A few years ago, I read a book called “Spy The Lie”. It was written by a professional interrogator who made various suggestions about how you could tell when somebody was lying. I can’t remember it all, but I do remember that he made the point that there was no one definitive sign, but there were things that, taken together, were a pretty sure sign. For example, in the case of a politician, the fact that their lips are moving is not enough. They have to be making sounds into words. And if you add the fact that they belong to the Liberal Party, you have enough to presume that it’s a lie.
Anyway, in spite of this, I’m personally satisfied with Senator Cash’s explanation. While she told Parliament five times that neither she nor anyone in her office tipped off the media, I’m quite happy for her to say that she didn’t mislead Parliament. She herself was misled. And that’s the point. Once she discovered that she was misled, she corrected the record. And it probably had nothing to do with the fact that Doug Cameron asked if someone from her staff tipped the media off at 3-30, which seems pretty specific and like he actually had the sort of information that was from someone who’d actually noted the time that they were tipped off and let Cameron know so he could ask the question for a fifth time.
If you repeat a lie, you’re not misleading anyone, because you yourself were misled. It’s sort of like repeating gossip. You don’t need to check whether it’s true or not. The fact that somebody told you means that you should be able to repeat it with impunity and just say sorry if you’re wrong.
Speaking of Barnaby Joyce, I wonder how the High Court will rule tomorrow. I know that a lot of conspiracy theorists believe that they’ll let him off because everything’s corrupt and everyone’s in everyone’s pocket, but I’ve been told that it’s not like that… If I’m wrong, then I didn’t mislead you because someone else told me that.
I need to pause and remember why I started this…
Oh that’s right, I was going to describe an imaginary experience because I’m really a fiction writer… Mm, I wonder if Malcolm needs a speech writer.
Scene: A courtroom. The clerk is reading the charges.
Clerk: You are charged with perjury. How do you plead, guilty or not guilty?
Defendant: Not guilty… Look I know that I filled in misleading information on a Centrelink form but somebody misled me.
Judge: So you’re denying signing the form with the incorrect information?
Defendant: No, I did that. But only because I’d been given the wrong information by someone else.
Judge: Oh, I see. Well, case dismissed.
Yeah, that’s pretty much fiction. Strange that it works like that in Canberra. I guess that’s why it was named as one of the top places in the world to visit. There aren’t many places like that in the world. You know, the sort of place where fantasy rules. I mean, who needs Disneyland when you’ve got Canberra?
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“Once she discovered that she was misled, she corrected the record. And it probably had nothing to do with the fact that Doug Cameron asked if someone from her staff tipped the media off at 3-30, which seems pretty specific and like he actually had the sort of information that was from someone who’d actually noted the time that they were tipped off and let Cameron know so he could ask the question for a fifth time”
Problem now for Cash is her sacked, but soon to be redeployed as an LNP consultant, media adviser has said he was tipped off by someone else in the media….so how did the first media person get the info to tip off Cash’s adviser in the first place? Who tipped off the tipper?.
Yesterday was a beautiful day. I enjoyed every minute. Starting out with Turnbull “Bill Shorten has questions to answer” and whipping up anti union rhetoric, and disintegrating into the sight of Doug Cameron calmly interrogating Michaelia Cash until she confessed that one of her staffers had indeed tipped the media off about the raids by ROC. Just lovely seeing her squirming. Today not quite so exciting but we did see the ROC Commissioner say that the AWU had refused to produce 12 year old documents. Later he had to admit he had mixed up the AWU with another union! Unbelievable.
What a gift to our nation! Shouty woman with the lego hair, 15000 Australian’s have donated to GETUP this week and hundreds have joined this amazing vechicle of justice for all Australians and their beloved country . Malcolm muggabe turnbull and your shit team can eff off!
There’s a credibility gap here that the LNP has stepped into, I don’t think they’ve yet perceived the scope of the problem because they cannot see the other side.
