George stamps his Brand.
As Attorneys General go, one would have to concede that George Brandis is more high profile than most but a quick review of his “achievements” so far shows a sorry lack of perspective for the highest lawmaker in the land and many inconsistencies.
After his relentless pursuit of Craig Thomson and Peter Slipper, an unapologetic Brandis was forced to repay $1683.06 in taxpayer-funded entitlements he claimed after attending the wedding of a close friend, shock jock Michael Smith, despite saying he did nothing wrong.
In a letter to the Department of Finance, Senator Brandis said he considered the costs were within parliamentary entitlements, “since they were incurred in the course of attendance at a function primarily for work-related purposes”.
He added: “I remain of that view.”
We then had the debacle of the Brandis library. More than $15,000 of taxpayers’ money was spent on a second custom-built bookcase to house Attorney-General George Brandis’ extensive collection of books and law reports because the one we paid $7000 for in 2010 was too big to move to his new office.
Last year Senator Brandis defended spending $13,000 on reading materials including political thriller The Marmalade Files, Best Australian Political Cartoons and Christopher Hitchens’ autobiography Hitch-22.
As Minister for the Arts, Senator Brandis said he was also the “Minister for Books”.
One of Senator Brandis’ first actions was to have the ACT gay marriage laws repealed. This was only possible because Howard changed the marriage act to define it as between a “man and a woman”.
George also embarked on a “bonfire of regulations to cut red tape”. This included earth shattering reforms likes changing the word e-mail to email and facsimile to fax and trademark to trade mark as well as repealing laws such as the one which regulates how long a senior cadet drills for.
As Minister for the Arts, Brandis expressed outrage when the Biennale of Sydney chose to reject private sponsorship from Transfield when nine artists threatened to boycott the event in protest at the sponsor’s involvement in off-shore detention centres. He sent a strongly worded letter to the Australia Council which signalled a significant shake-up of arts funding to avoid political “blackballing”, in the wake of what he described as the “shameful” decision.
“You will readily understand,” writes the minister, “that taxpayers will say to themselves: ‘If the Sydney Biennale doesn’t need Transfield’s money, why should they be asking for ours?’ ”
He directed the Australia Council to develop a policy so that it would be a condition of the receipt of Australia Council funding that the arts organisation concerned not unreasonably refuse or unreasonably terminate private sponsorship. I wonder if that means they must accept sponsorship from tobacco companies.
Punishment was swift with the budget announcing
“Uncommitted funding to arts programs administered by the Attorney‑General’s Department will be reduced, a move that will directly affect the Australia Council and Screen Australia. Savings of A$87.1 million over four years will be achieved, with cuts to Screen Australia of A$25.1m over four years, and cuts to Australia Council of A$28.2m.
Funding for the Adelaide Festival Centre’s support for Asian cultural activities will also be ceased, with an estimated saving of A$1.8 million.”
One group who did well in the budget was the Australian Ballet School which immediately put the extra $1 million they were given towards the purchase of a $4.7 million Melbourne mansion. The fact that the wife of former Liberal Arts Minister Rod Kemp (now chairman of right-wing lobby group the Institute of Public Affairs) is on the Ballet School’s board had nothing to do with the funding announced in the budget, according to those involved.
Budget pain from Brandis was not confined to the Arts and started as soon as he got his hands on the reins.
Last year, as shadow Attorney General, George Brandis shared the stage with Mark Dreyfuss at a legal conference in Melbourne. They both agreed that improving access to justice by increasing funding for legal assistance was vital after the decimation of the Howard years.
Demand for free legal services far exceeds capacity due to chronic underfunding, a problem acknowledged by repeated government inquiries. The consequence is that many people can’t get the legal help they need for problems such as employment law, family violence, debt and tenancy issues.
Yet in his first months of office, even before the report of the Commission of Audit (let alone his government’s first budget), Brandis announced a massive cut to Commonwealth legal assistance funding. The $10m that the Gillard government had provided to bolster environment defenders’ offices, and that had already been contracted for, was stripped away through a claw-back provision that allows for funding contracts to be broken where there is a change of government policy, even though this government appears bereft of an environmental policy.
Brandis also stripped over $13m from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal assistance services, despite the unequivocal evidence of unmet legal need in Indigenous communities across Australia. Included in this was $3.6m withdrawn from Indigenous Family Violence Prevention Legal Services (IFVPLS), a particularly cruel decision given the horrific cycles of family violence gripping some Aboriginal communities.
