Australian Politics: Madame Gillard returns from Thailand gabfest to AWU SCAM allegations

PM faces new claims over union past

Steve Lewis - National Political Correspondent

Daily Telegraph

November 22, 20128:50PM

PRIME Minister Julia Gillard knew about a $150,000 Slater and Gordon mortgage for a property used by union fraudster Bruce Wilson more than two years before the date she admitted to knowing about it in an interview with the firm's management, a former senior partner claims.

In the latest revelation in the Australian Workers Union scandal, Nick Styant-Browne also revealed there was "deep disquiet" among S&G's top-tier management about some of Ms Gillard's conduct as a lawyer acting for the AWU.

And pressure on the Prime Minister over her role in the 17-year-old union scandal is expected to intensify today when former AWU official Ralph Blewitt will meet Victorian fraud squad detectives to provide extensive information about the fraud, involving up to $1 million in misappropriated funds.

Ralph Blewitt Ben Fordham discuss Julia Gillard and the AWU SCAM

Alan Jones Michael Smith on Julia Gillard and the ex AWU Official Boyfriend

Mr Styant-Browne, speaking from his US home, told the ABC's 7.30 program that he was speaking out to challenge a "stunningly incomplete account" by Slater and Gordon of Ms Gillard's departure from the law firm in late 1995.

The lawyer released new documents, including previously unseen portions of the transcripts from Ms Gillard's "exit" interview which he suggested challenged comments made by the PM to her former firm.

His claims revolve around a $150,000 mortgage provided by the law firm for the purchase of a Melbourne property in 1993. The Fitzroy property was purchased in the name of Ralph Blewitt, who subsequently signed a Power of Attorney to Mr Wilson. The document was witnessed by Ms Gillard, who was in a romantic relationship with the union fraudster from 1991 to 1995.

According to Mr Styant-Browne, Ms Gillard "claimed in the interview in 1995 that the first she heard about the Slater and Gordon loan for the acquisition of the Kerr Street property was in about August of (1995)".

But he said documents showed there was "no doubt that Ms Gillard knew about the mortgage from Slater and Gordon in March of 1993 (and) was specifically involved in taking steps to facilitate that mortgage".

"That is a matter of documents, it's not a matter of assertion and hearsay," he said.

Last night, the Prime Minister's office said there was "no contradiction" between Ms Gillard's recollection of the mortgage documents and the claims made by Mr Styant-Browne.

"Ms Gillard has no recollection of seeing the correspondence from the Commonwealth Bank dated 23 March 1993," a spokesperson for the PM said.

"Ms Gillard stands by her statements in the Slater and Gordon interview of 11 September 1995 as her best recollection of events two and a half years earlier."

Opposition deputy leader Julie Bishop said Ms Gillard's stance on the AWU scandal was "increasingly untenable" and called on her to make a full statement to parliament next week.

Mr Blewitt is expected to outline key details about his knowledge of the AWU Workplace Reform Association the $400,000 "slush" fund used by Mr Wilson.

Mr Blewitt is also expected to tell fraud squad detectives about Ms Gillard's role in helping to establish the Association and discuss how certain monies from the fund were spent.

Australian Politics: Gillard exposed by AWU SCAM Whistle Blower

Socialist's know they are in trouble when their own publicity / propaganda department, "Their ABC ",  starts  asking "....unauthorised questions"

Ralph Blewitt Ben Fordham discuss Julia Gillard and the AWU SCAM

Alan Jones Michael Smith on Julia Gillard and the ex AWU Official Boyfriend

Steve Price and Andrew Bolt discuss today's events  

Michael Smith News has covered this story from the start, in fact Michael Smith was SACKED from his radio show on the left wing Fairfax owned 2ue, for exposing (".........asking unauthorised questions" ) the PM's involvement in the AWU SCAM.

Latest post from his site are  below.

• Dinner at Alleged Garden Restaurant involving certain Colourful Labor Identities
• I think some people are missing the point
• Ralph Blewitt responds directly to the Prime Minister's statement
• Ralph Blewitt gets a call from diggers in Afghanistan
• Another great piece of work from The Age and Mark Baker
• Ralph Blewitt's lawyers approached by Western Australia Police Fraud Squad
• For those who do not understand - a few words about honour
• For those who do not understand - a few words about honour

Labor's personal campaign against Tony Abbott is working.

Labor's negativity pays off in the short run

Dennis Shanahan, Political Editor
The Australian
November 13, 2012 12:00AM 

LABOR'S personal campaign against Tony Abbott is working.

In one of the true ironies of modern political campaigning, a relentlessly negative and obsessive campaign is being run to portray an opponent as relentlessly negative and obsessive.

In an unprecedented concentration on a leader of the opposition, the Gillard government has determinedly sought to make Abbott the centre of the story, the man in the middle, and has talked more about him than its own achievements or record.

Abbott's obsession with forcing an early election and prosecuting the highly negative case against the carbon tax the Prime Minister promised not to introduce has contributed to his highly negative profile with voters. His satisfaction rating among voters is now the worst it has been.

