An American, Australian ,Israeli, British "Judeo Christian Friendly " blog.
Anthropogenic Global Warming SCAM
Friday, November 30, 2012
Liberal Party Deputy Leader Julie Bishop explains it once more for the Labor Green Loon affirmative action appointee DUMMIES
This woman is the Deputy Leader of the Federal Opposition, The Liberal Party of Australia, Australia's Conservative Party
She was appointed to that positing because of her her ability not her gender or any affirmative action scams
Thursday, November 29, 2012
1/85 Kerr St. Fitzroy : Who needs enemies with friends like.........
Gillard's old friends dig up the dirt
BY: NIKI SAVVA
The Australian
November 29, 2012 12:00AM
ONE way or another everybody ends up paying for their mistakes. The bigger the mistake, the bigger the price, bigger still if the doer holds high office.
Julia Gillard has made a few doozies in her life and she is paying for them now. Call it karma, call it retribution, call it plain old revenge, Gillard is suffering from events of 17 years ago, and not only because, as Nicola Roxon observed, she might have had bad taste in men. You think?
Even if, as Gillard says, she did nothing wrong when she was a partner in law firm Slater & Gordon, what happened then was not trivial and nor is it now inconsequential, no matter how hard she and her supporters try to make it so.
The excuses made on her behalf are as numerous as those she makes for herself. They run along these lines: nothing has emerged to prove she has done anything wrong, it was so long ago it is irrelevant today, no smoking gun has been produced, no documents have surfaced to contradict her accounts, plus her accusers are either shonky, they have an axe to grind, they are desperate for distractions, they are throwing mud, they are throwing old mud or they are misogynist nut jobs and sexist pigs.
Gillard's frustration is palpable, her fury barely disguised in the face of these attacks on her honesty and her character. You could see it in parliament and at her press conference. In parliament it was a toss-up what she found the most galling: the fact that Julie Bishop was daring to question her, or that Tony Abbott refused for two days to question her at all about that issue.
Sensibly, Abbott stayed out of it, lashed like Ulysses to his chair in the house, resisting the calls of the sirens, knowing if he responded he risked terminal injuries. As one of his advisers said: "When all your enemies are pressuring you to do something, then clearly it is not a good idea to do it."
It suits Gillard to present the campaign against her as some vast right-wing conspiracy; however, she knows only too well the roots of this story lie deeply embedded in the Labor movement.
One Labor MP, a supporter of Gillard, neatly summed up by blaming a "rat-infested AWU for her political persecution".
Abbott's strategic withdrawal also sensibly ended with Gillard's decision to jump before she was rolled by her own backbenchers over the UN vote to grant observer status to Palestine. The leaking of that story so quickly and so comprehensively, especially the detail of the cabinet debate where she overruled her ministers to insist on a no vote was an ominous sign for Gillard.
Another ominous sign was Bob Carr opposing her in cabinet then threatening to speak against her in caucus, which would have resulted in her losing both the vote and her foreign minister.
Finally the gravity of her situation sunk in.
After amputating her legs, Carr sped out to praise her support for the abstention he had compelled her to adopt as a display of clever leadership. There's a Yiddish word for that: chutzpah. In English, it's give us a break.
If Gillard had not been so preoccupied by the AWU scandal, she would have seen it coming. If she had been properly plugged in to her caucus she would have known the numbers were not there. Then again her capacity to read people and judge situations has always been suspect.
At Monday's press conference she was defiant and belligerent, complaining about the recycling and re-recycling of old fabrications, daring journalists to choose between her and self-confessed fraudster Ralph Blewitt, without once saying he was present when she signed his power of attorney.
She seized on the contribution of one of the crooners, that band of sympathetic male journalists, to thank him and echo his question by asking: "what is the big deal?" Try this: she was the instrument used by her then boyfriend, AWU official Bruce Wilson, to help set up the instrument that enabled the defrauding of hundreds of thousands of dollars that today remains missing. Owners of the Fitzroy property shouldn't waste time fossicking in the backyard.
For some people hundreds of thousands of dollars isn't a big deal. For others it is. It reminds them of other big deals such as the one that got Michael Williamson into so much trouble, the same one that wrecked Craig Thomson's career, or the ones Eddie Obeid is accused of which are stinking out the NSW Labor Party.
For too long people inside the Labor movement failed to acknowledge big deals even when they rose up and bit them on the bum. If you are looking for reasons for record low membership, add this to the list.
Just for fun, how's this for another big deal: Gillard accuses the opposition of wallowing in sleaze, yet she spent four years surrounded by it and was, by her own admission, oblivious to it.
Her boyfriend's bestie all that time was Blewitt, who has gone from bagman to bogeyman to criminal genius. Blewitt says Wilson was the mastermind, Wilson insists it was Blewitt and that he was burying stolen money in the backyard. Dontcha love it when thieves fall out.
Echoes reverberated on the ABC's 7.30 when Wilson said he could not see what the big deal was, nor understand why this story kept getting recycled and recycled. Perhaps it's partly because its taken 17 years for Blewitt and Wilson to talk publicly about it.
