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Day to Day Politics: The getting of Bill Shorten.

Thursday, October 26, 2017

I don’t know how many times I heard Cory Bernardi – when he was a Liberal – say that the conservative side of politics needed an activist group like GetUp!. He understood how effective and successful they are.

It seems to me that the conservative side of politics would be only too happy to have such a successful activist group, and it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to suggest that there are those who are very jealous of GetUp!’s success.

Instead of using the vast resources of the Liberal and National parties to bring about such an efficient communications organisation the conservatives have decided to try to destroy GetUp!, and in the process get up Shorten’s nose and smash his character. Mind you, this has been an ongoing cause for some time. Speaking of time, it’s a pity that the government couldn’t spend more of it running the country rather than devoting so much of it trying all this character destroying.

And so it was that Tuesday of this week the AFP raided the offices of the AWU with the view to finding evidence that Shorten hadn’t followed the Union’s rules when donating a sizeable sum of money to GetUp!. AWU national secretary Daniel Walton labeled the raids:

“An extraordinary abuse of police resources” and part of an attempt to smear Mr Shorten.

“We’re extremely concerned about the actions of the Registered Organisations Commission and extremely concerned of the actions of the Turnbull government,” he said.

[And] In a statement, GetUp! said the dramatic police actions raised “concerning questions” and said the organisation handled the 2005 donation appropriately.

“This is part of a pattern from this government trying to silence its critics or anyone who challenges it,” GetUp! National director Paul Oosting said.

Then we find out that it was Ms Cash’s own media adviser, David De Garis, had tipped off the media. Ms Cash claimed no responsibility even after telling a Senate Estimates Committee that neither she nor her staff had tipped off the media. It often seems that the AFP is only to willing to investigate things that concern the conservative side of politics but the concerns of the left often fall on deaf ears, or fizzle out to nothing.

Late on Tuesday, Opposition employment spokesman Brendan O’Connor said:

“It’s clear from what has happened today that Malcolm Turnbull has intervened and has abused his position in power and abused the resources of the police to make an attack on the leader of the Opposition.”

Mr O’Connor said the ROC, re-established by the government after the double dissolution election, had used its “coercive powers” to deploy police and called on Mr Turnbull to explain his involvement.

Mr Turnbull told reporters the union “has got questions to answer [and] Bill Shorten has questions to answer”, and lashed Mr O’Connor’s comments.

Is GetUp! an associated entity? Well, might I suggest that the Government would be hard-pressed to prove it. What then is the IPA? I’m a member of Getup and I admire the work they do in combating this dreadful excuse for a government. Remember the Registered Organisations Commission is a body only recently set up by the Government. Was it set up for this very purpose? Who knows, but “it’s a bit sus” as we say in Aus.

Is Bill Shorten guilty of donating money to GetUp! without the members approval?

Only time will tell, but given his record thus far I would be surprised if it were so. When you have nothing to sell or say, attacking the man is often the method of last resort.

My thought for the day

“Just because we are governed by clowns it doesn’t mean we have to laugh.”

42 comments

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  1. Shogan

    “An associated entity under the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 (s287) means an entity:
    • that operates wholly or to a significant extent for the benefit of one or more registered political parties”

    Under that description, News Corp & all it’s gutter rags are “associated entities”!!!

  2. wam

    Wow, Lord, comparing lnp instructions to the police to that of labor’s requests.
    How many current or ex-police officers in your family or friends? Have you facebook ‘friends’ or looked at their sites?
    Sadly your first sentence suggest this time they have evidence of get up – labor – shorten connection. But even without unless cash gets a concentrated hammering the mud will be thrown I doubt it will stick but it gives another respite for the mob till the judges free joyce and sack the overseas born one nation and loonies and I can but hope canavan.
    ps good one with the clowns this mob gets scarier by the minute.

  3. Terry2

    Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we pratice to deceive !

