Roxon sickened
A SENIOR Government frontbencher says she felt sick when she learnt of a sex scandal engulfing Defence.
Relations between Defence Minister Stephen Smith and the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) are tense following revelations an 18-year-old woman was filmed by webcams having sex with another student.
You need to toughen up Nicola. It’s one thing to back your colleague but quite another to get involved in hyperbowl
I can’t actually see how it’s a ADF scandal. The cadets have been at ADFA for all of ten weeks, are juveniles just coming to grips with hormone surges and are doing what every other similar aged kid is doing or trying to do – have sex.
What is a scandal is Smith’s refusal to support the Commandant of ADFA as he goes through his procedures. The girl in question was up for disciplinary hearings before she went public involving AWOL and alcohol. Smith suggests because this other matter came to the attention of the public, ADF discipline should be shelved.
Doesn’t work that way.
Having sex is not the issue either but the male cadet filming and broadcasting the act is. He simply should be dismissed from ADFA. Not so much for breaking the fraternising rule but for being a cad and bounder.
Gentlemen do not kiss and tell.
Likewise the girl should be removed. She has broken the frat rule, been AWOL and drunk and brought the ADF into disrepute.
In my day any one of these transgressions would result in dismissal.
Her case, and its a good one, is against the Cad and Bounder, not the ADF.
Once she is a civilian she should sue the bastard for all he’s worth.
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I agree with all of the above, I think it is worth pointing out that, had she obeyed the no frat law, the guys would have still remained scumbags, but there would have been no scandal at all, let alone one requiring such a level of ‘Hyperbowl’.
She needs to be charged and turfed and the male directly involved charged and turfed, those indirectly involved need to be asked to show cause why they should remain at ADFA (unless they too broke a law, then charge and depending on the severity, punish as appropriate).
Totally agree, Kev.
Something that is being totally overlooked here is the fact that all the culprits in this sordid business are junior cadets in their early weeks of training and have yet to absorb the military ethos of duty and discipline.
This is not to excuse their behaviour, as we know they would have been introduced to the orders regarding fraternisation and behaviour to their fellow cadets in their first days at the Academy. They knew the orders and chose to ignore them for their own fun. Unacceptable, boys and girls, goodbye, go find another career path that doesn’t involve duty or honour.
ADFA cadets should, quite rightly, be held to very high standards of personal conduct, and none of them displayed any more respect or decency than you might find in a drunken footy club ‘end of season’ outing.
The whole lot of them are unfit to hold a commission in the ADF and should be dismissed forthwith.
The only thing sickening about this incident is the posturing of these “holier than thou” politicians and their attempted scapegoating of senior Defence staff.
“What is a scandal is Smith’s refusal to support the Commandant of ADFA as he goes through his procedures.”
I’m not sure Peter Reith (former Liberal defence minister) agrees.
Here’s a transcript from an interview on this issue on the ABCs 7.30 –
PETER REITH: Look, I’m delighted to hear that he (referring to Minister Smith) was furious. Someone should be furious. This is – not only is it a taxpayer-funded institution, those of us who support Defence and think it’s terribly important to the future want to have a Defence force where women who work in the Defence force can do so securely and without fear and lack of trust, which this one particular incident gives some highlight to. So, you know, Stephen Smith has got my full support and I think he’s absolutely right to be really hot to trot on this issue. We want to see the same from the top echelons of the CDF.
His comments on the military culture are interesting.
Peter Reith, and Tony Abbott for that matter, have both come out in support of Smith. They are both politicians with their own agenda on matters and are most probably playing the ‘pick up some votes’ game.
Myself, I see it from the point of good order and discipline in the military and am sick of the media and ALP politicians beating the ADF with a stick. It happens everywhere, everyday but only if it happens in the ADF is it front page news with associated Ministers castigating the ADF.
Both the kids are wrong and they should be dismissed. She has a case to take him to the cleaners but thats a civil issue, particularly if the police don’t charge the young.
It’s not only the ADF that gets beaten with a stick. Any publicly-funded institution is fair game. If there’s illicit sex involved, it will sell papers and lift ratings. This story has all the necessary ingredients.
Don’t know if Tiger Woods is a publicly funded institution, but you are right, it is all about selling newspapers, ratings, or selling advertising time on T.V. The usual claim of “it’s in the public interest” enables the media to do and say many things that “Joe Blow” would be facing court over.
Well I dunno, I read in 1735099’s favourite fish wrapper that the boss called the AFP as soon as he was aware of the situation.
As for the untimely interview, they reported that she sought legal advice which was to do the interview.
When someone goes to the media with a story I often wonder why the journalists don’t get the other side of the story before rushing before the cameras in a hypobolly, or whatever it’s called.
Pretty simple really, if you get good money to come up with a story for your boss every day or two, why would you seek information that may cause you to shelve what may be “in the public interest”. The law has been framed in such a way that journos/reporters are treated like freckled ducks. They can legally “investigate” and report in ways that you and I would be required to be licenced to do. Generally the media see that exemption as permission to do what they like, as can bee seen by the way they press people when in public and even in private or business areas and submit unbalanced reports that will gain ratings or sell papers. It is a wealthy man with a brave lawyer that will attempt to seek redress in the Court system.