Bridget, please turn the lights out as you leave and return the key to the ministerial loo!
Finally, it seems that the long-suffering quiet Australians who were forced to stand by and hold their tongues as Bridget McKenzie and her political advisers rorted and subverted the sports grants scheme, have had enough and have leaked the motherload of incriminating data to the ABC.
These so-called ministerial advisers had even prepared spreadsheets and colour coded grant applications in accordance with the political leanings and the vulnerability of respective seats: Green for Greens, Red for Labor and so on. This lot of so-called advisers sound as though they came from the same litter as the twerps who were advising Angus Taylor, doctoring and falsifying data on the Sydney City Council for a political hit on Clover Moore – where do they get these people?
They completely ignored the weightings and merit-based priorities carefully calibrated by Sport Australia as recommended to the minister in good faith and they substituted politically desirable alternatives that would better favour the coalition going into the election. Ironically, in their haste to help win marginal seats or to protect some of their under-performers, they deprived some deserving LNP safe seats of grants.
Events have now superseded the enquiry being carried out by Phil Gaetjens, Secretary to the Prime Minister and Cabinet. It no longer matters if Gaetjens finds that everything was above board, the facts speak for themselves.
John Howard pointed to a cliché of political life years ago when hounding Ros Kelly over similar claims of pork barrelling and the question he posed then is equally as valid today:
“Does the minister agree that, whatever debate there may be concerning the principle of ministerial responsibility, the practice has almost invariably been that a minister resigns when his or her continued presence is causing damage and embarrassment to that government?”
As the Morrison government prepares for a new parliamentary year with what they hoped would be a clean slate the last thing they want to be doing is squandering political capital defending this hapless, under-performing minister. After all, they still have to defend Angus Taylor – one of their more astute moves was to give the Taylor enquiry to Inspector Plod at the AFP in the sure and certain knowledge that nothing will come of that investigation.
Well, Bridget, it’s time to clear your desk and accompany this nice gentleman from security who will escort you from the building. Like the Norwegian Blue Parrot, your career is now at an end, it has expired, it is no more, it has ceased to be, it has run out of steam, it is a former career!
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16 comments
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Return to home pageThe Prime Hypocrite has his greasy fingerprints all over this,after all he’s got plenty of form in this regard.There will have been urgent wrangling going on in the background,blame shifting,promises of a land of milk and honey, should the Minister for outrageous fraud be persuaded to take one for the team.
Will anyone in the press gallery today put the blowtorch on the Liar? Will today be the day that this contemptible man gets his just deserts?Will he sidestep it with another brain fart announcement about National security?(More creeping authoritarianism),Or will it be business as usual?Will the parrot be officially declared demised?
Sadly I predict she will survive this,too many big guns too close to her decisions and she doesn’t look like the type that would go quietly.
As they say, the past is another country. They did things differently there. Recent experience suggests it is probable that absolutely nothing will happen. Bridget McKenzie will stay exactly where she is, having been totally exonerated, and the whole episode will fade into the swirl of the news cycle.
Am I being too cynical in wondering how the money for bushfire restoration will be distributed, and by whom?
I hope I am wrong but I tend to agree with you Christine.As there are so many calamities happening on a daily basis which these crooks can hide behind.Her Nepotism is plainly in sight.
Aw shucks Terence; Barnyard has given her his blessing … whether that was purchased as future amorous favours is unknown. But how many of these peculiar Nazianal$ politicians are there in Federal Parliament and what is the distribution of Nazianal$ seats between states? Does anybody know?
I think those who think sh3 can survive are being too pessimistic. I am with Terence on this, given the daily drip of new revelations, not just about the sports rorts but also other examples of her trough snuffling, I think she is the equivalent of the Norwegian Blue. That said, If she is kept on, I think she will forever wear a big bullseye on her back, appropriate for a gun-lover like her, which her political opponents, both within and outside the COALition will happily target. The first cuts are bleeding and the shark feeding frenzy has begun.
It’s going to be very interesting to hear what Gaetjens says that could possibly justify this massive level of rorting of taxpayer funds, the multiple breaches that have come to light over the past couple of weeks. One thing’s for sure, he will avoid incriminating the PM but we all know his sticky fingers are all over it.
Having watched the Liar’s speech ,and currently listening to questions and non answers,nothing has changed,except perhaps his attitude has hardened.Same old same old,same bullshit,same ideology as in every question time.Death is the only thing that will change him, from a live c…. to a dead c…
What amazes me is that only 51% of the public think she should go, according to today’s Grauniad.
It only confirms one thing for me and that is that I continue confined within a giant lunatic asylum called Australia.
paul, lunacy is far from being a peculiarly Australian characteristic – it is universal across all humanity.
Precisely… Australians are not immune from it either.
If it were coronavirus it would be in epidemic proportions here.
It is like, “if dickheads could fly, the skies would turn dark”.
add to the pork barrelling the fact she spent over $40,000 flying a VIP airforce jet from Adelaide to Bunbury to attend a gun lobby, and national party meeting
She will not be leaving as her nose is buried too deep in the bottomless trough of taxpayer dollars.
She will survive this scamdal – she knows much too much to be thrown under the bus, she may voluntarily take a leave of absence from cabinet on the understanding she doesnt blab, but will enjoy a period of time out of cabinet with some well recompenced sinacure. But she will be back.
The one thing we can say about our current politicians. They are not a great example for our future councillors and politicians. How and where to they learn how Councils work and politicians are suppose to do in
Parliament.
Found in my local paper from 22/1, printed before the McKenzie colour chart surfaced – Eildon Golf Club, where her mother is former Captain and Club Champion, got a grant of $45,000. Doesn’t say what for. I can say that this didn’t make an iota of difference at the election in the seat of Indi. Our second Independent in a row, Helen Haines, romped home.