Perhaps the Federal Police can put all of that metadata they’ve been collecting to good use and determine precisely where the leak originated, what time, to whom and what time…this looks be very awkward in coming weeks/months
I posited elsewhere that this may be a boon for GetUp, not unlike Cory Bernardi and charities with young male students wearing dresses
Here’s hoping
Is Cash a scheming lying screamer or a scheming screaming liar?
Many a true word said in jest.
Strange how the mudrake media has gone silent over this, scrolled down the Telelaugh online (no I don’t subscribe) twice before I could find anything about Cash and there it was a little piece near the bottom of the page, same at news.com.au which usually isn’t as bad, Didn’t even bother looking at ‘The Australian’ website as that would be be…… well we all know without even going there.
Of course Doug Cameron had inside info, because, like, he is an experienced and thoroughly professional politician. Tomorrow we get to see whether Bananaby (thanks Jennifermeyersmith) is a true blue Aussie or not? We may also get to know the female staffers he has been a bit Weinstein over?? The abortion?? The assault?? The harassment?? The ladies toilets??? What a magnificent set of exemplary citizens currently run this country! Is it any wonder the young refuse to vote?
As for the lovely Michaelia? Well, she just didn’t know!!
I have accepted that reason from many a prepubescent, poor student as I am sure you have Rossleigh? If a politician doesn’t know, then they were misled!
If a Centrelink beneficiary doesn’t know, then they are a slack arsed, cocaine sniffing, wife beating, cheeto eating, TV watching, work dodging layabout. That’s just the way it goes!
Great work as usual Rossleigh!
Speechless…truly.
You know, some times i wish I was young again.
It all seemed so much more hopeful than now. Just a simple correction in fact and it would all be set right.
I for one am unable to believe that a media adviser employed in the Minister’s office would tip off the media to attend an AFP raid without instructions from the Minister.But then again this mob have form in tipping of the media to raids on union offices and Labor party members and staffers homes. Remember the NBN raids anyone. The poor staffer has had to take the fall for the Minister. When will we have a return to old fashioned Ministerial responsibility and accountability. Cash must resign or Turnbull must sack her. Knowing jellyback and his previous form he is too much of a coward to enforce any standards of conduct on his pathetic incompetent team of Ministers.
Your story, Rossleigh, would be true EXCEPT for the one word CENTRELINK. (It would also be fiction if the defendent was an Aborigine.)
I feel sorry for cash who, like trump, is a victim of father abuse. In addition, she, unfortunately. sports a tight, pursed lipped mouth, under such a narrow nose making her bulging neck stand out like a lizard frightening opponents.
I believe that the truth is barnaby born in aust cannot be a dual citizen simply because a foreign government says so but canavan, if he applied for italian citizenship and succeeded, is a dual. The rest born overseas are gone(with the proviso that they may fit you ‘case dismissed). As for slimy X greek, cypriot, pom he is like barnie unless his mum did a canavan?? Wouldn’t that be ‘delicious’ fodder.
Sooo, wait a minute. A minister of the government didn’t do it, but one of her staff did. When the staff member realised he had misled the minister (who he appears to have accompanied for most of the day), he resigned. The minister then pleaded that ignorance was her excuse. And the staff member has gone into witness protection.
“Speaking of Barnaby Joyce, I wonder how the High Court will rule tomorrow.”
Funny thing. His case before the HC is that he didn’t know his father’s birthplace “entitled [him] to the rights or privileges of a subject or citizen of a foreign power.” That’s from that Constitution thingy.
Over a quarter of Australians were born overseas. I’m one of them. My lads know that. They also knows they have a right to an Irish passport, with all its attendant rights, privileges and constraints. I suspect that most children with a foreign parent know that from an early age.
Except bananas.
But bananas has previously perfected the ‘It wasn’t me wot done it, guvnor’ defence. In a saga that oddly parallels his colleague’s current predicament, back in October, 2014, he incorrectly advised the parliament about drought assistance for farmers. Nothing wrong about a minister not knowing their portfolio. That just means they are stupid. Say what you like about bananas, but no one has ever disputed his stupidity.
