On 4 January last I posted an item on The AIMN concerning the forged and falsified documents that were used by Angus Taylor and his office for a political hit on the Sydney City Council and in particular its Lord Mayor Clover Moore, over travelling expenses. You will remember that the minister also passed on the false information to the Daily Telegraph so that they too could pile on.
I concluded that post with the following observation after the investigation had been passed by the NSW Commissioner for Police to the Australia Federal Police as it seemed that the forgery had been perpetrated in the Canberra and thus in the jurisdiction of the AFP :
“The minister responsible for the Australian Federal Police just happens to be good mates with minister Taylor and whilst this should not in any way influence the outcome of this independent enquiry and I wouldn’t suggest that for a moment, I will wager London to a brick that this matter will be buried and that there will be no prosecutions and no resignations and no humble apologies.
Call me a cynic if you will and you may be right. So, I will give it until Easter and if there hasn’t been any movement at the station by then, it will be safe to say that the cover-up has been played out.
I’ll get back to you.”
We didn’t need to wait until Easter !
Today, Thursday 6 February 2020, the AFP confirmed it had finalised its investigations and it had :
“determined it is unlikely further investigation will result in obtaining sufficient evidence to substantiate a Commonwealth offence”.
“The AFP assessment of this matter identified there is no evidence to indicate the minister for energy and emissions reduction was involved in falsifying information,” an AFP spokesman said.
“The low level of harm and the apology made by the [minister] to the Lord Mayor of Sydney, along with the significant level of resources required to investigate were also factored into the decision not to pursue this matter.”
Let’s take the words used by the AFP.
“… it is unlikely further investigation will result in obtaining sufficient evidence to substantiate a Commonwealth offence.”
We have already pointed to the offence, it features in the Commonwealth Criminal Code, it’s staring you in the face :
144.1 Forgery
(1) A person commits an offence if:
(a) the person makes a false document with the intention that the person or another will use it:
(i) to dishonestly induce a third person in the third person’s capacity as a public official to accept it as genuine; and
(ii) if it is so accepted, to dishonestly obtain a gain, dishonestly cause a loss, or dishonestly influence the exercise of a public duty or function; and
(b) the capacity is a capacity as a Commonwealth public official.
Penalty: Imprisonment for 10 years.
“… there is no evidence to indicate the minister for energy and emissions reduction was involved in falsifying information.”
We know that the minister himself didn’t create the forged document. It was clearly somebody in his office who did the falsifying to induce the minister to use the information for political purposes : see above section 144.1 of the Criminal Code.
“The low level of harm and the apology made by the [minister] to the Lord Mayor of Sydney, along with the significant level of resources required to investigate were also factored into the decision not to pursue this matter.”
Wait a minute, this falsified information was used by the minister as a political hit on the SCC and its mayor : sure, under pressure he later apologised but that’s not the point. There was political harm intended and it was not of a “low level”.
And what do they mean “the significant level of resources required to investigate were also factored into the decision not to pursue this matter.”
The media have done the groundwork, they found out who was allegedly responsible for the forgery. He was a Liberal party operative within the minister’s office who has since been moved on : even Inspector Clouseau could point him out in a crowd.
So that’s it, we all move on. There was no harm done and there are no winners, no losers. Except for the stain on our democracy, except for the damage to the rule of law in this country and if the AFP have been politically compromised what of the doctrine of the separation of powers?
Nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more !
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