Latest Barnaby Debacle

Up front, I've never met Barnaby Joyce, got no personal axe to grind with him. None at all.
Got a few views of when he probably should have stepped aside in this whole unfunny circus act we've all seen play out.

Up front, I've never met Catherine Marriott either, got no personal axe to grind there. in fact have no personal base bias either way on either Catherine nor Barnaby, but obviously I'm familiar with Barnaby & like a few bush folk in WA certainly know of Catherine.

I have gleaned a few things from the press & social media. To me at least it seems she lodged a complaint with the Nationals. Now I hate making assumptions but I can only assume it was with the Federal Nats Exec.

Media reports mention it was to remain confidential. It wasn't to be a public hanging & drag through the mud. A non public complaint lodged, Nats Fed Exec will probably have a policy & procedure for this (or should and will). One news report says it was only lodged this week and that the date of the actual harassment was several years ago.

Time it takes to report is irrelevant. We don't set time limits on any complaints otherwise sex offenders in cold cases would get off Scott free. What we do know is Catherine Marriott is well known & widely known of. She's a rural community builder. She has a pretty solid hard earned reputation and good standing in the community.

We also know she lodged the complaint with the proviso it was private. She was not looking to hit the news herself, indeed she's been far from being on a talk circuit. One written statement, nothing else. Not efforts to defame nor grab fame. Private complaint is/was to be investigated by the Nats Exec. There's absolutely no evidence she had any other axe to grind with the ex-Deputy Prime Minister. None. That doesn't prove anything good or bad about Barnaby, it proves there's no malicious or nefarious intent on her part.

Someone leaked the existence of the complaint. It would seem it can only come from a small number of places.
1) The Nationals Federal Exec
2) The Cabinet or a Cabinet minister
3) Barnaby Joyce
4) Catherine Marriott

I'll take the last one off the list, because the agreement was private. I have no reason to believe she'd lie & breach it. Doesn't make sense.
Barnaby, might have leaked it but as possible as that may be, it'd be the dumbest strategy we'd see for some time were it true. Probably equally unlikely

That leaves the Nats Fed Exec or Cabinet (Liberal or National MP). Could be either but the possibilities would take pages to jot down and we don't know all the people involved, what motivations might be.
We do know there's no advantage whatsoever for Catherine Marriott to leak it & indeed whoever leaked it has done both Catherine & Barnaby a huge disservice.

The complaint should have been dealt with in private and a resolution handed down privately.

Catherine is a bit like the Kevin Bacon 6 degrees of separation thing...I don't know her but I know plenty of folk who do & she doesn't appear to be on anyone's shit list nor has she been identified as some northern Lex Luther corporate psychopath. Her reputation is to be envied, its not small & by all accounts she's earned everything. Yes she was a winner of the WA Rural Woman of the Year Award.

People need to keep calm heads and let whatever the process is in play to run its course. Don't publicly speculate unless its to speculate who leaked the private complaint & why.

One thing is also for sure, the public perception on what is and isn't acceptable for a Deputy PM, a Cabinet member, a party leader, a Member of Parliament is going to probably have new limits soon. Think the pub test will be a bit stricter. Not a bad thing at all.

I don't know what was in the complaint. I won't comment on how correct it is because due process (corrupted as it is by a leak) must go ahead.
And Catherine Marriott has 100% nothing to answer for.

I hope she continues as a community builder as she did before. If her allegations prove correct then there is absolutely no wrong committed by her at all. None. Zip zero, nada.

Because some disgracefully have piled blame on her, then I'll back her with the #Solidarity4Catherine hashtag. I make no judgment on a complaint I haven't read & encourage others to push the "let the process run its course" approach.

We'll see where we are in a few weeks or months time.