An Aboriginal woman explained to the ABC the importance of having a culturally sensitive service.
“It meant that I didn’t need to have to explain my position as an Aboriginal woman and mother,” she said.
“It meant that I was working with Aboriginal workers as well, and it meant that when I have the service in court that they were able to speak as if I was the one that was speaking about my situation as an Aboriginal woman.”
The Queensland Indigenous Family Violence Legal Service told a recent inquiry that the vast majority of their work is in assistance for women who have had their children removed by child protection services. Such removals are causing immense pain in communities. This year, almost 14,000 Aboriginal children were in “out-of-home-care”, more than were removed at any time during the Stolen Generations. This is five times the numbers in care when the landmark Bringing Them Home report was delivered 1997, despite its warnings that the dynamics of the Stolen Generations remained present.
Australia wide, Aboriginal children are 31 times more likely to be incarcerated. But the Liberal government in Queensland is set to change legislation dealing with juvenile offenders, removing clauses citing detention as a “last resort”. Shane Duffy, the chairperson of the peak National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (NATSILS), has called for an urgent intervention from the UN to stop the terrible impact this will have on Aboriginal children.
But NATSILS too have just had their funding completely withdrawn, knee-capping such advocacy. Across Australia, Aboriginal legal services will have all their policy officer positions cut and are anticipating future funding agreements will prohibit them advocating publicly around the issues affecting their people.
An independent economic cost-benefit analysis commissioned by the National Association of Community Legal Centres highlights the economic case for properly funded legal services. The analysis showed that every dollar spent by government on community legal centres returned, on average, $18 in economic benefit to society.
At the same time, he found more than $2m to give to those who are opposing native title claims.
He also made the inexplicable decision to appoint Tim Wilson, a man with no qualifications or experience and who did not have to go through an application or interview process, as Human Rights Commissioner drawing a salary of $389,000 a year. To accommodate this act of nepotism, Brandis sacked Graeme Ennis, the Commissioner for the Disabled who has spent many years in tireless advocacy and who is responsible for many of the reforms that have allowed our disabled to live with dignity.
Wilson’s whole raison d’etre was to champion the repeal of the ‘Bolt laws’, which now renders him pointless as Tony has decided to drop the whole affair after enormous public and internal backlash.
Senator Brandis is stirring up hornets’ nests internationally too.
First there was his inept handling of the ASIO raids on East Timor’s Australian based lawyer. He proudly announced these raids by press release, only to discover that he had touched off an international incident that would embarrass Australian internationally and land us in the international court of justice – this time as a defendant accused of breaching due process and the national sovereignty of our poor neighbour.
Then there was the astonishing argument over whether East Jerusalem should be referred to as “Occupied” or “disputed”. This was sparked when Senator Lee Rhiannon asked why the Australian ambassador met with the Israeli housing minister in Occupied East Jerusalem. Brandis, rather than answering, refused to countenance the word “occupied”.
Rhiannon: “You do not use the term ‘occupied’ even though it is a United Nations term used widely by a number of international agencies like the European Union etc?”
Brandis: “It is used by a lot of people. It is used by a lot of communists too. Weren’t you a member of the Communist Party once?…….The point I made, is that the Australian government does not refer to East Jerusalem by the descriptor ‘occupied East Jerusalem’. We speak of East Jerusalem.”
The timing of this for the Peter Greste case was diabolical.
After his infamous speech in defence of bigots where Senator Brandis protected their right to be offensive, I was rather surprised to hear that George has accused Fairfax Media of publishing anti-Semitic coverage of the Middle East, and denounced a cartoon in The Sydney Morning Herald depicting a Jewish man with an exaggerated nose as comparable to propaganda from Nazi Germany.
Asked if the cartoon amounted to racial vilification and could encourage or incite others to hate Jews, Senator Brandis said: “It certainly constitutes a racial form of stereotyping. I think The Sydney Morning Herald and Fairfax Media in general ought to be very careful about the almost overtly anti-Semitic tone some of their commentary, including their editorial cartoon, have adopted.”
But stereotyping people of Aboriginal descent is just fine apparently, as are front pages depicting MPs as fascists.
And now we will spend $630 million on the new proposed anti-terrorism laws which will compel telcos to keep our long term metadata and will broaden powers to detain people with the onus on them to prove their innocence.
We can actually thank them, along with Brandis’ bigot speech and the 5000 responses it prompted, for the dropping of the Section 18c changes. The Prime Minister’s view was that the overwhelmingly negative feedback about the changes, combined with the proposed anti-terror laws, meant the government could no longer keep Muslims offside.
