Overbelly
There is a scene being played out in the NSW ICAC that could well be a tv series entitled Overbelly about the nefarious dealings of the Overworld.
Obeid and Tripodi keep popping up but the toll for the other side is turning into a rout. There are now seven Coalition parliamentarians standing aside from their normal duties in New South Wales, after featuring in ICAC’s investigations.
In Queensland, we have Ken Levy, the acting chair of the Crime and Corruption Commission, under police investigation as to whether he lied to a parliamentary committee, which is a criminal offence.
Mr Levy wrote an article in defence of the anti-bikie laws in the Courier-Mail. When a parliamentary committee questioned this, it was disbanded. The police investigation is about whether he lied about what contact he’d had with the government before he wrote the article. It may seem trivial but if we cannot rely on the independence of our judiciary then we are stuffed.
Rules about political donations have been seen as just extra paperwork as money is transferred around. Most of this is legal. It isn’t illegal for someone’s mother to donate $580,400. Any subsequent windfalls of development rights on crown property to someone have been absolutely legitimate… apparently. Brown paper bags are so tacky when you have accountants and relatives.
People like Tony Fitzgerald and Ted Mack have long been calling for a Federal Corruption watchdog and the Greens have echoed their call.
In what appears to me a “head em off at the pass” move, the government quietly brought into existence an AFP-Hosted Fraud and Anti-Corruption Centre last week.
“The Coalition Government has formally established the (FAC) Centre located in the Australian Federal Police (AFP) headquarters, with the recent signing of a Commonwealth multi-agency Memorandum of Understanding – marking a new era in the approach to dealing with fraud and corruption at a federal level.
The FAC Centre brings together the Australian Taxation Office, Australian Securities and Investments Commission, Australian Crime Commission, Australian Customs and Border Protection Service, Department of Human Services, Department of Immigration and Border Protection, Department of Defence, and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in order to assess, prioritise and respond to serious fraud and corruption matters.
The FAC Centre has been designed to triage and evaluate serious and complex fraud and corruption referrals to deliver an effective Commonwealth multi-agency response when serious concerns are raised.
They will investigate serious and complex fraud, corruption and foreign bribery matters, including identity crimes.”
Well that should clear things up.
One wonders just how close is the association between Tony Abbott, George Brandis, and the AFP. One wonders many things… like which slush funds are worthy of Royal Commissions and which cases of misuse of entitlements should be referred to the police.
To paraphrase Sixto Rodriguez…
I wonder how many times we’ve been had
And I wonder how many plans are just bad
I wonder how many lives will be wrecked
I wonder do you know who’ll be next
I wonder l wonder wonder I do
I wonder about the love you can’t wed
And I wonder about the homeless unfed
I wonder how much caring have you got
And I wonder about our friends at the top
I wonder I wonder I wonder I do
I wonder about the tears in children’s eyes
And I wonder about the soldier that dies
I wonder will this hatred ever end
I wonder and worry my friend
I wonder I wonder wonder don’t you?
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15 comments
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Kaye Lee -
Gilly -
Kaye Lee -
Anne Byam -
Anne Byam -
Dan Dark -
Kaye Makovec -
Kaye Lee -
Dan Dark -
Dan Dark -
Anomander -
corvus boreus -
June M Bullivant OAM (@granvillehistor) -
Matters Not. -
Dan Dark
Return to home pageFor those who would like to enjoy the original…..
Compare the orders to the Public Service to report on any or all union appointments, influenced decisions et al over the past 6 years, and the charging of a 20 year old for blowing the whistle on Abbott’s daughters preferential scholarship treatment. Compare the treatment of Slipper and Thomson to the free range rorting of Abbott, Brandis and Co. Huh, what separation of powers??
“Senior government minister Eric Abetz has drawn a link between abortion and breast cancer in a television interview.
Senator Abetz, the leader of the government in the upper house and the Employment Minister, made the comments on Channel 10 program The Project when asked if he believed the “factually incorrect” statement that abortion leads to breast cancer.
“I think the studies, and I think they date back from the 1950s, assert that there is a link between abortion and breast cancer,” he said on Thursday night.
When his comments were questioned, Senator Abetz said: “There are other organisations [other than the Australian Medical Association] that have differing views.”
The abortion-breast cancer theory has been rejected by Cancer Australia, the World Health Organisation, the US National Cancer Institute, Britain’s Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and health authorities in Victoria and NSW.
Senator Abetz, who is openly anti-abortion, is involved with this this year’s “World Congress of Families” event to be held in Melbourne later this month, where the one of the topics to be discussed is abortion and breast cancer.
Federal Social Services Minister Kevin Andrews, who is an ambassador for the US-based anti-homosexuality “congress”, will open and close the event.”
We are truly being governed by the ministry of silly talk. “Fact” has become an archaic irrelevance under this lot of flat earthers.
@ Gilly – Wonder also, if it hadn’t been Abbott’s daughter Frances ( who may or may not be mortified by all this ) … would anybody have been charged over the incident, at all ?
What if this 20 year old had blown the whistle on “Mary Bloggs” of unknown history, unknown credit to her name or influence – by NOT being the daughter of a ‘big wig’ …. a big Liberal ‘wig’. I would lay ” London to a brick on” not much would have come of it. She might be ( rightly ) wrapped over the knuckles for pilfering something from a company or department computer, which at this point in time is only an ‘ alleged ‘ offence against her – yet to be proven in a court of law in September. It’s the LNP waving it’s hefty banners, and flexing it’s rather weak and tattered muscles …. that has brought this lot forward. Damage control comes into it – before more is delved into, in the matter.