    So, the Registered Organisations Commission (ROC) set up last year to harass the Labor Party and the Unions haven’t had much to do recently and somebody in Michaelia Cash’s office told the ROC that they had better lift their game if they were to justify their existence,

    So, the ROC call the AFP and told them that it would be greatly appreciated if they could raid the Melbourne and Sydney offices of the AWU and if they could liaise with media through Cash’s office so that maximum coverage and publicity could be achieved.

    So the AFP set up the raids and tell Cash’s staff when and where these raids would take place and Cash’s media liaison people call up the various media companies to organise coverage.

    Cash maintains wilfull deafness throughout – meaning that she wants to be kept updated on progress but at the same time wants plausible deniability so that she can say that neither she nor her department knew anything about the raids or the coordination of media attendance. This willful blindness (sometimes called ignorance of law, willful ignorance or contrived ignorance or Nelsonian knowledge) is a term used in law to describe a situation in which a person seeks to avoid civil or criminal liability for a wrongful act by intentionally keeping himself or herself unaware of facts.

    In this case the wheels of this pantomime fell off when Cash told the Senate enquiry, on five occasions, that neither she nor her department had tipped off the media but the media came back at her just as they do in pantomimes saying Oh yes you did.

    I give Michaelia until lunch time, she has to take responsibility : she must go !

  4. Bruce

    The AFP have a case to answer here as well. Who in the AFP told Cash’s media adviser of the time of the Raid. I would have thought 35 police officers, many armed, enter the AWU unannounced and escorted by a throng of salivating media. This sounds like a formula for heated tempers, a bit of push and shove, someone getting hurt, or possibly shot.

    The AFP must be held to account for orchestrating this circus.

  5. Zathras

    Whitlam was “a class traitor” who belonged more in the Liberal Party than the ALP.
    Hawke once had a large sum of cash in a motel safe for some unknown reason.
    Keating was an arrogant elitist who collected antique French clocks.
    Beazley just didn’t have “the ticker” to be a PM.
    Latham was a thug with a suspect record while a member of Liverpool council,
    Gillard had an association with the misappropriation of Union funds plus a possibly gay partner.
    Rudd had a wealthy spouse who made her money from government employment contracts, had an unenviable personal record of petulance and allegedly accepted a ute as a form of corrupt payment.

    Now with the polls not going so well for the Government, it’s Shorten’s turn.

    I think I’m beginning to see a pattern here.

    When it comes to funding Getup or the ALP, when I was in the workforce if I objected to some of my Union dues going toward funding these groups I could have resigned from the Union.
    Now, as a self-funded retiree if I object to some of my share dividends or the money I pay to electricity, fuel or telecommunications companies (to name just a few) going to fund political parties as well as the IPA I really can’t do anything about it.

    All I have is my vote.

  6. Glenn Barry

    @ paul walter – what do you think of Cash having been set up on this most recent occasion to dispense with her more quickly in order to avoid all of the difficult fallout over the Hadgkiss

  7. Möbius Ecko

    It was not the AFP who informed Cash’s office of the raids, but the media arm of the ROC. It also happens that Cash’s media advisor and that of the ROC have worked together.

    Also the obtaining the warrant for the raids is sus. It seems it only took a brief phone call to a judge from the ROC. The judge without question or investigation instantly granted the warrant.

    There are so many questionable things about these raids, including 25 AFP officers being available when the AFP had complained a short time ago their resources were stretched. Or this being the fourth raid against Labor targets all at critical times to this government, yet every request by Labor for AFP investigations has been knocked back.

  8. Regional Elder

    John,
    We need to remind ourselves that the IPA was established by good old Rupert’s Dad Keith more than 70 years ago (remember the photo of Abbott fawning over Rupert at the IPA’s 70th bash) , is classified as a ‘ registered charity’ and this nefarious organisation is very coy and totally opaque about its own sources of funding.

    Different rules for different folks it seems ! That is what the Coalition are about in every aspect of their policies

  9. helvityni

    It’s getting weirder by the day, what a strange cuckoo land have I landed in…

    Desperate people resort to desperate measurers…that’s all I can say…

  10. Terry2

    The now rogue staffer in Cash’s office [De Garis} actually attended a meeting between Cash and the Prime Minister just hours before the raids took place: interesting to know what they were discussing.