Blewitt is the same bestie Gillard now describes as an imbecilic sexist pig and crook, who was joined at the hip with her then boyfriend. It is the same Blewitt the government reckons is a "scumbag" and that Bishop's contact with him in pursuit of information against the Prime Minister warrants her sacking because it showed her lack of judgment.
Bishop's meeting with Blewitt was dumb and her loose words garnered the kind of prominent coverage denied to the original questions to the Prime Minister over her role, but hey, if you follow the government's arguments of guilt by association to its logical conclusion, where does it lead you with the Prime Minister?
Gillard, showing way too much hubris and way too little self-awareness, picked up on the theme in parliament to get stuck into the opposition for its lack of standards "and the company they keep".
Gillard's prime ministership has turned into a cross between Judge Judy ("they done me wrong your honour") and CSI (join the dots, find the culprits).
She is ending the parliamentary year as she began it. Very badly. Her enemies inside and outside, in front of her and behind her, will not give up, confident any poll improvement is ephemeral.
According to one Ruddite, the AWU scandal isn't killing her, not yet, and it won't unless something else emerges, but it is hurting her. A lot. All because of that pesky question of trust, which hangs like a shroud over almost everything she says and does.
1 / 85 Kerr St. Fitzroy: Madame Gillard under seige
Pressure on a PM under siege
Miranda Devine
The Daily Telegraph
November 28, 2012 12:00AM
A CONSTELLATION of competing emotions flitted across the Prime Minister's face during her extraordinary press conference on Monday.
Was she frightened? Was she angry? Was she nervous? Was she defiant? Was she evasive? Was she irritated? She seemed to be all of the above, all at once, and as she licked her lips and rearranged her face, she was a fascinating study of a woman barely holding it together under tremendous pressure.
In fact, if you turned down the sound on your TV or just let the words wash over you, the non-verbal information told a more interesting story, one that is off and running in the electorate: that our prime minister appears to be a person under siege.
Whatever is the upshot of the 17-year-old fraud allegations involving Gillard and Bruce Wilson, the married AWU official who was her then-boyfriend, and the legal advice she provided to him to incorporate an association, which she later described as a slush fund, the damage is done to Gillard's reputation. No amount of spin doctoring will put it back together.
Whatever is the upshot of the various allegations of wrongdoing which Gillard repeatedly has denied, what this story does, fairly or unfairly, is in the eyes of some cement an adverse impression of Gillard's character.
It is an impression that accords with a view of her character as someone who ousted her boss and took his job as prime minister, who vowed there would be "no carbon tax under the government I lead" before the last election and then signed a deal for one with the Greens and independents afterwards.
It is an impression that accords with a view of a leader who defended with "complete confidence" Dobell MP Craig Thomson last year over allegations of misuse of union money on prostitutes and his election campaign: "I think he is doing a fine job."
It is an impression that accords with the spin emanating from her office, which includes a lie told to incite Aboriginal anger against Opposition Leader Tony Abbott resulting in a riot on Australia Day from which both Gillard and Abbott had to be rescued by police.
And it accords with a view of a character that would accuse others of engaging in the politics of smear while engaging in a most vicious smearing of a private citizen to defend herself.
Gillard opened Monday's press conference with a 500 word statement decrying "smear and sleaze" and then she tipped a bucket of the stuff on Ralph Blewitt, a former AWU official who had once been her friend. Blewitt, described as a one time union bagman, had been a "loyal lieutenant" to Wilson in the AWU, at a time when Wilson was being touted by his bosses as a future prime minister.
"So it's going to come down to Mr Blewitt's word against me," said Gillard. "Let me remind you who Mr Blewitt is. Mr Blewitt is a man who has publicly said he was involved in fraud. Mr Blewitt is a man who has sought immunity from prosecution. Mr Blewitt admits to using the services of prostitutes in Asia. Mr Blewitt has published lewd and degrading comments and accompanying photographs of women on his Facebook page.
"Mr Blewitt, according to people who know him, has been described as a complete imbecile, an idiot, a stooge, a sexist pig, a liar, and his sister has said he's a crook and rotten to the core. His word against mine, make your mind up. "
And minutes later: "You are talking about a contest here between me and Mr Blewitt, and you can work out who you believe: the person who is standing here, prime minister of Australia who has done nothing wrong, or the man who says he's guilty of fraud and is looking for an immunity. Work it out. "
It was a ferocious character assassination and a turnaround from the position she took on the alleged use of prostitutes when defending Thomson.
There are a handful of people in the country who know all the ins and outs of the AWU story, including The Australian's Hedley Thomas and policeman turned broadcaster Michael Smith, who lost his job at radio station 2UE after trying to air the allegations last year.
Smith, a forensic sleuth with a point to prove, has teamed up with Blewitt and a mysterious character named Harry Nowicki, a wealthy former personal injury lawyer and union adviser who is writing a history of the AWU.