But sorry Kaye – I have departed somewhat from your original article. ” I wonder ” … indeed – – – – w e wonder.
Just ” who is doing what to whom, and who is paying the rent ” …. ( there’s a slightly different version to that which I won’t display here ). And now we add Victoria, with a Liberal candidate from a rural city, resigning before he got the boot – for posting homophobic garbage on Twitter. For his rants, he was properly ostracised and would have been ousted. However, the posts were uploaded by Lane, pre-selection earller this year and have only just now surfaced ?? I have to wonder who dug those out ? And why ? I am in no way, in Lane’s corner – he deserves everything he gets for his crass statements. Considering how much I trust the Liberal party, it wouldn’t surprise me one bit that he was ‘outed’ by his own party. These are the dynamics and horrid machinations of politics on many an occasion – across the board.
Makes me sick – the whole darned lot.
@ Kaye … Abetz has no right whatsoever to say anything on the matter. Is he a research scientist — or a doctor ? NO. He was a barrister / solicitor before entering politics. I guess his ‘freedom of speech’ is applicable … but his comments heavily lean towards his own beliefs and the promoting of those beliefs. Not to mention slipping in the old ‘fear’ tactic …. to get his personal point across.
Who is he to go against multiple health organisations and medical colleges ? No-one. He is playing the ‘ let’s frighten the **** out of the women who find themselves in a predicament ‘ – no matter what CAUSED that predicament. He really should have kept his big mouth firmly shut.
But – he’s just being typical – Liberal ( today’s version of Liberal that is ). !! Ugh.
p.s. wouldn’t mind being a ‘casual’ observer at the “World Congress of Families” later this month. Might be interesting at that ???
I am going to write a script for a weekly TV DRAMA all bout the Coal ition called the
The Bold and the Brainless, The Bigots and the Beautiful, Days of our Knights, Dames of our Lives,
To many tooo pick from, I have confused myself now,, I been watching Barnacle Brandis too much on TV ,
His confusion is contagious, there all confused even Malcom turdbull is in the dark, someone needs to give them a light globe, and light their little world up, 🙂
One wonders why the (alleged) Abbott Slush Fund on Pauline Hanson is never mentioned these days 🙂
As for their stupidity, one wonders how such well educated people can be so bloody THICK!
I heard a comment once that has stuck with me, “Some people are educated beyond their intelligence” and that scares me because the utter stupidity of hubristic men is how civil wars start.
“We are all promoted to our own level of incompetence,” Tony Abbott once quipped to The Australian.”So sooner or later mine will be reached.”
I am going to miss Sarah Ferguson 🙁
Yes so am I going to miss Sarah the only one with a spine on abc, Chris Ulhman just doesn’t cut the mustard, he is a weakling as a journo/ interviewer, piss poor would be how I would describe the bloke..
I just rang Abetz office both numbers, and Chesters and said some advice for you hey, “I would back off on the abortion issue he is playing with because he will lose, mark my words he will lose, just like yas lost on the repeal of 18c, and how dare he tell women what choices they have, he is a man in a gov that’s sliding into oblivion” she said she would pass it on.
And as for Cheshire Chester I said to woman on phone, “an 18 percent swing against Chester, if an election was held in June he would of been out on his arse, women have already got it hard enough in this country if you want to take us on with the abortion issue good luck with that tell him, but Abetz and co will lose, she hung up on me 🙂
stuff them, fight fire with fire let them know before they dig themselves into another hole bloody fools.
Tony’s level of incompetence was passed a long, long time ago. He is just too stupid to realise it – much to our detriment.
An ICAC without the independence is a CAC.
I have spent the last few years playing the ball not the man, the problem is I like Transparency Truth and Justice, it is an unhappy and sad fate for the people of Australia who have had to witness the behaviour of our elected people, there is always one bad apple in any barrel but when you find them all going bad there is something very wrong with our system of Government. Self interest, lies, cover ups, decisions made to sell out our country to overseas interests, develop every bit of green space, frack and mine near the very place that our food is grown, mine under our precious water catchments, let the overflow from mining and CSG leak into our communities.
And this is done in the name of so called progress. Why are we not seeing common sense decisions that protect our communities, why are we not protecting our land that sustains us with water and food, why are we not seeing outrage from some of the politicians and all of the media, because this will eventually concern everyone in Australia, it is effecting every state. The ordinary people of Australia who are protecting our country is protecting like there is no tomorrow, the politicians are not, the decisions that they are making are not sustainable, what happens when we cannot grow food because the soil and the water are contaminated, what will happen when the water catchment develops a leak, I have never been all that “green” but when you start to research and see the big picture it is very alarming.
Beg to differ. We are seeing ‘common sense’ decisions but it’s not our ‘common sense’ that we are witnessing.
I remember the Howard days when ‘visions’, ‘strategic plans’ and the like were ridiculed in LNP governments across Australia. Pragmatism became the ‘common sense’ of the day. It was all about ‘tactics’ never about ‘strategy’. All about ‘today’, never about ‘tomorrow’. Live for the moment and let the future take care of itself. It’s all about mindless ‘mantras’.
Now how about we have another memorial service. Just make sure it’s bigger and better than the last one. Perhaps we could have a Minister responsible for same? Now let me think what names can we think of? Perhaps ‘Operation beat it up’? Or perhaps ‘Operation chop it down’? Followed by ‘Operation dig it up’.
By the way, I wouldn’t use the word ‘green’ in polite conversation. You’ll be described as belonging to the unwashed radicals who wants to do everyone out of a job. Fracking hell! What next?
I got one for us ‘Operation f*ck Gov off’ ….. and another….’Operation another election please’