    So who was DeGaris liaising with at the ROC (or the AFP) to enable him to coordinate the media attendance which was obviously so critical to the government’s strategy ?

    Congratulations to Alice Workman at BuzzFeed for breaking this story : she could be the Woodard & Bernstein of what is developing into Turnbull’s Watergate.

  11. Michael Taylor

    Something else that interested me …

    Turnbull was all worked-up in Question Time yesterday suggesting that Bill Shorten questioned the integrity of the AFP. Turnbull was keen to add something to the effect that the AFP decides who to raid, it’s not a government decision.

    But, but, but, Malcolm … if Cash’s office knew, then in all probability Cash knew too. And if Cash knew, then you knew.

  12. Ricardo29

    How many strikes against her is Cash permitted? How many is this? I am not sure if midday is it, but when you see the level of ridicule she receives in Rowe’s cartoon, you have to think her days are numbered

  13. Peter F

    The very fact that Cash’s MEDIA adviser was informed by the AFP as to the timing and location of the raids should be enough to cause into question the validity of their decision to engage in the raids.

  14. Frank Smith

    This so-called Government have only one policy – it’s called the Kill Bill policy. And in their relentless pursuit of Kill Bill they have shot themselves in the foot with the scheming screamer Cash front and centre. And true to LNP form repeated lies have been told. The only question now is whether she is a scheming lying screamer or a scheming screaming liar. Either way she must go.

  15. Peter F

    ‘The AFP Commissioner reports to the Minister for Justice, the Hon Michael Keenan MP, who became Minister on 18 September 2013.’

    From the AFP website.

    So what has this ti do with Cash’s Media person?

  16. Kronomex

    The LNP Hard Rubber Selective Amnesia Inducer is going to get a good workout yet again.

    They are really starting to become absolutely frightened about being removed at the next election. When you are a party of nothing run by a nothing leader there is little choice but to use the Trebuchet of Mud and Shit Slinging to try and bring down your opponents.

  17. Regional Elder

    With respect to Malcolm, I suspect a Godwin Grech episode is about to explode around him.

  18. 245179

    this whole matter stinks of rotting fish, the “facts” were shared within coalition, “they knew”…the coverups are gobsmacking.I’m begging / pleading for an early election

  19. Kyran

    Oh dear, are we heading for a ‘Cashless’ parliament? Or is this, perchance, the latest trial of a ‘Cashless Welfare Card’? Goodness knows, she has been on welfare for a while.
    Is this the same person who didn’t mislead parliament over property transactions in February? That was, after all, just a lapse of memory.
    Is this the same person who had a ‘conflicted’ role in the RSRT debacle, simultaneously arguing that owner drivers didn’t want a pay rise and that by working for less, their financial situation would improve?
    Is this the same person who doesn’t mislead parliament on a monthly basis over unemployment figures?

    Ah well, at 9.10 am today, she announced;
    “Minister recommends matter is referred to the AFP
    Michaelia Cash has written to the Registered Organisations Commission suggesting the matter be referred to the Australian Federal Police.”

    Oh dear. On The Guardian live feed this morning was this little titbit about the venue for this farce;
    “The hearing, which is being [held] in the same room as “Utegate” was revealed, resumes at 9am.”

    And, just to be completely consistent, Cash now says it was Ms Wong’s fault. It was Ms Wong who set the precedent by denying any knowledge of her staffer talking to a Kiwi colleague.
    Yeah, they are the same. Apparently. All this on the same day DFAT are being queried for lobbying for Adani, more allegations about the Murray Darling scheme, and so on. Oh, and bananas involvement in the water scandal, and the rail spat within the Nat’s. And only one more sleep until the HC decision.
    The adults in charge? In the off chance her credibility survives, there is absolutely no prospect that she can claim to be competent.
    As for our ‘fearless leader’, well, he wanted a re-shuffle didn’t he? It will be so much easier, now that so many are being removed from the selection list.
    Tony, are you free?
    Oh dear. For all of the likening between this governments modus operandi and that of the fascist governments in Europe in the 30’s and 40’s, it is indeed sad that this mob more closely resemble a ‘Hogan’s Heroes’ parody. “I know nothing”. Pass the popcorn. Your thought for the day is very appropriate.
    Thank you Mr Lord and commenters. Take care

  20. jimhaz

    Note than Pauline Hanson is now WORKING FOR THE LNP.

