I think the article mostly vapid, especially where trying to conceptualize some special discourse separating children's rights from women's, etc. But I expect Kelly's future tenure and grant prospects look healthy given his general loyalty to liberalism and its sugar-daddies like Turnbull.

If Henson made no payment for the underage modelling, the likely attraction for those exploited would be the association with the nebulous "high culture" presumed by neo-liberalists to be their ideology's perhaps most precious and refined product, if not its ultimate justification. Assessed from the lawyer-filtered quotes of an underage Henson model's mother, it seems that the models' background is middle class or, at least, 'aspirationally' so. I'm sure Kelly would have seen similar unpaid transactions where aspiring academics draft works of 10,000 words or more for publication in names of profs, assoc. profs, etc., in an unofficial, corrupt process of discreet extra requirements towards the PhD, etc.

The essential factors of money, class and power make the Hollingworth case an obvious parallel to this Henson matter. The article's and respondents' use of the term "elite" is mostly confusing and misleading. Rudd is part of the elite, as was/is Howard, as was/is Hollingworth, etc. Such abused language reminds me of the silly ravings of "Professor" David Flint, a pompous and supreme self-denialist in matters of race, but very aggressive asserting his own class pretensions and culture war indulgences.

I urge the following to all you who claim to be such culturally refined, aesthetically sensitive beings: identify yourselves fully whenever you are about to deal with working class people, especially minors.

Bruce, you are getting whiney old chum. I find photographing and displaying naked 13 year old revolting because there is simply no reason not to wait until anyone can give their own consent. I have a grown daughter and three grand-daughters and you could not pay me enough to let them be photographed in this manner so they can be hung in galleries for the pretensious glitterati to wank on about. And I don't mean sexual wank, I mean the wank that rabbits on about lighting and stuff and ignores the rights of the child not to be looked at like an object.

We adult women fought a mighty battle in the 100 years of suffrage not to be seen as objects, Christine Spiteri and other Channel 9 women are suing for objectification, Mary from SBS did the same thing.

13 year old girls are not objects and it is revolting to treat them as objects and that is all Kevin Rudd said. He did just have a mighty shot at the intelligence service failures by the way, and I believe the criminals in DIAC are having to work for the first time in years.

So Bruce, your 13 year old grand-daughter will be posing nude for Henson so that every one of the so-called glamour lot can talk about the lighting and other wank and ignore the fact that the 13 year old is a human being.

All I have heard from your mob has been about poor little Bill being victimised? Did you think about the child?

No public servants are working 70 hours a week, that I can guarantee and if they are it serves a good many of them right.

Public servants in DIAC and the former DIMA deported Australian's, locked up Australian's, wasted money by taking years to make refugee decisions, used false documents to cancel visas, broke the law when they cancelled other visas and generally cost the Australian public hundreds of millions by their sloth, incompetence and general ignorance of our own laws.

DFAT deported people on false documents, dumped them illegally in the wrong countries (see Following them Home by David Corlett), deported Australian's, didn't read dozens of cables about AWB giving $300 million to Saddam Hussein and stayed rigidly silent when many of them must have known they were committing crimes.

ONA, DIO and other intelligence agencies knew very well that no children were thrown into the sea, they knew there were no WMD in Iraq, that Saddam did not have a shredding machine, that David Hicks had been taken to Gitmo and Mamdouh Habib had been rendered to Egypt to be tortured and they all stayed silent except for Andrew Wilkie.

ASIO and the AFP have kidnapped citizens off the street illegally, detained them illegally, created this deluded set of control orders against people convicted of no crime and fitted up Dr Haneef while terrifying the life out of his family and colleagues.

Centrelink threw thousands of people off payments and left them penniless and homeless, made millions of mistakes in benefit assessments and have used millions to get back money for their own mistakes.

If these public servants are having to finally work with some efficiency I have not one jot of sympathy for the poor widdle diddums and think they should all be fired or suck it up.

One fraud alone cost us $35 million.

CJ Morgan typifies those defending this pervert. He writes

'At least the troops are coming home from Iraq, I suppose.' That has as much to do with being a child abuser as has interest rates. It sounds to me the author would like to think of himself as one of the cultural elite. With that label you can sip your lattes and look at young girls and boys on the internet and call it art. The working man would be called a pervert. It is only when the next step is taken like that of the former NSW indigenous affairs minister that you are outed from this group (but still support him financially). You can just see it, Cate on the ABC warning about child abuse while all her mates study the breast and vagina of a 12 year old for artistic merits. What a group of sick cookie.

I also agree with David Jackmanson and plerdsus. Perfectly said and correct.

Yes, Marilyn, it seems strange that Bruce applies such skewed perspective on state duties, priorities and public service: definitely not soldier material. With the Foreign Office's track record on abuse and exploitation of children, I thought its retirees like Bruce would have keener sense to oppose strongly even the symbolic and public expression of such nasty activity.

You must know of Alistair's fight there, Bruce, when he - with a mountain of evidence - outed the guy who became ambassador in Pnomh Penh? You must also know how the whistleblower was sacked repeatedly and vilified for his courage, and loyalty to a basic sense of right and wrong, and true public service. Oh, and the fate of the pederast living comfortably off our taxes and the people's loyalty and obedience to state? After ever-vigilant shielding by a sophist legal system, back to Pnomh Penh to head an orphanage if I'm not mistaken.

It appears to me that ex-DFAT Rudd knows exactly what he's doing, and I doubt that it's derived from any "born again christian sludge", as Bruce alleges. Read Rudd's essay in The Monthly and you can identify how seriously he follows the rationale of Bonhoeffer (and no, not Tim Costello's "me too" version of it). Rudd is classic Protestant material. I do not come from that tradition, but on such important moral issues I know that he has Catholic, Muslim, Jewish and other traditions - and most workers and soldiers - with him on this.

Oh, along with a hard core of ancient Confucianism to strengthen his conviction, especially on matters of duty to the greater good and conscientiousness in public service. Yes, make them earn their money or get out.

Just such a pity this leadership had to happen only now that the crash is well underway.