

And that rule won't change. Ever.