When Brandis should have been vocal, there was “craven silence from the Australian government about the grave constitutional crisis in Nauru, where the chief justice and resident magistrate have been illegally deposed by the government.”
Likewise, he has been silent on the assault on our civil liberties imposed by Queensland’s draconian anti-bikie laws.
Perhaps some of George’s problems stem from his statement “when I want to know what’s going on in politics, I turn to Fox News, not the ABC.”
Or perhaps he’s just not very bright.
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Return to home page“Or perhaps he’s just not very bright.”
Let’s face it, that sums up the entire LNP front bench and their supporters. Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.
I really wonder (and despair) at Brandis. He seems to be a person of reasonable ‘book smarts’ intelligence, so how the hell does he run around spouting ideological diatribe and not realise the negative reaction it’s going to receive. I really must be naive because I have often thought that when people are exposed to others ideas and positions, it can only help to expand their own (in terms of understanding and tolerance). Clearly ideology trumps reason (which makes me wonder about my own point of view!).
“Or perhaps he’s just not very bright”
Hit the nail on the head there Kaye. What a bumbling bonkers fool Brandis is…
He got his uni degrees out of the weeties packet…..
Abbotts Chief of Staff Peta Credlin had a drink driving charge dismissed after returning a reading of .075 in the ACT court.
“……..Perhaps some of George’s problems stem from his statement “when I want to know what’s going on in politics, I turn to Fox News, not the ABC.”
Or perhaps he’s just not very bright.”
Dare I suggest he is bright enough to know which side his bread is buttered and who provides the ingredients…..Fox and owner Murdoch may be the answer.
I think it a rather dangerous practice for the Attorney General to be providing references for court cases.
Knowing where your bread is buttered is one thing this government DOES excel at. Just have a look at the gust list from the IPA 70th anniversary dinner
Abbott, Brandis, Joyce, Bolt, Pell, Murdoch, Rinehart, and more. Tim Wilson did well out of that evening as did Rod Kemp’s wife.
Abbotts Chief of Staff PETA Credlin had a drink driving charge dismissed after returning a reading of .075 in the ACT court. The reason she got off the charges was that Attorney General George Brandis submitted a letter to the court attesting to her good behaviour .The court case took place within the first week of the Liberals taking Government,the offence occurred in May.The liberal /LNP party think they are above the law.i doubt that anyone else has received this preferential treatment .
@Lee: “Or perhaps he’s just not very bright.”
After a quick read on wicki Brandis seems to have been quite well educated including a BA along the way.
It’s funny how being caught up in some ideology can leave one a captive of that ideology. These people stop arguing to the ideology and wind up arguing from it. It’s a common-enough thing. It amounts to an ‘selective intellect bypass’.
He certainly doesn’t strike me as a very nice chap. By geez he looked demolished and humiliated standing there as Captain Abbott pulled rank on him. If a leadership spill ever occurs I’d so much like to see Brandis throw his hat into the ring. Sigh…
@Kaye Lee: “Knowing where your bread is buttered is one thing this government DOES excel at. Just have a look at the gust list from the IPA 70th anniversary dinner”
Was ‘gust list’ a slip or deliberate?
“After a quick read on wicki Brandis seems to have been quite well educated including a BA along the way.”
More importantly, he has two law degrees and is a Queen’s Counsel (QC). Someone in his position should be above preferential treatment (e.g. for Peta Credlin’s drink-driving offence) and supporting the right of people to express their racist views.
Non-intentional…perhaps a subconscious melding of guest and disgust? Listening to Tony’s speech I detect more than gust of hot air.
” Just have a look at the gust list from the IPA 70th anniversary dinner”
I think you ment guts not gust Kaye, but you can only hope a big gust of wind blows them toooooo the faraway tree. Never to be seen again, either way it gave me a laugh, funny how a typo can change the whole meaning lol 😉
Or was it guest? now I look at gust, guts etc etc ,,,,tooo funny ROFL now 🙂
Lol looking at other comments, gust has taken off lol
It’s now official,George Brandis is dis gust ing.
It’s a great summary Kaye but you may have missed his greatest achievement, at least in an historical sense, for it was Brandis who labelled Howard – A Lying Rodent. A moniker that resonated, and has stood the test of time.
And he has been known to compare himself with Voltaire. He’s not short of an ‘ego’.
Well recognised as manifesting in the Dunning-Kruger stakes.