    10:55am on 26 Oct 2017

    Senator Cash is only appearing until 11 am.

    One Nation senator Pauline Hanson is helping her run down the clock by asking how long she has been in Parliament and why she introduced the legislation setting up the Registered Organisations Commission.””

    “10:57am on 26 Oct 2017

    Senator Hanson: “Do you feel this is a political witch hunt by former union bosses?”

    Cue snorts of laughter from some committee members.

    Senator Cash says the nature of the investigation is donations made to the Labor Party.

  21. Möbius Ecko

    But, but, but, Malcolm … if Cash’s office knew, then in all probability Cash knew too. And if Cash knew, then you knew.

    Michael it begs belief that Cash and the staffer in question, David De Garis, met in Turnbull’s office to discuss the media leak, but according to Cash in Estimates at the time, that staffer said nothing until after she “again” sought assurances after the dinner break that none of her staff had leaked.

    That staffer was also in Estimates the first time Cash had denied her or her staffed had leaked to the media, and again said nothing until much later.

    I feel yet again she is going to get away with blatantly lying, this is the third major thing she’s given misleading information on. Yet we have people like Xenophon saying she’s honest and above board and he believes what she says. I expect the Liberals to say this, they stick up for some nasty and very dishonest people after all, but a third party like Xenophon. It would be to his favour if he threw Cash to the wolves as he could paint both major’s as being dishonest to a degree as compared to his integrity.

  22. jimhaz

    [It often seems that the AFP is only to willing to investigate things that concern the conservative side of politics but the concerns of the left often fall on deaf ears, or fizzle out to nothing]

    Police often have similar mindsets to the LNP brigade. Domination and punishment.

    It is also one reason as to why Dutton’s mega-dept is so potentially dangerous as time goes by.

    The AFP seem to have been openly under the LNP’s spell since Traitor John Howard stated manipulating them.

    There is practically zero doubt in my mind that Cash knew of the raid and authorised David De Garis to contact the media. Senior media advisers are employed to know “dirty politics” and with something like this it would have most certainly have been OKEd by Cash. Cash has shown in the past that she is both an idiot and circumstantially corrupt.

  23. paul walter

    Interesting point, Glen Barry. She is surely an embarrassment to the nation, but are not so many of her colleagues also?

    Time for a “Welcome Back Katter” moment. He said he would withdraw support if things went wrong and it’s about time he put his hand up.

    We need a federal election NOW, to end this egregious, chronic and unrelenting criminality, worse than incompetence.

  24. Möbius Ecko
  25. David1

    Zathras…if you are going to throw accusations around re former Labour PM’s, kindly supply links to those accusationns or youi are as bad as Cash and Turnbull, Inuendo does you no credit. No links? It is rubbish.. Incidentally what in Gods name does Julia Gillard having a possible gay partner have anything to do with the discussion or anythinng at all? Showing your homophobic streak of just a bitter closet Tory?
    You may be surprised to learn not all male hairsylists are gay!! No before the blood pressure goes up, I am not in that line of work, but it is an honourable profession.

  26. Peter F

    David1 . . . . perhaps you did not see where his tongue was.

  27. Zathras

    David1,

    You’ve completely missed the point.
    I’m not making those accusations. They were the ones made by previous Liberal governments and Oppositions against ALP leaders at that time.
    My point was that the Liberals have a history of a deliberate strategy to make personal attacks against ALP leaders in order to promote themselves by dragging others down.
    The bizarre accusation made against Gillard’s partner was made on Melbourne radio and no other Prime Minister has faced that sort of personal media victimisation and the compliant media certainly played their part.
    They were like sharks who could smell blood in the water and worked hard to get Abbott elected at any price.