Nowicki financed Blewitt's trip from Malaysia to take his allegations to Victorian police about the role Gillard played in providing advice in the setting up in 1995 of the AWU Workplace Relations Association, the so-called slush fund from which Wilson allegedly siphoned hundreds of thousands of dollars. Every day Smith updates his blog with fresh information and he says on Monday there were one million hits on the website.
Yesterday he posted two new interviews, one with Blewitt's Muslim wife Ruby, in Malaysia, dismayed at the PM's characterisation of her husband: "I am burning in my heart". The other was an interview with a former miner, making sensational allegations involving Wilson and 25kg of explosives in the WA mining town of Kambalda.
The Prime Minister is probably right when she says the public is "sick of stories they don't understand about events 17 to 20 years ago". But that is because they formed their impression of her character long ago.
It's not the media's fault she is mired in this. Nor is it particularly the fault of the opposition, which has come late to the party and has contributed little fresh information. It's certainly not the fault of "sexists" who can't stand having a woman in charge, as Greens Christine Milne claimed yesterday.
No. In my view it is entirely the fault of Julia Gillard and colleagues who installed her and now are suffering buyers' remorse. Character is destiny.
1 / 85 Kerr St. Fitzroy. Fraud squad detectives start interviewing witnesses over Australian Workers Union scandal.
Witnesses quizzed over AWU scandal
STEVE LEWIS and GEMMA JONES
Daily Telegraph
November 29, 201212:00AM
Fraud squad detectives contact at least two people
PM under more pressure
New allegations about her involvement
VICTORIAN police have begun interviewing key witnesses as part of an investigation into the Australian Workers Union scandal.
Fraud squad detectives have contacted at least two people, including retired Greek-born builder Kon Spyridis, who said he spoke with police on Monday in relation to payments he'd received from the AWU in the mid-1990s.
Police have also contacted former Slater & Gordon employee Olive Brosnahan, who in 1993 did the conveyancing on the Melbourne property at the centre of the affair.
The police move comes as new allegations emerge that Prime Minister Julia Gillard was heavily involved in the creation of a union body later used as a "slush fund".
The Australian reports today that documents, released after 17 years, show Ms Gillard argued the case for the incorporation of the Australian Workers Union Workplace Reform Association.
Ms Gillard told her employers at the law firm Slater & Gordon in 1995 that the association was a "slush fund" to be used for the re-election of union officials.
However, it eventually became the vehicle through which major union fraud was committed, with $100,000 from it being used to buy a Melbourne home which Ms Gillard's boyfriend, union official Bruce Wilson, lived in
The newly released documents, a record of interview about the association between Ms Gillard and Slater & Gordon then-senior partner Peter Gordon in September 1995, show Ms Gillard alone prepared the response when the authority suggested it was ineligible for incorporation due to its "trade union status".
Yesterday, Ms Gillard yesterday declined, amid multiple questions from the Opposition, to give a direct answer when asked if she had written to WA's Corporate Affairs Commission vouching for the bonafides of the association 20 years ago.
Ms Gillard provided legal advice for the incorporation of the AWU Workplace Reform Association, but has denied any knowledge of its operations.
She labelled Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop - who is under fire after admitting to meeting key witness Ralph Blewitt - an embarrassment before telling Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, who has remained silent on the affair in parliament this week, that she would answer if he asked the question.
"Get up and ask it yourself, then I will answer it," she thundered at her political rival.
Liberal Senator George Brandis used parliamentary privilege to call Ms Gillard's account of her actions "implausible."
A spokeswoman for Ms Gillard said Victorian police had not approached the Prime Minister.
Victorian police are investigating whether criminal action took place during 1992 to 1995 in relation to a series of unauthorised union accounts. The Kerr St Fitzroy home, which was purchased for $230,000, was partly financed with around $67,000 from the AWU Workplace Reform Association.
The Opposition has questioned the Prime Minister's involvement in helping to purchase the property, although Ms Gillard insists she has done nothing wrong and that her role was limited to witnessing a power of attorney from Mr Blewitt, a former AWU official and self-confessed "bagman".
That document gave Ms Gillard's then boyfriend, Bruce Wilson, authority to secure a loan and purchase the property, which was later sold in 1996.
Mr Spyridis told News Limited that police had quizzed him over work he had done for the AWU in the mid-1990s. In August, the retired builder broke a 17-year silence to clear Prime Minister Julia Gillard of allegations that funds from the AWU "slush" had helped to pay for renovations on her Melbourne home.
Yesterday, Mr Spyridis denied he had ever approached former AWUVictorian State Secretary Bob Smith seeking payment for unpaid work.
"I don't remember Bob Smith," he said.
Mr Smith declined to comment on whether he had been contacted by the fraud squad.
It is understood Peter Gordon who was one of two Slater and Gordon senior staff who interviewed Ms Gillard around the time she left the firm over the AWU association affair has not been contacted by police.
Victoria police said the fraud and extortion squad "is currently assessing a file which relates to the alleged misappropriation of funds from a Union. Victoria Police does not confirm who may or may not be under investigation or providing statements.