They may have been enjoying a degustation but being in a room with that lot would have given me indigustion
Matters Not,
There is so much more that could have been added to the Brandis story but lying rodent should definitely have got a guernsey. Thanks for the suggustion
I hope this news just put up by The Age and the SMH is correct:
Liberal Party members threaten to quit party after Tony Abbott’s backdown on changes to race hate laws, says Institute of Public Affairs
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/liberal-party-members-threaten-to-quit-party-after-tony-abbotts-backdown-on-changes-to-race-hate-laws-says-institute-of-public-affairs-20140806-3d8i7.html#ixzz39agHr7tI
The IPA are not happy with Mr Abbott. I wonder what the fan will look like if all this eventuates – attack adds an Abbott (using his own words) funded by the IPA.
George Brandis likes to get mention by his full title.
George Brandis QC and do you know what QC stands for queer c^%t.
It fits Brandis down to the ground
“Mr Abbott phoned Bolt and John Roskam from the IPA to tell them he would be announcing the government would be abandoning its reforms ahead of Tuesday’s public announcement.”
Well that clears up any doubt about who Abbott considers important. Our PM rings Andrew Bolt???????
“”The feeling from many supporters of the Coalition is a combination of deep sadness and disappointment and white hot anger.”
He warned the Liberal Party base was becoming increasingly unhappy about the Coalition’s decision to break key election commitments.
“This comes on top of Tony Abbott increasing taxes, not cutting spending and now implementing potentially a vast government program of surveillance of every Australian,” he said.
“What many people can’t understand is that he will compromise on a fundamental freedom but not an expensive, ineffective welfare scheme for the middle class.”
I hate to think what they will do to appease the wrath of the IPA. That’s Rupie talking.
Ruh roh…..they are taking on the Credlin boy. This could get interesting
“Federal Liberal Party director Brian Loughnane has been drawn into a corruption scandal embroiling the party after an inquiry heard allegations he rubberstamped the use of federal channels to subvert the NSW ban on donations from property developers.”
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/icac-hears-that-liberal-party-boss-brian-loughnane-knew-of-developer-donations-going-through-federal-channels-20140806-100vlc.html#ixzz39afCZUin
““Federal Liberal Party director Brian Loughnane has been drawn into a corruption scandal embroiling the party after an inquiry heard allegations he rubberstamped the use of federal channels to subvert the NSW ban on donations from property developers.”
Excellent. *rubs hands together with glee* Thanks for posting, Kaye. I’ve been too busy today to check the news sites and this just made my day.
After the way Fairfax treated Mike Carlton over his comments to abusing posters, who took exception to his support for the Palestinians, being murdered mercilessly by Israel, I can no longer treat very much of Fairfax articles with respect
Snap Kaye Lee, my thoughts exactly
Yep Mr Credlins name brought up today…..watch the dominoes fall now 😉
I wouldn’t trust Mike Carlton as far as I could throw him, a lot of self promotion going on with him
He quit before and went back 12 months later, it’s a beat up he will go back to SMH,
Mike cares about know one except Mike…
I take it you know the man personally Dan, given you appear to know all about him. Can’t imagine otherwise, your “wouldn’t trust” comment and “self promotion” is hardly something you would know from reading his column.
I don’t read Mikes stuff, oh once I did, and I did reply to his article and told him not to underestimate the Coal ition, but a picture speaks a thousand words David, I will leave it at that okay…here is the letter I wrote him
Mike I was just reading an article you wrote back on 1st feb
Nothing good in there,just assumptions of how bad it will be.
It will be worse than you ever imagined, if this dictator Abbott
and his henchmen are in power a day longer than they should be.
So hence I will inform you if you dont already know
the people are fighting back
March in March a no confidence vote in Abbott and Co
“Not in my name Mister Abbott”will be the theme
Its country wide on weekend of 15th-17th of March
There is a face book page with all the details times
and places in cities and towns across the country
Where the people will come out in masses to send
Tyrant Tony a message,He needs to go and go now
He is a phony a liar,corrupt
and involed in crimes against humanity
What you put out you will get back,its called Karma
And Abbott gave Julia hell,so he will get that and more back
and it will blind sided him,March in March
Just like he blind sided Julia any chance the
PIG of a man got,Abbott is sub-human
a nothing pretending he is a something…
Regards
Dan
[$630 million on the new proposed anti-terrorism laws]
Wow, I didn’t know it was so much. I do not listen to Abbott on TV, so I missed that bit.
After Howard i imagine we already spend enough in this particular area.
