There has been a lot of talk in national politics the last few weeks about judgement and accountability. The newish Leader of the Opposition, Kevin Rudd, has had an extended honeymoon with the public - and what does that term, honeymoon, mean when it comes to politics, no one has ever explained that to me fully?
Then a couple of weeks ago, the senior leadership on the Government side of things, primarily John Howard and Peter Costello went all attack dog on Rudd. The crime being that he met up with corrupt consultant, and former Western Australian Premier, Brian Burke, three times back in 2005. Burke has been the subject of a corruption enquiry out West that has seen three state Cabinet ministers sacked, and who knows where that will end up, state wise. The strange thing is, that the state government is not in any danger of falling, even if an election was held today. Strange.
Rudd didn't give the best account of himself when the accusations were flying, seeming to ignore the attacks, pointedly, with his back turned in Parliament, while seeming to feed other front benchers to the lions, trying to reply to the questions. Then he scurried out to a press room, and gave a forty minute conference to the media. Congrats, mate, but it still isn't sticking up for yourself in the House of Reps.
But Rudd stuck to his guns, once he had sorted out what those guns were - yes, he did meet Burke, after his state colleagues had pointedly been warned off contact with the guy; no, the leadership of the Labor Party did not come up in discussions; no, he was not asking for any type of favour or sponsorship; yes, if he had known what he knew now, he would not have met him.
The government was up in arms about judgement and accountability, but it turns out they doth protest too much. It turned out that one of their own ministers, Senator Ian Campbell, had talked to Burke for about twenty minutes at a Perth racing industry meeting - bang, less than a day later he was sacked.
Then the person they asked to take Campbell's portfolio, Senator Chris Ellison, seems to have had shares in a company Burke was consulting for, though he hasn't resigned yet. Last Monday, just two days after the Campbell resignation, it was announced that three Liberal MPs in the Brisbane area were being investigated by the Australian Federal Police for discrepancies in their printing costs. Maybe about work being charged for but not completed? Something like that anyway. And the PM had known about the police swoop for several days. Hmm.
Then next, it was the Opposition's turn to guillotine somebody - Kelvin Thompson, who was shadow attorney general, for giving a whiter than white reference to a constituent who has turned into one of Melbourne's drug lords. Smart thinking, 99.
And now the heat has turned back onto the government, with Minister for Ageing Santo Santoro misplacing his share register information when making the obligatory statuatory declaration. He had $6000 worth of shares in some biotech company which researches health stuff for the elderly, which had doubled in price by the time this discrepancy was found. Apparently this is a conflict of interest, find that a bit harsh myself, but then he then sold the shares, and gave the profit to a charity, that on further investigation wasn't actually a charity.
And then you have the Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, having a go at Rudd about how his father died when he was eleven, and whether he - Rudd - is telling the whole truth about that. What the fuck?
How all this pickiness is even on the radar - a few dodgy meetings and probably tens of thousands of dollars misappropriated - when there is a huge elephant in the room called the AWB case, I do not know. Bribes totalling $300 million dollars, to Saddam's regime before 2003, to ensure that Aussie wheat got into Iraq around UN sanctions, and all the responsibility is dumped on the private company.
The Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister and the Trade Minister don't actually read the cables warning of the issue from the diplomats on the ground, or the UN, or anywhere else. They would apparently rather be considered incompetent than criminally negligent.
But that was 2006, and the accountability limbo bar has been set a heck of a lot lower this year.
Then a couple of weeks ago, the senior leadership on the Government side of things, primarily John Howard and Peter Costello went all attack dog on Rudd. The crime being that he met up with corrupt consultant, and former Western Australian Premier, Brian Burke, three times back in 2005. Burke has been the subject of a corruption enquiry out West that has seen three state Cabinet ministers sacked, and who knows where that will end up, state wise. The strange thing is, that the state government is not in any danger of falling, even if an election was held today. Strange.
Rudd didn't give the best account of himself when the accusations were flying, seeming to ignore the attacks, pointedly, with his back turned in Parliament, while seeming to feed other front benchers to the lions, trying to reply to the questions. Then he scurried out to a press room, and gave a forty minute conference to the media. Congrats, mate, but it still isn't sticking up for yourself in the House of Reps.
But Rudd stuck to his guns, once he had sorted out what those guns were - yes, he did meet Burke, after his state colleagues had pointedly been warned off contact with the guy; no, the leadership of the Labor Party did not come up in discussions; no, he was not asking for any type of favour or sponsorship; yes, if he had known what he knew now, he would not have met him.
The government was up in arms about judgement and accountability, but it turns out they doth protest too much. It turned out that one of their own ministers, Senator Ian Campbell, had talked to Burke for about twenty minutes at a Perth racing industry meeting - bang, less than a day later he was sacked.
Then the person they asked to take Campbell's portfolio, Senator Chris Ellison, seems to have had shares in a company Burke was consulting for, though he hasn't resigned yet. Last Monday, just two days after the Campbell resignation, it was announced that three Liberal MPs in the Brisbane area were being investigated by the Australian Federal Police for discrepancies in their printing costs. Maybe about work being charged for but not completed? Something like that anyway. And the PM had known about the police swoop for several days. Hmm.
Then next, it was the Opposition's turn to guillotine somebody - Kelvin Thompson, who was shadow attorney general, for giving a whiter than white reference to a constituent who has turned into one of Melbourne's drug lords. Smart thinking, 99.
And now the heat has turned back onto the government, with Minister for Ageing Santo Santoro misplacing his share register information when making the obligatory statuatory declaration. He had $6000 worth of shares in some biotech company which researches health stuff for the elderly, which had doubled in price by the time this discrepancy was found. Apparently this is a conflict of interest, find that a bit harsh myself, but then he then sold the shares, and gave the profit to a charity, that on further investigation wasn't actually a charity.
And then you have the Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, having a go at Rudd about how his father died when he was eleven, and whether he - Rudd - is telling the whole truth about that. What the fuck?
How all this pickiness is even on the radar - a few dodgy meetings and probably tens of thousands of dollars misappropriated - when there is a huge elephant in the room called the AWB case, I do not know. Bribes totalling $300 million dollars, to Saddam's regime before 2003, to ensure that Aussie wheat got into Iraq around UN sanctions, and all the responsibility is dumped on the private company.
The Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister and the Trade Minister don't actually read the cables warning of the issue from the diplomats on the ground, or the UN, or anywhere else. They would apparently rather be considered incompetent than criminally negligent.
But that was 2006, and the accountability limbo bar has been set a heck of a lot lower this year.
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