Ghoul in the Mirror: Peter Hollingworth looks in, John Howard stares back
Harold Hark
10 May 2003

There is no better reflection of how low this country has sunk under John Howard's unethical leadership than the shoddy descent of Peter Hollingworth into infamy.

Forget comparisons with Hollingworth's predecessor William Deane, who managed to uplift the nation every time he spoke. That was in the pre-Howard era, when ethics, respect for the fair go, and nation building were still at least a small part of Australia's ethos.

We are nothing now, and Peter Hollingworth as Archbishop-General represents that nothingness better than John Howard could ever have hoped.

Here is what people are saying, both commentators and letter writers to the dailies:

Peter Hollingworth did no more than put what he thought was his own and his group's self interest ahead of principle or the wider community. A conservative country like Australia should be proud of him.
John Hayward

It must be universally recognised by now that [Hollingworth] is a disaster -- inarticulate, unimaginative, politically inept, totally uninspiring.
A. B. Shand, QC

The very qualities that led to the G-G's troubles -- conservative, old fashioned, socially ambitious, undemonstrative, a desire to avoid conflict at all costs, a real company man -- are the very same qualities that attracted John Howard to him in the first place.
Peter Cain

I wish to be considered for the position of governor-general the next time you have a vacancy. I have always wanted a job which has no accountability to the public, a couple of houses rent free, lots of servants and underlings, great pay, I can't be sued, I get to take the missus on heaps of overseas travel, my supervisor lives in England and, on the rare occasions when she does visit her Australian branch office, I have to go into hiding and I still get paid.

I believe I have all the necessary qualifications. I can use scissors to cut ribbon, I can open curtains, I can mumble through speeches and if a TV camera is pointed in my direction I can look like a stunned mullet. I look forward to agreeing with anything you have to say at an interview.
Stephen Mead

God and John Howard hold the key to the Governor-General's future. In between dining with High Court judges and speaking to groups of schoolchildren visiting Yarralumla, Peter Hollingworth is examining his conscience before God.

He told close friends yesterday he was being subjected to "illegitimate pressure" as talkback radio switchboards continued to jam with public debate, opinion polls measured his falling support and media outlets canvassed caucus and ministerial verdicts.

The outcry reminded the Governor-General of the gospel's description of the trial of Jesus before Pontius Pilate and the crowd's insistence that Jesus be killed.

Pilate asked them: "What evil has he done?" The Bible tells of the multitude pressing forward. "They were instant with loud voices requiring that he might be crucified."

The Governor-General's supporters say Dr Hollingworth is now relying on a spiritual lead or a sign from Mr Howard to guide him.
Kate Legge, The Australian

So Dr Hollingworth compares himself with Jesus Christ. More like Pontius Pilate, washing his hands.
Veecee Woodward

...a close examination of the Brisbane report reveals that the bald fact of allowing the priest to remain in office is only part of the problem. It can be construed from the report that Hollingworth allowed him to stay to protect the priest's financial interests and to safeguard the church's reputation.

Hollingworth's refusal to remove Elliot from Dalby parish in 1993 was also motivated by a desire to protect the church from adverse publicity. A "sudden termination" would have caused "unwarranted concern" in the parish and been "very difficult to explain publicly", Hollingworth's lawyers told the inquiry.

Even when the original abuse was raised by the diocesan insurers in 1999, Hollingworth allowed Elliot to continue in public ministry, again out of compassion for the abuser. He even told Elliot he was concerned about putting him in danger of "further risk of exposure and complaint", but he appreciated "the difficult state" of his family finances. He urged him to keep a low profile, because of the "potential for legal action on the part of the aggrieved individuals, some of whom may feel it is now open season to do so". Hollingworth thanked Elliot for his "happy and fulfilling" locum work: "I am sure it was valued by all," he wrote. In return, Elliot thanked him for his "understanding and thoughtfulness".
Muriel Porter, The Age, Hollingworth: the true scandal

Just when it seemed the pressure on Peter Hollingworth could not be more excruciating, the Governor-General's nightmare has taken a dark, dangerous and profoundly tragic twist.

It is a measure of the siege of Yarralumla that, rather than face the media, the Governor-General issued a video statement to deny the inexplicable allegation that he raped a young woman about 40 years ago.

The image in that video was more revealing than the comprehensive and (on face value) compelling plea that Hollingworth had not committed a sexual assault. Not 40 years ago. Not ever.

Pale, shell-shocked, solemn and seemingly uncomprehending of how things had come to this, Hollingworth emphatically denied that he had "ever raped or in any way sexually assaulted any person".

It was a bizarre, almost surreal and monumentally sad moment in the vice-regal history of the nation.
Michael Gordon, The Age, A nightmare goes from bad to worse

For a man comforting a sick wife and carrying the opprobrium of the nation on his shoulders, this was a truly remarkable performance. Peter Hollingworth's televised rape denial ran exactly five minutes and 17 seconds. About 2pm yesterday, after a hired TV crew spent several hours preparing for a once unthinkable broadcast, the Governor-General sat in a chair in one of the chancellery rooms that make up the administrative wing at Yarralumla.