Ms Gillard has always vehemently denied any knowledge of the fraud.
She has admitted having only been involved in providing legal advice to Mr Wilson and their friend, union bagman Ralph Blewitt, as to the incorporation of the association.
1 / 85 Kerr Street Fitzroy : Dear Prime Minister. You are a liar.
What Julia Gillard said on August 23 2012
Australian Politics: Madame Gillard returns from Thailand gabfest to AWU SCAM allegations
Alan Jones Michael Smith on Julia Gillard and the ex AWU Official Boyfriend
Australia's Anti-Semitic Labor Party
The Anti-Semitic Labor Party
The Age
October 25, 2004
Former ALP minister Barry Cohen used to be proud of his party because it fought prejudice. Not any longer.
It's a sepia-toned family portrait taken in the late 1930s of Mendel and Mindel Kozerwoder and their children Itzek, Charna, Malka, Mania, Yidel, Moishe and baby Faigele. There's nothing unusual about it but it is very precious to me, for they are all members of my family who, with one exception, perished in the crematoriums of Chelmno and Auschwitz.
Sydney's Occupied Territories remind Labor Green Loon Government who is in charge
Gillard backs down forced to support "The Savage" over Israel in UN Vote to save own job
Clasped in the hands of my great-uncle is a photograph of my grandparents, Moishe and Zelda Kozerwoder. Itzek, the only survivor, gave me the photograph after I returned from a visit to Poland, during which I went to the villages of Pajcczno and Dzialoszyn, from which my grandparents departed in the late 1890s. Their travels took them to England, South Africa (where my father was born) and finally to Australia, just after the outbreak of World War I.
The photo is the only image I have of the many members of my family who were murdered by the Nazis. When I look at it my emotions range from gut-wrenching pain to seething rage. It has ensured that I belong to that school of Jewish resolve whose motto is "never again".
There is nothing special about what happened to me and my family. Many Jewish families suffered the same fate. I became aware of the Holocaust in 1944 as the Allied armies swept across Europe and liberated the death camps. I was only nine years old but I can still recall the pain I felt as I watched the newsreels of the emaciated survivors and the mountains of corpses.
Soon afterwards I was sent to boarding school to prepare for my bar mitzvah. There was a noticeable shortage of synagogues in the country town of Griffith, NSW, where I was born and where my father was the local dentist.
My introduction to anti-Semitism commenced on my first day at school. The school sergeant refereed three fights between myself and classmates who called me "a dirty f---ing Jew". I was lucky. Bloody noses and black eyes were nothing compared to what happened to those members of my family who did not have the prescience to depart Europe as my grandparents had done.
It didn't, however, make it easier to ignore the taunts and the occasional vicious remark that came at the most unexpected moments and from the most unexpected quarters. Like most Jews in a predominantly Christian society, I developed a defence mechanism to cope. Humour was one weapon. Knowing the history and roots of anti-Semitism was another. So, too, was the pride in seeing the survivors of the Holocaust recreating a Jewish nation for the first time in 2000 years.
The survivors of the camps, a million Jews expelled from Arab countries and idealists from all over the Diaspora overcame the combined Arab military forces to ensure that not only did Jews have a haven, but one that was free and democratic. Israel has remained that way, in stark contrast to its Arab neighbours.
Australia is probably the least anti-Semitic country in the world, but what happened to my family made a deep impression on me. I became obsessive about discrimination; be it fighting for civil rights in the US, or against apartheid or the appalling treatment of our indigenous people.
I was, however, an armchair critic mouthing off endlessly about what the government should do.
Then a friend hit a sensitive nerve. "What are you doing about it?" he asked. It wasn't difficult to decide. I knew the enemy was on the political right: Nazis, fascists, conservatives, whether from the extreme right that led to the Holocaust or the social exclusion practised by the genteel middle class.
In 1964 I joined the ALP. Not that the Labor Party of the early 1960s was a beacon of light, for there were many ALP members still steeped in the White Australia philosophy and indifferent to the suffering of Aborigines. But those who spoke up about such injustices were almost all from the ALP.
By the time I arrived in Canberra in 1969 as the MP for Robertson I felt at home in the company of those led by Gough Whitlam, who forced the Labor Party to change.
However, I can still recall the wry amusement my opposition to apartheid caused colleagues.
I was accused of being obsessive on the question of racism and to that charge I plead guilty. I became deeply involved in the fight for Aboriginal rights and to this day one of the proudest moments of my life was to be one of a small group of "yesterday's heroes, looking frail and aged", who were brought on stage at the Reconciliation Conference in Melbourne in 1997 to be honoured for our work in the 1967 referendum.
I have often been asked if my being Jewish was ever an issue during my 20 years in Federal Parliament. Not to the best of my knowledge. I cannot recall a single anti-Semitic remark from either side of the House. That did not mean that everyone agreed with my views on Israel. Nor did I expect them to. However, while my views remain the same, the Labor Party's these days are very different.