This mob is getting scared about ministers assassinations, the voter implications of a terrorist event here, and perhaps are gearing up systems to follow in the US’s wake of increasingly apparent desires for 1984 style control over the population.
10-50 million extra per annum would be enough to cover the 150 or so idiots who go over to fight.
and in other news……no wonder Malcolm is paying to look backwards.
“The aforementioned shot to the foot has come as Turnbull – who seems to believe he’s doing something progressive by getting on with the FttN rollout – has simply played into Telstra’s hands by giving the company the clearest indication yet of the true value of its copper access network (CAN).
This, you will recall, is the network that Turnbull seriously believed would be given to the government at no cost after “slight adjustments” to the Telstra Definitive Agreement negotiated by the previous government. Yet with the FttN trial now announced, Turnbull has proved to Telstra that the copper network has significant remaining value.
Basic maths suggest that if the company can get $150 million from the government to deploy FttN to 206,000 premises, and if Telstra’s network reaches 10 million endpoints, that full deployment of FttN over Telstra’s network would be worth $7.275 billion to the company – and that’s without actually selling the network.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but there’s a rather large gap between zero and $7.275 billion – and I’m sure Telstra can do the same maths, with even better accuracy. And, if we were to use those figures to extrapolate the cost of buying the actual network, perhaps using the six-times-earnings rule of thumb from the NBN Strategic Review – we get a suggestion that the full purchase price of Telstra’s copper might be around $43.65 billion.
Hmmmm. A $43 billion network investment. Something about that number sounds familiar. And while I readily admit that figure piles assumption upon estimation and is likely to be incorrect in practice, it highlights the way that things could well work out if Telstra decides to dig in and drag the government over the coals as it works to renegotiate its Definitive Agreement.
Telstra now knows its network does indeed have commercial value – and it’s significant, especially since the current government’s broadband vision is entirely predicated on that network. If Turnbull still honestly believes the company won’t fight him tooth and nail to extract that value, he might as well resign now.”
http://www.zdnet.com/turnbull-ignores-looming-nbn-disaster-as-scales-weighs-in-7000032317/
Yes jimhaz,
$630 million for perhaps 150 people equates to over $4 million per suspect. What a good allocation of resources considering the BUDGET.
Labor’s NBN, which Turnbull’s own Strategic Review confirmed could have been built for around $7 billion per year and delivered a major driver for economic growth, has been predictably rubbished while the Coalition’s $5.5 billion per year paid parental leave scheme, a bald-face vote-buying exercise that remains a high-water mark of Abbott government hypocrisy, is apparently exempt from such considerations because, as Turnbull is quoted in the AFR as saying, “it’s not infrastructure”. As if that makes it OK.
Now that the adults are in charge I am really relying on the kids to file for divorce. Register to vote and use it wisely. You will save this humble mathematical mind from insanity if nothing else.
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Brandis is the product of Queensland.
One day there will probably be a statue of him ….. right beside that of Joh Bjelke-Petersen.
Thanks for the response Dan, I rest my case M’Lud
Cheers
And Tim Wilson can kneel down every day in front of it and…..
Ok I really need to stop reading the underground news.
Lol Tim Wilson on his knees, he will be begging for mercy on his knees when it’s all said and done,
he is a twit that’s for sure…
Surely “arts” and “brandis” within view of each other, amounts to an oxymoron?
A very small man in very big pants.
@david linehan
Good call on Carleton. Just cancelled my Fairfax Media subscription because of it. Something not right when an experienced media identity gets arseholed for telling some extremist nutters to go root themselves and yet they print the brain-dead-drivel / dribble from Amanda Vanstone.
Mainstream media in this country is screwed. The politics is screwed. And the sooner the Murdoch / IPA / shithead Abbott regime is told to piss off the better.
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Oh poor, poor Brandis :
http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/george-brandis-in-car-crash-interview-over-controversial-data-retention-regime-20140806-101849.html
If I ever stop laughing I will offer him my sympathy …… just after pigs flying backwards to keep the dust out of their eyes do a three point landing on the head of a pin.
Just watched the link John. Demonstrated in spades that’s he’s completely out of his depth. One wonders what they are doing when they receive their ‘briefings’. We know that Abbott is on his bike in preference to understanding what the ‘issues’ are. Perhaps Brandis is reduced to repairing the punctures? Are they too arrogant to say: I don’t understand? Please explain?
No doubt, that ‘performance’ will be the feature of the next ‘piss up’ preceded by the footage that includes his claim that Shy News is his preferred source of TV political news.