Given the gravity and history of the words passing across the autocue, Dr Hollingworth might have been forgiven nerves and the odd stumble. Yet he completed the long and at times complex public denial in a single take.

"He didn't stumble at all," The Australian was told last night. "Indeed, he seemed remarkably relaxed."

The audacious public relations strategy ­ even by recent British standards, a head of state denying rape charges on television almost beggars belief ­ was orchestrated yesterday morning when Andrew Reynolds drove into Government House.

Reynolds, who hawks himself as a "strategic and crisis and issues management specialist", was beginning a two-week stint in the employ of Dr Hollingworth.
Matt Price, The Australian, A remarkable delivery of the unthinkable

John Howard must be dismayed at the nightmare he created with Dr Hollingworth's appointment.
Paul Kelly, The Australian, It gets worse every day

One can understand why the Prime Minister holds the Governor-General in high esteem. Howard, presumably due to homophobia, allows Justice Kirby to be vexatiously attacked by Senator Heffernan because it is politically advantageous. Hollingworth, apparently informed by sexism, attempts to blame a 14-year-old girl for a sexual relationship with a much older priest.

Howard claims that none of his subordinates told him of the falsity of the claims that children were thrown overboard. Hollingworth claims he knew nothing of the mishandling of sexual abuse investigation in a preparatory school he was responsible for.

Howard says he has no responsibility for the misinformation propagated during the Tampa affair. Hollingworth claims that he had only "titular" responsibility for the decisions he made. Howard rewards (and exports) the minister who dismisses and attacks the warnings that no children had been thrown overboard. Hollingworth promotes the headmaster who dismisses and attacks the claims of children that they were being abused by a school counsellor.

Neither of these gentlemen seem attached to issues of justice when it interferes with personal political ambition. Both of them seem used to the comforts of privilege and hierarchy. And now Howard has been compared to Superman while Hollingworth compares himself to Jesus. May the god-construct preserve them both.
Paul Cadzow

Michael Gordon captured the tawdry saga best, when he called it "surreal". Many are now saying that the rape allegation muddies the water to the point where Hollingworth cannot now resign over previous allegations or he will be giving credence to the latest accusation, which can never be proved because the accuser, Annie Jarmyn, committed suicide last month.

This amounts to a domestic crisis of colossal proportions.

Surely the scandal over Peter Hollingworth will go down as the worst of the countless calamities to befall the worst government in Australian history.

With the cunning of a used car salesman, John Howard thought he was hiring a yes man. He got that, but he got a lot more. (Or less, depending on your view.) Instead, Peter Hollingworth provided the living symbol of Howard's unscrupulous government. Hollingworth represents that which the Howard Government--and all ultra-conservative bodies, for that matter--stands for: a craven disregard for the people it serves, bordering on the downright inhumane.

It is significant that Hollingworth's supporters are, like him, men and women whose qualifications as scheming ideologues would normally preclude their participation in a responsible government: Tony Abbott, whose only goal is to make the life of the working class unbearable; David Flint, the supercilious toff who consented to be interviewed by John Laws while simultaneously conducting the Cash for Comment inquiry into Laws' shady deals; blinkered Monarchist Kerry Jones, whose obeisance to authority, as long as it suits her political views, knows no bounds; Donna Vale, Alexander Downer and Philip Ruddock, so quick to remind us of the sacred right of those accused to be treated as innocent until proven guilty, meaning Hollingworth, appear to believe otherwise concerning Geoff Clark, or David Hicks, who continues to be held in a Guantanamo cage because there is no law to hold him if he were returned to Australia; Professor Greg Craven, who seeks to lighten the opprobrium on Hollingworth by blaming his media advisers. (That is just the sort of cop out that sits at the core of all Coalition thinking. Kay Patterson blamed the almost universal condemnation of Howard's antisocial Medicare policy on Labor lies. The blame is constantly shifted to others, preferably underlings.)

These are just a few, but there are others. Talkback callers whose brutally cold voices condemn the so-called "witch hunt" against a man whose ultimate sin was to be employed by John Howard, who they claim is the real target. They are right about Howard--the buck stops with him--but this is no witch hunt. Hollingworth's was not an isolated "error of judgement", and they are blindly overlooking the systematic abuse of children and the ceaseless cover ups by the church as if they are of no import.

Commentators are calling the Hollingworth scandal a tragedy, but to me tragedy is confined to events befalling decent, everyday people, or at least real people whether decent or not. Hollingworth is a cardboard cutout, a faux human, as is John Howard. This is no tragedy, but simply a disgrace.

More reports:
PM: Suppression order: two stories
PM: More defendants named in Jarmyn case
And finally, Terry Lane sums it up as only he can.
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More pertinent than ever: Michael Costello on who John Howard really is.

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