The Labor Party has always had Palestinian supporters but they used to have little influence on the party's policy. They were more than counter-balanced by the influence of then ACTU president Bob Hawke. In the immediate aftermath of the Yom Kippur War and before my first visit to Israel I attended a meeting he addressed in Sydney. I have not heard a more passionate, nor better informed, defence of Israel or more scathing indictment of its opponents.
Convinced that MPs could understand Israel's problems better if they went there, I organised a series of delegations. By the time I retired in 1990 more than half the ALP caucus had visited Israel.
But gradually, Labor's Left and more extremist elements, such as the Greens and Democrats, became increasingly shrill in their denunciation of Israel. I found out what Israel was up against when representing Australia at Inter-Parliamentary Union conferences from 1973 until 1981. Created to foster peace and democracy, the union was dominated by communist dictatorships, Third World "democracies" and the 22 Arab countries. Every IPU conference devoted a major part of its sessions to denouncing Israel.
It was a mirror image of the UN, whose obsession with Israel was aptly illustrated by Israeli ambassador Abba Eban when he said: "If a resolution was put before the UN that the earth was flat and that Israel caused it, 145 would vote for it, five against with 45 abstentions."
That trend has infected the ALP. The handful of pro-Palestinian supporters has grown steadily as the party has become dominated by the education mafia; former public servants and party union apparatchiks.
Plenty will say: "Why shouldn't the Labor Party support the Palestinians?" No reason, providing the case they put is not based on the lies spouted by the Palestinian propaganda machine.
Nowhere is Israel subjected to more criticism than in Israel. Demonstrations in excess of 100,000 are regularly held in Rabin Square. Supporters of the Peace Now movement have protested in support of Palestinians. In contrast, when Jews have been massacred by terrorists there have been wild celebrations in the Arab streets.
How can any social democrat ignore such barbarism? There are Labor MPs who are vigorous supporters of Israel but their numbers are diminishing and they are being drowned out by the more vociferous members of Labor's hard Left.
When Australian Jews respond to the grotesque exaggeration about Israel, we are accused of being part of the "Jewish lobby". Israel's opponents in Australia now include those who support the Palestinians not for ideological reasons but because of the increased number of Arab voters in their electorates.
This trend reached a crescendo in the aftermath of September 11. For me September 11 was the clearest demarcation ever between good and evil. Yet many Australians could not contain their glee that at last "the Yanks had got their just deserts".
I have never been able to fathom the vicious anti-Americanism that permeates so much of Western society. Despite all their faults, Americans have been the one constant bastion against totalitarianism of the right and left. Does anyone doubt that fascism and communism would have been defeated without the US? From the left's point of view, the triumph over communism has been America's greatest crime.
The disintegration of the Soviet Union and the revelation that matters were far worse than even the Americans had claimed, forced the left to face up to the fact that for decades their defence of tyrants such as Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Castro et al was inexcusable. There were no apologies, however. Being on the left means never having to say you're sorry or admit you're wrong. This goes a long way to explaining their attacks on George Bush, Tony Blair and John Howard, while ignoring the monstrous crimes of the Assads, Saddams, Gaddafis and other Arab despots. The war on terrorism and the war on Iraq have given the left a new lease on life.
But this time it has a new twist, a distinctly anti-Semitic one. It surfaced immediately after September 11 and was summed up in comments by Sydney Morning Herald columnist Alan Ramsey, who suggested that the cause of September 11 was America's Middle East policies and their failure to rein in the Israelis. This has been repeated ad nauseam by one left/liberal commentator after another.
Israeli scientist Haim Harari nailed this nonsense in a speech earlier this year: "The millions who died in the Iraq-Iran war had nothing to do with Israel. The mass murder happening right now in Sudan, where the Arab Muslim regime is massacring its black Christian citizens, has nothing to do with Israel. The frequent reports from Algeria about the murders of hundreds of civilians in one village or another by other Algerians have nothing to do with Israel. Saddam did not invade Kuwait, endanger Saudi Arabia and butcher his own people because of Israel . . . The Taliban control of Afghanistan and the civil war there had nothing to do with Israel. I could go on and on."
Anyone who believes that "reining in the Israelis" will bring peace and prosperity to the Middle East should change their medication. The ranting and raving, common among the extreme right, has been taken up with gusto by the left. When it started to infect the social democratic wing of the Labor Party I became extremely worried.
There will be those in the ALP who will say "our policies support Israel's right to exist, so what are you complaining about?" That's not good enough. Not for me.
I'm sick of the calumny heaped on Israel - most of which is a pack of lies. I'm sick of Labor leaders making all the right noises to Jewish audiences while an increasing number of backbenchers launch diatribes at Israel. When the likes of Labor MP Tanya Plibersek rise in the House of Representatives and call Ariel Sharon "a war criminal" and Israel a "rogue state", or Opposition whip Janice Crosio makes the absurd claim that Israeli forces had destroyed Bethlehem, Nablus and the Jenin refugee camp, I want to hear more than stony silence from those in the Labor Party who say they support Israel. Some do. Most don't.