Don’t hold back Jason!
The Fairfax press appears to be the only media organization running the story about how pissed off the IPA is about Captain Crackers’ (AKA Abbott). They (and if Kaye Lee is correct) and Murdoch are likely to turn on Capt’n Crackers as they did with Billy McMahon in the early ’70’s. Even they must feel conflicted here about the ALP. Woo hoo.
(I couldn’t give a FF about Carlton get over it of you are conflicted. Go away)
And now we have Petra’s husband being linked to a couple of stood-down NSW Libs shown as blatantly corrupt in a RC. Poetic justice is the best kind. Nothing like the brown envelope containing real-state developer cash to get across the right idea. Shady. Clandestine, Corrupt and so on.
I wonder where it will all end? I know where I want it will end. Tears before bedtime.
It’s late and I’ve had a few glasses of plonk. It’s about ‘shadow stuff’, but it’s real nevertheless. I want to see this bastard so-called ‘government’ shown up for what they really are and to see them humiliated. like Brandis currently is, when we all get to say what we think at the next election.
I want a significant number of us to say “We don’t want your ideology and bullshit and lies and transparently-obvious scare campaigns and dumb slogans.” I want us to say, unambiguously, that we want intelligent policy and we’ve finally woken up to your brand of bullshit and spin and we’re not going to take it anymore. Ahem… I’m 24 again! And how nice it feels. It’s great to have some real bastards to feel righteous about. To push against. Thank you Tony Abbot and Co. Pardon me for being so self-indulgent. I do hope I’m speaking for more than just me here.
On a more depressing note. It’s the clever ones that worry me the most. I mean we have a front-bench of obvious idiots. They are doing us all a favour. But what if the alternative is a smarter bunch of idiots. A scary thought I hope. The Abbot government will subside into history as a failed experiment. But what will replace it? ALP: are you lot listening? We need a viable alternative. Just not more of the ‘dominant paradigm’ crap. So glad that Rudd (the Ruddbot) is out of the picture.
Wouldn’t it be a hoot if Julia Gillard was re-elected? How sweet that would be if she was PM again with a decent majority? But I digress..
Boot Captain Crackers and his disfrunctonal crew out now. Do it for ‘team ‘straya’ now for Buddas’ sake if for no other reason.
“Cabinet ministers learned the national security committee had decided to proceed with the data retention plan from Tuesday morning’s newspapers, and Guardian Australia can reveal it caused a heated discussion in cabinet that morning, as the communications minister, Malcolm Turnbull, became exasperated and angry at the lack of factual information about how it would work in practice.”
Tony Abbott makes phone calls to the IPA and Andrew Bolt to let them know what is going down and then his Cabinet ministers read Rupert’s papers to find out.
Brandis QC, Senior Law Officer in the Commonwealth, Oversea of the Courts of the Land, Attorney General in the Cabinet of the Govt of Australia, Confidant of the PM of Australia…Idiot Extraordinaire, Brainless Coot, Pea Brain, Order of the Most Venerable Arsoles.
That interview made my morning. Copy, paste, write it down, file it. it is worth many replays.
Praise the Lord!!!!
http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/george-brandis-in-car-crash-interview-over-controversial-data-retention-regime-20140806-101849.html
Rob031 pissed in charge of a key board has never been a good idea. Your post confirms it.
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"George Brandis cancels appearance at free speech forum"
Probably received the same "new and credible information" that Abbott told parliament about in relation to MH370.
Brandis is missing ….. probably sitting under the taxpayer funded shelves reading a taxpayer funded book about meta data.
Lol you are on fire today John F,
meta data, something barnacle Brandis needs to get up to speed on, oh don’t ask him about the speed of the internet though, cos that could really confuse him, I doubt he can even read, I bet you all the pages in them thousands of books in that big bookcase have been replaced by pictures from Golden Books, they are about his level of knowledge and mentality.
With Brandis not going, who will accept the new ‘roadmap’ from Tim?
Craig Thomson’s claim of a set-up — about which in Parliament Coalition Christopher Pyne dismissed as totally lacking any credibility.
This appears to be a strange statement, as there seem to be a few fairly obvious discrepancies in the evidence against Craig Thomson, which can be easily identified from the public record.
Firstly, let’s talk about Craig Thompson; that’s right, Thompson — with a “p”.
On the credit card imprints reportedly offered as evidence in December 2010 by Fairfax Media in their defence of Thomson’s defamation proceedings (which were eventually settled out of court) it was a person named “Thompson” (not Thomson, as Craig Thomson spells his name) who had received the notorious escort services.
