The Tudge fudge: here’s what we know, now can an honourable member tell us the rest?

The Alan Tudge affair is Scott Morrison’s government in microcosm: smoke, mirrors and a lingering stench you can’t quite place but end up just getting used to. Because, as always with these guys, you’re too exhausted to bother anymore.

The facts: Alan Tudge was (or is?) a cabinet minister. Rachelle Miller worked in his office as a media adviser in 2016 and 2017. In November 2020, Miller featured in the notorious ABC Four Corners episode “Inside the Canberra Bubble” with the disclosure that she and Tudge had conducted a secret affair when she worked for him. She said it was consensual. Tudge publicly admitted the affair and apologised to his family.

At the same time, Miller lodged a formal complaint with the Department of Finance, alleging that Tudge had serially bullied her. She alleged that he had made her fearful of losing her job. She ultimately moved from his office to that of Senator Michaelia Cash, where Miller claimed she was blocked from progressing her career as punishment for her earlier affair.

By February 2021, Miller had lawyered up and was reportedly planning to sue both Tudge and Cash in the courts for workplace harassment.

The story took a dramatic turn in December, when Miller went public with a new set of allegations. Her relationship with Tudge, she said, was not as she had previously described it but one characterised by emotional abuse. She said she was completely under Tudge’s control: “[the] bullying, intimidation and harassment I experienced from him while at work completely destroyed my confidence in my own ability”.

Miller also disclosed a specific allegation of physical abuse: she said that on a work trip she had gotten drunk and ended up in Tudge’s hotel bed. In the morning, he had physically kicked her out of bed, telling her to “get the fuck out of his room”. She said she didn’t know if they had had sex.

Morrison announced an inquiry into Miller’s new allegations, appointing Vivienne Thom to conduct it. Tudge stood down from the ministry. Miller refused to participate, on the basis that the inquiry’s terms of reference specifically excluded consideration of any allegations which could constitute a criminal offence. It smacked, she said, “of a political fix”.

Thom, hamstrung by Miller’s non-cooperation, properly concluded that there was insufficient evidence to support findings that Miller had been bullied or harassed, that her relationship with Tudge was emotionally abusive or that he had physically abused her.

Thom also found that Tudge had supported a promotion for Miller while they were having the affair without disclosing his interest. That was not, however, a breach of the ministerial standards, which apply conflict rules with respect to ministers’ family members but not their special friends.

Morrison announced that Tudge had been cleared, but he did not return to cabinet.

We learned recently that Miller’s legal claims have been settled, reportedly for a $500,000 payment, and that they included a previously unpublicised claim that she had been sexually harassed by another unnamed government MP. The settlement is confidential.

Miller has now waived her entitlement to secrecy and openly dared the government to disclose the full settlement terms. Morrison keeps deflecting, saying it’s a matter for the Department of Finance and that he hasn’t been briefed on the matter at all. He also claims that, because of that, the settlement must not involve the claims against Tudge. What it does relate to, he says he doesn’t know.

The final piece of the puzzle is that, contrary to what he is on record as saying previously, Morrison now says that Tudge is still in cabinet and welcome back to his portfolio whenever he likes.

I jest when I say final, because this puzzle has more holes than pieces. In truth, we know barely anything except a pile of untested allegations and some text messages which establish that Tudge tried to get Miller to not disclose their affair when she was renewing her security clearance.

Tudge hasn’t been cleared of anything except breaching the uselessly weak ministerial standards when he helped get his girlfriend a pay rise. The substantive allegations remain unresolved and no action has been taken with respect to the security clearance issue.

We have no idea why half a million dollars of our money was paid to Miller. We do not know if any admissions have been made by Tudge, or the unnamed other MP. We do not know if the bullying allegations against Cash have been resolved or remain hanging.

All we have is fog, out of which we are told Tudge will at some point soon emerge, when he chooses, to resume his briefly interrupted ministerial career. Behind him, fog. A more apt metaphor for this government of lies, gaslights and misdirections I cannot find.