How long is it since any Labor leader gave the sort of passionate and accurate defence of Israel we used to hear from Hawke or Kim Beazley?
I don't want even-handedness when it ought to be obvious to all but the blind that there is no moral equivalence between a country that seeks to defend its citizens from thousands of terrorist attacks, and the terrorists themselves. I want to hear Labor MPs stand up and be counted. I want to see an end to well-known Labor identities marching behind banners equating Israel with Nazism.
Silence on these issues isn't good enough for me. If people want to criticise Israel, fine - plenty of Israelis do. But let it be reasoned criticism, and if they want even-handedness let them also berate the Arab world for its denial of basic human rights for any of its citizens.
Let's hear the Labor feminists take the Arab nations to task for their abominable treatment of women. Let's hear those Labor supporters, who are so loud in their denunciation of homophobia, demand an end to the barbaric treatment of gays. Let's also hear civil rights activists bemoan the lack of basic freedoms available to most of the 300 million Arabs in the 22 Arab countries.
There will be some who will argue that I am exaggerating; that the evidence is sparse; that this typical Jewish paranoia. Not at all. It came from the horses' mouths, and the head horses at that. Before the Iraq war one of the most senior NSW right-wing MPs told me: "I understand and support Israel's position, but in my group, I'm the only one."
Soon after I told a Labor legend: "Anti-Semitism is now rampant in the Labor Party." I expected a vigorous denial. His response confirmed my worst fear: "I know," he said.
For better or worse my character and life were shaped by the anti-Semitism I experienced as a boy and a young man. I was proud to belong to a party that fought all forms of prejudice. Not any longer.
The Australian Labor Party can choose any path it likes. So can I.
Barry Cohen was arts minister in the Hawke government. A longer version of this article (which Barry Cohen asked not be published until after the federal election) appears in the Australian Jewish News.
1 / 85 Kerr St. Fitzroy Tony Abbott
Proof: PM told firm what she won't tell parliament
HEDLEY THOMAS, NATIONAL CHIEF CORRESPONDENT
The Australian
November 29, 2012 12:09PM
JULIA Gillard admitted during a secret internal probe to writing to a government department to help overcome its objections to the creation of an association for her then boyfriend and client, union official Bruce Wilson.
The revelation, contained in a document released today after 17 years, comes after days of stonewalling by the Prime Minister, including in parliament, on the question of whether she had personally vouched for the Australian Workers Union Workplace Reform Association.
The document, a record of interview between Ms Gillard and her law firm, Slater & Gordon, in September 1995, reveals the association was initially regarded as ineligible because of its "trade union" status.
Ms Gillard overcame the obstacle by writing to the Commissioner for Corporate Affairs in Western Australia in 1992 and arguing that the decision to bar it should be reversed.
Ms Gillard also wrote the association's rules, which emphasised worker safety but made no mention of its true purpose of funding the elections of union officials.
The document reveals she "cut and pasted" some of the rules from her earlier personal work incorporating the controversial Socialist Forum, which she helped found at Melbourne University in the 1980s.
Ms Gillard has admitted providing legal advice to help Mr Wilson and his union colleague Ralph Blewitt set up the association, which was later used by the two men to defraud hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The Prime Minister later described the association as a "slush fund" for the re-election of union officials, but she has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, saying she had no knowledge of the workings of the association.
But Opposition Leader Tony Abbott claimed Ms Gillard may have broken the law in arguing the case for the association to be incorporated.
“Plainly on the basis of the documentary evidence of the unredacted (Slater & Gordon exit interview) transcript, she gave false information to the West Australian authorities,” Mr Abbott told the Nine Network this morning.
“For a senior lawyer to make false claims to an important statutory body like this is a very, very serious matter... it's in breach of the law I would think and it's certainly very, very unethical.”
Manager of opposition business Christopher Pyne today called on the Prime Minister to resign.
“I think her position is entirely untenable and if the Prime Minister had any respect for the parliament, for the Australian public or for the Labor caucus she would resign as Prime Minister today and allow the Labor party to select a new leader and to move to put this sordid mess behind us.”
But Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten said there was “no smoking gun” in the fresh revelations.
“Let's be really straight, what do you think it is that the Prime Minister has done wrong? What law has she broken?” Mr Shorten told Sky News.
“People just want to make this great fuss about a 20-year vendetta against the Prime Minister.”
In parliament this week, Ms Gillard has refused to answer repeated questioning from Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop on whether she wrote to the West Australian authority to vouch for "the bona fides of the AWU Workplace Reform Association".
On Monday, she told parliament: "The claim that the Deputy Leader of the Opposition has now made is a claim that appeared in The Age . . . The correspondence she refers to has never been produced, so the claim has been made but no correspondence has ever been produced."
Yesterday she told parliament she had "dealt with these matters fully".
"I have dealt fully with my role in providing legal advice on the incorporation of this association. I have provided detailed answers on this. They were provided in press conferences; they have been provided in this parliament," she said.