According to Fairfax reporter Geesche Jacobsen, in a story published on 10 December 2010 (emphasis mine):
‘The court was hearing legal argument in a defamation case brought by Mr Thomson, the Labor member for Dobell, against Fairfax Media, publisher of the Herald. The paper last year published allegations concerning the use of a credit card issued by Mr Thomson’s then employer, the Health Services Union.
‘Fairfax’s barrister, Sandy Dawson, told the court credit card statements for $2475 and $385 in Mr Thomson’s name showed two entries in the name of Keywed Pty Ltd Restaurant in Surry Hills, on April 9, 2005 and August 16, 2007. That company name was linked to the escort agency Sydney Outcalls, he said, and it was not unusual for adult services to make the entry on financial records ”look like a culinary experience rather than a more sensual one”.
‘The credit card vouchers for the transactions were issued in Mr Thomson’s name, were signed and noted a driver’s licence number. According to subpoenaed RTA records, a licence with that number was issued to Mr Craig Robert Thomson of Bateau Bay. NSW drivers’ photo licences can be used to verify a person’s identification.’
Evidence reportedly tendered by Fairfax in defamation proceedings brought against them by Craig Thomson.
As you can see by the image above, the surname on the credit card imprint purportedly made by Craig Thomson clearly spells “Thompson”.
It is also a manual credit card imprint from one of those old fashioned credit card machines, which results in a receipt showing a carbon copy of the face of the credit card. In other words, the credit card alleged to have been used by Craig Thomson had his name spelt wrong.
Down the right hand margin if you look closely, you will see in pink letters Bank Copy. This pink copy should be in the hands of the bank , not the union.
The number and the date in blue ink should never be on a carbon copy. The number 211 is actually a rejection code used by banks to tell the seller that the transaction is rejected and therefore has not occurred.
Then there is the issue of the black pen with a different hand written numbers, again on the third carbon copy where no one should be able to write.
In other words this is a fake and should have been looked at by the court. I suspect the Barrister Sandy Dawson may have spotted this and urged a settlement out of court. Instead the mad right wing shock jocks at 2UE /Fairfax blew this up and for two years Abbott and Company turned it into a half million fraud.
This evidence was introduced by Fairfax as “forensic evidence” of Craig Thomson’s use of prostitutes with a HSU credit card. Are they truly saying that Craig Thomson was using an official HSU credit card that was not even issued in his own name?
Has anyone questioned whether the credit card used for the imprint was actually such a poor forgery it didn’t even get the name of the target precisely correct? Bear in mind that the card was swiped manually, not through an EFT console, so any forgery would only need to duplicate the face of the card and not the magnetic strip.
Perhaps Fairfax’s investigative crime journalist Kate McClymont, who wrote 12 stories about Craig Thomson without interviewing him once, as he noted in his speech, can explain this apparent discrepancy? We look forward to this obvious question being answered.
IPA has raised $10,000 an hour to get $45,000 to produce and ad attacking Abbott on his decision to repeal 18c.
The really big laugh is that John Roskam says that it proves this is a big deal for “grassroots”.
So Roskam thinks wealthy business owners for whom $10,000 is like a dollar to the real grassroots, are the grassroots.
They really do live in another make believe world detached from reality.
John I had seen that (to me utter rubbish and forged) information re Craig’s supposed use of HSU card for prostitute services. While I agree the court should have enquired into the glaring anomalies, did Craig’s defence team not persue the facts you alluded to? I understand Peter Wicks on his excellent investigative site http://wixxyleaks.com also discussed your concerns.
Thanks for the interesting post.
Am not too happy about having hot tea pouring from my nostrils while I try to stop choking. Gagging sounds are not particularly nice, especially to the gaggee !! I have just been to the link ‘car crash interview’ … ( and some of the comments here are priceless as well.)
It was extremely funny, but also damned tragic. If that makes me a nasty ‘itch-bay’ … then so be it.
Hurling a big red herring into the mix, I am wondering what Brandis might have said, if the Skye reporter had been so unkind as to introduce the problem or fact ( whichever way you might like to see it ) … of static and / or dynamic IP addresses. ??? I rather think Brandis would have ‘done a Clive’ …… and left – throwing his papers on the chair. !!
