Heffernan a man possessed

JOHN Howard's right-hand man, Bill Heffernan, put his vociferous views on the cover-up of child sexual abuse to the Governor-General when he visited Yarralumla for an executive council meeting on Valentine's Day.

The cabinet secretary's private sermon contrasts with Howard's public support for Peter Hollingworth. This week Heffernan received a message from Alec Spencer, one of Hollingworth's accusers, thanking him for his vigorous efforts to prosecute a case against the Governor-General.

Heffernan yesterday refused to comment on what he said to Hollingworth privately, but the tough-talking cockie from Junee is not known for euphemisms. The NSW senator meets regularly with the Governor-General as a member of the executive council which signs off on legislation passed by parliament. It met last on February 14.

Heffernan's discussion with Hollingworth took place on the eve of new allegations that the former archbishop of Brisbane did not act on complaints of sexual abuse. A veteran campaigner on pedophilia, Heffernan had been quietly making the case against Hollingworth over the summer break.

On January 23 the cabinet secretary strayed from his formal speech at a Canberra seminar dealing with awards honouring Australian women to ram home his belief that people who cover up child abuse are as evil as the perpetrators.

In the audience was Martin Bonsey, secretary to the Governor-General. Addressing his remarks in Bonsey's direction, Heffernan said the code of silence surrounding child abuse was one of the greatest social catastrophes of our time.

"Because of the code of silence, victims are left at the point of shame and there is no political representation and no advocacy for them," he said. "The perpetrators are horrendous. But those who cover up these acts are just as bad."

Heffernan has been described variously as a cardinal at the Prime Minister's elbow, a fixer and head-kicker, and as the rottweiler who rounds up stragglers for his political master. But when Howard learnt of Heffernan's behind-the-scenes campaign, he collared his barker.

Howard wanted to counter perceptions that behind his statements of support for Hollingworth was a privately orchestrated bid to undermine him. It was a robust session.

But those who have heard Heffernan rail against the culture of secrecy protecting sexual predators in government agencies, the judiciary and the church know he is a man possessed.

Heffernan denies vehemently that his longstanding vendetta against pedophilia is seeded in personal abuse during 11 years at Catholic boarding schools. His critics have speculated that this must be what drives him, just as private tragedy has motivated Brisbane activist Hetty Johnson to lead her charge against Hollingworth.

Heffernan says neither he, his children nor his friends have been victims of sexual abuse. He does not speak on the record and says little in the parliamentary chamber, preferring to bend ears in corridors, backrooms and on the phone, where his language is colourful, crackling with expletives.

Sydney media adviser Gary Knight, who once accused Heffernan privately of "homophobia", remembers being in David Jones when the senator rang to "tee off". Knight walked out of the store and across Sydney's Hyde Park trading invectives with Heffernan and scattering pedestrians. "I wanted to tell them, 'It's okay. I'm just talking with the cabinet secretary'. I hope Bill's got Peter Hollingworth's mobile phone number."

Knight believes Heffernan's war against sex predators often turns into an attack on homosexuals, and tars a whole profession such as the clergy with the sins of individuals.

"To start suggesting that one guilty judge or priest means that under every set of robes and gowns there are suspender belts and garters is extreme," Knight said.

One federal Liberal MP, who did not wish to be named, said: "Heffernan will deny he's homophobic but I have been bailed up by him for the spray about gay men being unsound human beings."

Last year, Labor MP Mark Latham claimed Heffernan had "a bizarre obsession with homosexuality", and was using his office to run "a star chamber" against gays.

A zealous streak is the price campaigners often pay as they wear away authority's stone walls. Heffernan wants to out people at high levels of society. Last year, he used parliamentary privilege to name Aboriginal leader Terry O'Shane as the family friend whom national reconciliation advocate Evelyn Scott identified as sexually abusing her daughters. It's a dangerous tactic. But for every enemy Heffernan makes, a victim applauds him.

His pursuit of child abuse may suggest the scent of a witch-hunt, but who dares question Heffernan's obsession given the terrible and unwritten toll of pedophilia.

"He is becoming more manic and more vehement," said the NSW MP. "He tends to blur the line between pedophilia and homosexuality."

Heffernan has been engaged in a marathon slanging match with gay Sydney lawyer John Marsden, who successfully sued the Seven Network for defamation over allegations he had sex with under-age males. The case is now the subject of appeal.

Marsden and Heffernan go back to the days when they boarded at St Joseph's in Sydney. Marsden recalls they shared the same dormitory, four beds apart. He has sent Heffernan books such as Being Gay and Being Catholic with a note to suggest that "these are the two greatest gifts in the world".

Heffernan's response would be unprintable. The same goes for many of the allegations he makes "off the record" in conversations with journalists and politicians, and with victims of sexual abuse who seek him out for advancing their constituency and their cause.

Heffernan is not going to give up the chase. He has told colleagues that "the boil is about to be lanced". The publicity surrounding Hollingworth has brought a flood of information and allegations Heffernan's way.