Later she added: "Once again, we are in a situation where the Deputy Leader of the Opposition is asserting things she has got no sources for, except she read them somewhere."
Last night, a spokesman for the Prime Minister said she had "no recollection of receiving or sending the claimed correspondence in this matter".
The evidence that she did write to the West Australian body is contained in a section of transcript from the September 11, 1995, tape-recorded interview with Ms Gillard during an internal probe led by Slater & Gordon's then senior partner Peter Gordon.
Some of the transcript was provided to The Australian in August.
The latest section of transcript is being released now by the firm's former equity partner, Nick Styant-Browne, after Mr Wilson's interview on the ABC's 7.30 meant his legal confidentiality as a former client of the firm was waived.
In his 7.30 interview, Mr Wilson explained some of Ms Gillard's role and legal advice in making "the necessary changes" for the association to be approved.
In the section of transcript from the 1995 Slater & Gordon interview that was released, Mr Gordon asked Ms Gillard about those changes: "Do you recall whether, when it was necessary to argue the case with the, with the relevant Western Australian authority, whether you consulted anyone else in the firm as to what would or would not get, become acceptable or appropriate?"
Ms Gillard: "I once again don't recall talking to anybody else in the firm about it."
Mr Gordon: "Beyond that, and it seems from the file, that after that letter it was successfully accepted as an incorporated association and duly was created and presumably accounts were set up."
Ms Gillard told Mr Gordon she had nothing to do with the association's accounts, and that she attended only to its incorporation.
Mr Gordon referred to Ms Gillard's letter to the government authority and he stated that, "it appears from the file to be the letter arguing that it ought to be not construed as a trade union - did you have anything personally to do with that incorporated association afterwards?"
Ms Gillard: "No, I did not."
It was unlawful under the Associations Incorporation Act for an association to be named in a way "likely to mislead the public as to the object or purpose".
After the association was incorporated, about $100,000 from its accounts went towards the purchase of a $230,000 Melbourne terrace house in 1993 for Mr Wilson to live in. Ms Gillard went to the auction and witnessed a power of attorney document for Mr Wilson to buy the property in Mr Blewitt's name, while Slater & Gordon managed the conveyancing and organised the mortgage.
The association issued invoices in its official-sounding name and received money for work that did not exist.
Neither Ms Gillard nor the firm of Slater & Gordon told their client, the AWU, about the existence of the association carrying the union's name, resulting in further fraud and the draining of accounts amid police investigations into separate fraud allegations involving Mr Wilson.
Ms Gillard had not opened a file at the firm for her legal work for Mr Wilson on the association. Her legal partners were unaware of its existence until August 1995, when Mr Wilson's separate Victorian slush fund was exposed and police were called in by the AWU's national leaders to launch a fraud investigation. Ms Gillard's conduct at the time and the firm's internal review of her actions led to a breakdown in trust and relationships, resulting in her leaving.
Elsewhere in the newly released section of transcript, Mr Gordon was concerned that other partners at the firm might have been involved in the matter and the legal work that Ms Gillard had performed.
He asked Ms Gillard: "And last Monday I think you gave to (fellow legal partner) Paul Mulvaney a follow-up which demonstrates that Slater & Gordon had drafted model rules for, for that, had submitted those rules to the relevant Western Australian government authority; that there'd been a letter from the authority suggesting that it might be a trade union and therefore ineligible for incorporation under that legislation; and that we had prepared a response submitted on Wilson's instructions to that authority suggesting that in fact it wasn't a trade union and arguing the case for its incorporation. My recollection is that all of that happened in or about mid-1992. Is that right?"
Ms Gillard: "I wouldn't want to be held to the dates without looking at the file, but whatever the dates the file shows are the right dates, so . . ."
Mr Gordon: "Yes. And to the extent that work was done on that file in relation to that, it was done by you?"
Ms Gillard: "That's right."
Mr Gordon: "And did you get advice from anyone else in the firm in relation to any of those matters?"
Ms Gillard: "No, I didn't."
Mr Gordon: "Did (the firm's recognised lawyer on incorporations) Tony Lang have anything to do with the model rules or the drafting of them?"
Ms Gillard: "No, I obtained, I had just in my own personal precedent file a set of rules for Socialist Forum, which is an incorporated association in which I'm personally involved. And I've just kept them hanging around as something I cut and paste from for drafting purposes."
Ms Gillard assured him Slater & Gordon had nothing to do with setting up bank accounts for the association and that nobody at the firm, including herself, had anything to do with the association beyond advising on its incorporation. Mr Gordon asked Ms Gillard: "Can I ask you then - following the last thing that we did to setting up the incorporation, which appears from the file to be the letter arguing that it ought to be not construed as a trade union - did you have anything personally to do with that incorporated association afterwards?"
Ms Gillard: "No I did not."
Mr Gordon: "Right, to the best of your knowledge did anyone at Slater & Gordon?"
Ms Gillard: "To my knowledge, no one at Slater & Gordon had anything to do with it post that time."