Don’t get me wrong please. I know little to nothing about IP addresses or how the whole thing works. Nobody in the Government knows either. Am still looking it all up, but will probably never quite get the gist of it. The reason I thought about it, was some time back I noticed my own IP address show up on something – now cannot recall what. For some reason I typed it into my little Word Doc of websites etc.. A couple of months later it had changed, yet I had not changed my computer, or anything to do with logging on. I thought ” hmmm – interesting ” and promptly forgot about it – until now.
For anyone interested … here is a link to get an idea of it how it works ?? http://whatismyipaddress.com/dynamic-static
And from my own server :
” I.P. ADDRESSES :
6.1 Any I.P. address allotted to You by Us, whether as a static or dynamically
allocated address:
6.1.1 remains Our sole property;
6.1.2 may be changed or revoked by Us at Our discretion at any time;
and
6.1.3 is not transferable.
6.2 Unless a Plan states otherwise, We are not obliged to allot You a static I.P.
address.
I don’t know if the above tells anyone here, anything ? But I am wondering, with blunderbus at the head of things, how they will avoid spending billions MORE on the setting up of ‘meta-data collection and retention’. Of course the Gov’t have a huge scad of IT experts on hand to ‘help’. Which in itself could be interesting, and long term. An ISP reported this morning ” it will cost us ( the ISP ) millions to set up and run “. There’s another dandy how-de-do. Not to mention the extra $130 per year per customer it will cost US – according to their calculations : http://www.businessinsider.com.au/australian-data-retention-plan-will-cost-consumers-130-year-says-iinet-2014-8
Just thought I’d throw that one in !!! 😉
Kaye – your article is fantastic and so very informative. A joy to read the way it’s been written. The content is not so joyous of course.
Ref. the trashing of many assistances to Aboriginal / Indigenous people’s needs. Smacks of absolute racism to me. !!
Not too fond of having hot tea come out of my nose, while I try to stop choking. Gagging sounds are not the nicest – to the gaggee. Have just returned from the link to “car-crash-interview “, which resulted in my ‘discomfort’ !! It was insanely amusing, but also damned tragic. The twin theatre masks of fun and misery.
Throwing a red herring into the mix, I wonder what might have happened if the Skye reporter had been so unkind as to ask Brandis about the diference between static and dynamic IP addresses. Only thought of this, as I had noticed some time back ( can’t recall how or why ) that my own IP address seems to change. Using the same computer, and same way of logging on, and the same plan. Rather think Brandis would have ‘done a Clive’ ….. got up and left, after throwing his papers on the chair.
Please don’t get me wrong … I know little to NOTHING about IP addresses – why and when they change etc. Have just tried to learn a wee bit about it … and will most likely never get the gist of it. Wasn’t really interested in why my IP address had changed, and perhaps keeps changing ….. but I am now !! Here is a link for anyone interested, that tries to explain in simple terms what they are.
http://whatismyipaddress.com/dynamic-static
Also from my own ISP – the following :
I.P. ADDRESSES
6.1 Any I.P. address allotted to You by Us, whether as a static or dynamically
allocated address:
6.1.1 remains Our sole property;
6.1.2 may be changed or revoked by Us at Our discretion at any time;
and
6.1.3 is not transferable.
6.2 Unless a Plan states otherwise, We are not obliged to allot You a static I.P.
address.
All this begs the question as to just how much all this is going to cost, not only the Government but ourselves as well. From a report this morning : http://www.businessinsider.com.au/australian-data-retention-plan-will-cost-consumers-130-year-says-iinet-2014-8
Of course, the Government has a big team of IT experts ( I presume ) to lead them through this chase. They’d need to have with the blunderers who are speaking about it at this time – contradicting one another into the bargain. I would think billions more might be added to the costings – before they are finished, or before they abandon the whole thing. The specific complaint of the ISP is that it will cost ISP’s millions to implement. Another nice how-de-do. Not to mention the $130 by that ISP’s calculations, that it will cost users per year to have our own privacy trashed ??
Just a thought ……. !
My APOLOGIES …. to ALL readers. For some reason, my posted comment has been entered — twice. I did edit it – trying to reduce it in size. BOTH have now appeared. Has this ever happened to anyone else ? Most likely my own inept fiddlings on here.
“Post Comment” did not work – either time. !!
Hanging head with embarrasment !!
Maybe I should stop commenting for a while ??
Anne B it gets caught in the spam sometimes Michael explained to me once
Its okay, it happens to everyone on odd occasion, keep writing don’t be embarrassed 🙂
Thanks Dan. Much appreciated.
Michael has since also explained this to which I have replied … all is appreciated. And I can bring my red face out of hiding again !!
I will resume posting soon !! 😉