The synopsis is that he incorrectly informed the parliament about the package and its availability. He later amended his response. His staff then went to have the initial incorrect response altered in Hansard without his knowledge. Pyne and speaker Bishop quashed debate. The senate made an enquiry and an official from the relevant department, Paul Grimes, asked to address the senate committee with new information. By the time he got to the committee, he didn’t have the information to tender. His services were subsequently dispensed with.
Ministerial stuff up due to ignorance/incompetence/being caught colluding, blamed on a hapless public servant, who subsequently ‘takes the fall’.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2014/oct/27/barnaby-joyce-admits-his-staff-changed-hansard-records
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/mar/10/twist-in-barnaby-joyces-hansard-saga-as-department-head-unexpectedly-takes-leave
http://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2016/10/25/barnaby-joyce-hansard/
Bananas redefined ministerial accountability way back then. He wrote the handbook on ministerial non-accountability and scapegoating. In the event that is not enough, just re-write the history.
Will the HC set a new legal defence of ignorance is an excuse? Does the court of disputed returns have the capacity to set precedent for ‘lower’ courts? Will every defendant in the country be entitled to the ‘bananas defence’?
‘It wasn’t me wot done it, guvnor.’
Thank you Mr Brisbane and commenters. Take care
‘staff member no longer in my employ’.
Interesting that Cash is reported as saying that the staffer who has resigned ‘is no longer in my employ’. The staffer never was in her employ. He was presumably employed by the Cth. Cash’s statement indicates how she considers her role as a public official. She does not occupy the office she is the position. Her person is inseparable from the office she holds. She does not occupy a public office but her and the position are inseparable. Weird. That seems to be the entrenched attitude of the LNP born to rulers. -they do not occupy a public office at the behest of the Australian people but they own it as part of their person. It’s like the government department is a small business and they the owners and proprietors of the small business and entitled to its profits and perks.Such a bad attitude
Kyran. ‘Sooo, wait a minute. A minister of the government didn’t do it, but one of her staff did. When the staff member realised he had misled the minister (who he appears to have accompanied for most of the day), he resigned. The minister then pleaded that ignorance was her excuse. And the staff member has gone into witness protection.’ The staff member has said he got the info from another person in the media? How did the first person get the information to pass it on to the staffer? Sounds like a BIG LIE!
to put a former staffer in witness protection they must be undertaking some very serious damage control and have something very significant to protect….or should I say hide. They are very worried indeed. He’s probably holed up at the IPA doing more ‘research’ on a large ‘scholarship’ for the LNP grubs.
Media advisors take instruction from ministers. Time to Cash-out Michaeliar!
Well here’s a spanner in the works.
The ROC are refusing to answer why they are chasing 2006 financial documents when an entity only has to hold onto them for seven years.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DNHmptWVoAA_uWM.jpg:small
just as I said in another post, the ROC is beyond its jurisdiction and has no power to do what they are doing. yet another LNP ruse by abusing state powers for their own benefit. Fascists!
Max Gross.’ Media advisors take instruction from ministers’ . And your point is? Ministers are agents and employees of the Crown. They do not employ anyone. The Crown does including staff within a department. Ministers are officers of the Crown. They are responsible for the conduct of those in the Department. Cash is responsible for the conduct of her staffer but she doesn’t ’employ’ him personally. So your point is?.
Mobius Echo…
“Worthy judge…
A Daniel come unto judgement”.
I thought that Cash only admitted her office had primed the Media after Buzz Feed had said they received information from her office before the raid. Cash only becomes “honest” and confesses it was her staffer who informed them after the cat was out of the bag. Up till then she was slashing and slicing Shorten and the Union. The Registered Organizations Commissioner also admits after the raid that the premise for the raid was false. We should not believe any of them.