The Australian asked Ms Gillard's office yesterday whether she had anything to add to her previous statements about her role. A spokesman replied last night that Ms Gillard "has no recollection of receiving or sending the claimed correspondence in this matter".
"The Prime Minister sighted, witnessed, dictated and signed thousands of documents in the course of her legal career," he said. "Any correspondence in this matter would have been received or sent in her capacity as a lawyer acting on instructions. As the Prime Minister has noted, the application to incorporate the (association) was lodged by its office bearer, Mr Ralph Blewitt. The decision to incorporate the association was made by the WA Commissioner of Corporate Affairs."
Ms Gillard said on Monday, when asked why the AWU was not informed about her role in the incorporation of the association: "Did I need to separately advise the AWU this was occurring?
"Of course I didn't. The people I was dealing with were elected officials of the AWU."
Asked why she did not disclose the existence of the association to the AWU three years later, amid a police probe into Mr Wilson's other slush fund, she said: "I did not have in front of me any evidence of criminality or wrongdoing but there was a lot of rumour about what was happening in the Victorian branch of the AWU at that time. In those circumstances, I came to a personal decision about ending my relationship with Mr Wilson and I did so."
Additional reporting: Lanai Vasek
1/85 Kerr St. Fitzroy: Sensational new evidence released by Slater and Gordon Lawyer
Fresh claims Julia Gillard argued for union body
The Daily Telegraph
November 29, 2012 12:00AM
THE Prime Minister will enter parliament for the last day this year under intense pressure to explain new allegations she was heavily involved in the creation of a union body later
used as a "slush fund".
The Australian reports today that documents, released after 17 years, show Ms Gillard argued the case for the incorporation of the Australian Workers Union Workplace Reform
Association.
Ms Gillard told her employers at the law firm Slater & Gordon in 1995 that the association was a "slush fund" to be used for the re-election of union officials.
However, it eventually became the vehicle through which major union fraud was committed, with $100,000 from it being used to buy a Melbourne home which Ms Gillard's
boyfriend, union official Bruce Wilson, lived in.
Ms Gillard has always vehemently denied any knowledge of the fraud.
She has admitted having only been involved in providing legal advice to Mr Wilson and their friend, union bagman Ralph Blewitt, as to the incorporation of the association.
The newly released documents, a record of interview about the association between Ms Gillard and Slater & Gordon then-senior partner Peter Gordon in September 1995, show Ms
Gillard alone prepared the response when the authority suggested it was ineligible for incorporation due to its "trade union status".
The documents show that Ms Gillard in 1992 wrote to the Commissioner for Corporate Affairs in Western Australia, where the association was being incorporated, arguing for the
decision to be reversed.
This week Ms Gillard refused to answer repeated questioning in parliament from Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop as to whether she wrote to the authority to vouch for "the
bona fides of the AWU Workplace Reform Association".
On Monday, Ms Gillard told parliament: "The claim that the Deputy Leader of the Opposition has now made is a claim that appeared in The Age ... The correspondence he refers
to has never been produced, so the claim has been made but no correspondence has ever been produced."
The documents relied upon by The Australian were released by Slater & Gordon's former equity partner Nick Styant-Browne, after Mr Wilson's interview on the ABC's 7.30 on
Tuesday night.
However, Mr Styant-Browne released them on the basis that Mr Wilson's interview meant that he had waived his legal confidentiality as a former client of the firm.
The documents also show Ms Gillard wrote the association's rules.
While they emphasised worker safety, her document did not outline that the association was to be used for the re-election of officials.
It was also revealed the rules Ms Gillard used were "cut and pasted" from rules she had earlier used when incorporating the Socialist Forum which she had helped found at
Melbourne Univeristy in the 1980s.
Last night, Ms Gillard's spokesman told The Australian the PM had "no recollection of receiving or sending the claimed correspondence in this matter".
State of Socialist Governance in Australia: Corrupt to the Core
1/85 Kerr St.Fitzroy: Former Julia Gillard Lover defends her over AWU SCAM involvement
1 / 85 Kerr Street Fitzroy : Dear Prime Minister. You are a liar.
What Julia Gillard said on August 23 2012
Australian Politics: Madame Gillard returns from Thailand gabfest to AWU SCAM allegations
Alan Jones Michael Smith on Julia Gillard and the ex AWU Official Boyfriend
- Wayne Hem, former AWU employee recalls the $5,000 from Bruce to Julia
- Senator The Honourable George Brandis SC - the shadow Attorney General
- I know that there are a few people who want me to disclose details of my personal phone calls
- From the source re One Nation
- Urgent dispatch from Right Wing Misogynist Conspiracy Central
- Julia, people aren't stupid, this bloke lobbed a blog comment - he can work it out. Why don't you do something for the people who lost the money?
- Kerr Street Fitzroy Sale in 1996
- My own thoughts on Bruce Wilson's admissions on ABC 7.30 last night
- Doing our bit for recycling.
- Paper for comment please - The Boulder Mystery
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)