May I suggest that the prominance of the coverage of Geoff Clarke's case is not so much the fact that he is aboriginal, but that he is someone in power, a public figure that is well-known. Putting a spin of race on this is to cover up the reason for the coverage and the reason for the outrage - this is someone in whom we are expected to have trust. Did we not lose a WHITE governor-general for his role in the cover-up of sexual assaults?? This type of coverage is purely about public judgement of the wrongs of those who would seek to hold our trust and esteem. I am sick of the cry of "racist" to try to excuse anything.

The issue of the impact of false allegations of rape on the accussed is an important one but not really on topic for this article.

I've submitted a proposed discussion on the general discussion page for this sub thread. Hopefully that will be up later. For those interested I'm starting it off with an extract from "The Myth of Male Power" on what happened to Glover Gale.

R0bert

Just out of curiosity, and bearing in mind that stopping rape would be a good thing for any community, is there any way that the average woman can stop a bigger and stronger male from rapeing her?

R0bert, I disagree. Any article that begins,"The 1996 Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Women’s Safety Survey, for example, estimated that 18 per cent of women had experienced sexual violence since reaching the age of 15. The results of the 1998 ABS Crime and Justice Survey of women’s experiences of sexual assault indicated that more than 47,300 incidents of sexual assault had been perpetrated on about 30,000 women from across Australia in the previous 12 months. These results are consistent with other surveys taken before and since that time.", can not be left to stand as authentic if the facts of the matter are otherwise.
Helen Pringle speaks of justice and rule of law both at the beginning and the end of her article. Surely one may expect that Ms. Pringle is sincere and would not want to be seen as "trying to slip one over" on the readership of OLO. I don't know if Ms. Pringle is a feminist. She may just be reprinting the only Stats she could find. Under those circumstances I too would wonder at the lack of reporting considering the numbers quoted. Especially the 13,700 who by the numbers were raped more than once during those twelve months.
However, if one is concerned with justice and the rule of law. A premise based on false data has no merit. Then it isn't an expansion of the original premise to consider the validity of such numbers, and is appropriate to highlight where that difference lies. Otherwise the article becomes a cry for the hyper reporting of all accusations whether they be true or false. Is this the intent behind Ms. Pringle's article. I fervently hope not. If it is, it has absolutely nothing to do with justice or the rule of law or rape/sexual assault. And then begs the question. What is the hidden agenda behind such an article?

R0bert, (damn word restrictions)
In as much as it is near impossible to remove the impact of rape/sexual assault on any readership faced with such numbers as 40,700 reported cases of rape perpetuated on 30,000 women over a 12 month period. So is it near impossible to remove oneself from the impact of the possibility that more than 50% of those allegations may be false and that with in that same 12 month period 20,350 men have had their lives, reputations, family, and incomes irrevocably ruined.
Anyone remotely interested in the truth, justice, and use of law in these circumstances would want close observation and detailed data collection on rape/sexual assault, and for such data collection and correlation to be removed from the machinations of politics of either side before being allowed to influence the creating of law or sentence punishment. Not to mention unrestricted hyper reporting of all allegations prior to being dealt with in a court of law.

aqvarivs wrote, in parts:

"Helen Pringle speaks of justice and rule of law both at the beginning and the end of her article"

and

"I don't know if Ms. Pringle is a feminist."

what I would suggest is that you take a look at her information that is 'attached' to her name as the hyperlink in the header of this article, and follow through to her website.

Before we comment on people it is important that perhaps we look at the information that they themselves give us before blundering around in the dark, so to speak, commenting on a persons character and ability.

(I have studied under Ms Pringle, she is no man hater, and she needs no defence from me.)

It also means that we must look more closely at how we define people. What is a 'feiminist'? Is is someone who so hates males that they are "separatist" or consider that all males are evil? Or is it someone who considers that power in relationships have often been at the expense of women simply because they are women.

This actually comes back to the article: what was the 'power relationship' between the plaintiff in the Clarke case and Geoff Clarke, when the rape actually took place (we can say that now because a jury has agreed that it happened) and even more so now, a woman without means and power confronting a man with prestige and influence, and I wonder who will be paying his legal bills and damages?

A male community leader who claims that no one is safe?

Safe from whom?

Safe from being held accountable for their past actions is what he is really saying.