Back in November 2021, we wrote that Senator David Van was likely to join the ranks of a very specific political sub-species: “the senator you’ve never heard of, who briefly pokes their head above the parapet of anonymity to be associated with precisely one extremely weird and embarrassing thing before melting back into history forever”.
At the time, Van was denying that he had made “barking and growling” sounds at independent Senator Jacqui Lambie while she was addressing the Senate. We thought he’d swiftly drift back to permanent obscurity. After the events of this week, Van may well wish that was the case.
This week Van was attempting to progress the narrative that it was in fact Labor’s handling of the Brittany Higgins saga that was partisan and disrespectful, rather than his own party’s, when the gun backfired. Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe accused him of sexual assault, and Van instantly denied it. Thorpe later withdrew her allegation, but along procedural Senate lines rather than as a back-down on their substance.
The next day she went into detail, and someone confirmed to The Australian that Van’s office had been moved away from Thorpe’s following a complaint. By midday, Van had been expelled by the partyroom. He gave another impassioned denial in the Senate that afternoon. But worse was yet to come for him, with former Liberal Party senator Amanda Stoker putting out a statement that alleged Van “inappropriately touched” her by “squeezing [her] bottom twice” in November 2020 — she added that “by its nature and by its repetition, it was not accidental”.
Today The Australian has a front page describing Van’s alleged reputation as a “groper” as an “open secret“. Dutton has told radio host Ray Hadley that he had received a third complaint against Van, and that the senator should resign from Parliament and “seek help”. Boy, if only Van knew people who could help with, I don’t know, perhaps identifying and managing risks to his reputation?
Well, you’re not going to believe this, but for the 15 years leading up to his ascension to Parliament, Van was managing director for a company called the De Wintern Group. We’ll let Van’s LinkedIn page spell out what they did:
De Wintern help directors and executives protect their organisation’s most valuable asset; its reputation.
De Wintern is a multi discipline communication consultancy, specialising in reputation management, crisis/issues management, litigation support and grassroots campaign management creation and management. We are amongst world leaders in the evolving discipline [of] reputational risk management. We bring knowledge, process and tools to help organisations identify and manage reputational risk.