    This current AWU raid fiasco is like the one where Craig Thomson was publicly arrested in front of a tipped-off and waiting media and deliberately timed to coincide with Abbott’s Media conference happening at that time.

    Like the fake Howard/Kennett letter that helped Howard win his first election (do you remember that one?) there was no investigation of the where the tip-off originated, despite assurances that it would be followed up by the next Coalition Government after the election.

    It’s how these people play the game and take the voters for gullible fools.

    If it matters, I’ve never been a Tory – closet or otherwise – I still “maintain the rage” after all those years and am a proud “Yes” voter in the current survey.

    Cheers.

  28. jimhaz

    I note the Murdoch media both in 2013 and now are trying their best to throw mud at Daniel Andrews re the accident his wife had.

    Murdoch entities seem to be becoming more and more Briebart-like as each year goes by. They’ve been as bad as the Drudge Report in terms of bias for years now.

  29. David1

    Zathras…thankyou for the clarification, the message you were sending was not initially clear to me. However without furher labouring the point, I am happy to accept your intention was honourable and wish you well.

  30. Ross

    Where did the wheel stop on this week’s spin of the Clustometer for Malcolm, is it
    1) A fiasco,
    2) A crisis,
    3) A scandal,
    4) A debacle,
    5) A cock up,
    6) A confluence of events.
    On current performance we may have to add another slot called all of the above for next week’s spin.

  31. Terry2

    OK ! I thought she’d be gone by lunchtime following the Westminster tradition of a Minister falling on his/her sword but no, they’re going to tough it out.

    It now appears that they will refer David De Garis to the AFP for leaking confidential information about an AFP operation. This is where the problem arises when you don’t have a federal ICAC : the AFP will be investigating a leak which may very well have come from the AFP.

    Watch this space !

  32. Terry2

    For the record, some people believe that this AFP raid on the AWU offices was to obtain documents that had previously been requested by the ROC but which the AWU had declined to provide.

    To be clear, the head of the ROC, Mark Bielecki, had initially insisted that the raid was necessitated by the failure of the AWU to cooperate with the ROC in furnishing documents relating to the Getup donation. Then, at 10.40pm last night, Bielecki abruptly reversed himself and said this :

    can I just go back to an answer I gave you previously when I said that not all notices to produce had been fulfilled by the AWU? That’s not correct. I got them confused with a different registered organisation. So, I withdraw that answer.”

    So, why raid the AWU, why not raid the other registered organisation ?

  33. paul walter

    Glen Barry, these people do not lie unless brazenly. And a GIANT zip to Xenophon for saying that expecting Cash’s resignation would be “unreasonable”.

    He has absolutely demonstrated himself to be Murdoch’s poodle, in his sly campaign to disrupt SA politics. He is a true rent boy.

    If Cash having to resign would be “unreasonable”, what could we say about Scott Ludlum’s departure?

  34. David1

    Well said Terry2 and Paul Walter. There is a heap of lying and attempted coverups going on with stories being hurredly changed as the facts are revealed.. As for the media lap dog Xenophon, he is an absolute embarrasment and why voters of SA cannot see through the charade he presents is beyond me.
    Must congratulate Bill Shorten on his speech following question time, he tore the Govt and Turnbull in particular to shreds. He and Minister Cash are well aware of Tony Burke’s investigative talents,like his work. Long way to go in this one and tomorrow adds to the drama with the Courts release of the Immigration cases decisons.

  35. diannaart

    Thanks John Lord,

    I KNEW I heard some RWNJ complaining about not having a RWNJ-Get-Up, thought it was Dutton, but turns out to be Bernardi.

    As for the entire AFP/Cash/Media/GetUp….. thingy….. what is going on that we are not seeing???

  36. jim

    Right wing compare carli wassta on ch9 “New Zealand is gunna go backwards now that they’ve elected the wrong government chuckle chuckle ..hah..haa”
    Well he’s paid over a million dollars pa say no more .

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