Yet Abbott's character hasn't changed - he's no more sexist or old-fashioned than he was in December 2009 and he has not unveiled any controversial policies of late. Indeed, he's hardly unveiled any policy at all.

Hence, Labor's strategy of declaring a gender war with Abbott as the main target has worked on his personal support and fitted neatly with Labor's recent rise from its doldrums of despair.

Heading into an election year, it's a dangerous and trying time for Abbott as Opposition Leader, but he still has the advantage of being able to point to a primary vote giving the Coalition an election-winning lead. And he still has positive policy announcements ahead of him.

For an opposition leader, that remains a powerful claim despite the clear success of Labor's personal campaign against him.

Labor Green Loon's Islamic Colonization of Australia :Truth worse than the Fiction

The truth on refugees is worse than fiction


Paul Sheehan
Sydney Morning Herald
July 30, 2012

It is a lie that will not die. It has been sent to tens of thousands of Australians in an email that has been circulating for years. The latest variation compares the amount paid to Australian aged pensioners with the benefits available to refugees. It claims the weekly allowance for pensioners is $253 while the weekly allowance for refugees is $472.50, plus a weekly hardship payment of $145, meaning refugees are eligible for more than twice as much government support as pensioners. It's a concoction. The problem for the federal government is that the truth is in some ways worse than the lie.

As long ago as 2009 the Department of Immigration felt compelled to issue this press release: ''Figures quoted in these emails bear no resemblance to income-support payments to asylum seekers and refugees settling in Australia … Asylum seekers in Australia who have not yet had their protection claims decided have no access to Centrelink benefits.

''Irregular maritime arrivals are subject to thorough security and identity checks and must satisfy the character test before a decision is made about protection … In Australia, refugees granted permanent visas have access to benefits on the same basis and at the same rates as other Australian permanent residents.''

Things have loosened up since then. Some asylum seekers now do qualify for welfare before their claims have been decided. The system of ''thorough security and identity checks'' has been compromised. This has damaged the federal Labor government, damaged the reputation of the Prime Minister, and damaged the traditional links between blue collar workers and the Labor Party. It has inflicted as much political damage on Labor as the carbon tax about-face.

In trying to understand the persistently dreadful opinion polls for the Gillard government, I keep coming back to this issue, a policy debacle for which Kevin Rudd, not Julia Gillard, bears primary responsibility, though on her watch it has gone from embarrassing to potentially terminal.

What follows are half a dozen elements that are already of concern to the Australian Federal Police, but about which the AFP must remain mute:

The police have not seen as large a gap in quality control in the flow of unskilled and welfare-dependent arrivals since the refugee flow from Lebanon in the 1970s.

About 90 per cent of those who arrive via illegal boat entries have been granted permanent residence, yet the overwhelming majority have entered Malaysia or Indonesia by legal means, then destroyed their identity papers with the intent of making it difficult for Australia to check their bona fides.

The amount of workplace participation among refugees and asylum-seekers remains low for some time. After four years, only about 25 per cent are engaged in full-time work. (The issue is examined in a Department of Immigration report, Settlement Outcomes for New Arrivals, published in April last year.)

Under intense political pressure, the federal government is emptying the detention centres by issuing bridging visas which allow detainees to enter the community, work, and receive welfare benefits before their final status has been determined. This has slashed the average time spent in detention from nine months to three months but the quicker turnover has compressed the scrutiny process.

Some of the high take-up of welfare payments among asylum seekers and refugees is being recycled into bringing relatives to Australia, including via people smugglers.

The Royal Australian Navy is being used as a pick-up service by people smugglers who call navy vessels to advise them of their need for assistance.

Little wonder that numbers are exploding. In the three years before the election of the Rudd government, 71 people arrived on 10 illegal boats. It took a year for the impact of Labor's dismantling of the previous border security regime to kick in. Over the past three years 341 illegal boats have brought 20,248 asylum-seekers. Another 363 have drowned. Uncounted others have perished or turned back.

Australia's Labor Green Loon Co Party Government sets new Olympic Record for Islamic Colonization of Australia 

All these problems are personified by ''Captain Emad'', who fled Australia in June even though he had been under investigation by police. The man, Abu Khalid, was a people smuggler who came to Australia by passing himself off as an asylum seeker. He brought his wife, three children and a grandchild. All received refugee status, settled in Canberra and were provided with public housing despite using different identities to those they used to enter Indonesia from Iraq. Yet even after Khalid's activities were exposed by the ABC's Four Corners program, he was allowed to leave.

Systemic deceit has been rewarded by systemic support. Even some asylum seekers who have avoided immigration control, destroyed their identity documents and not yet had their claims decided are eligible for support under the Asylum Seeker Assistance Scheme.

Among the benefits that can be made available to those granted protection visas, and those granted refugee status, is a one-off household formation package of up to $9850. Families can be eligible for education assistance of up to $9220. People granted refugee status become eligible for welfare payments immediately without having to wait the two-year period set for immigrants. Single applicants are eligible for a Newstart Allowance. Parents are eligible for Centrelink's parenting payment. Refugees, and some on bridging visas, also receive Medicare assistance for medical, hospital, dental, medicine and optical costs. Mobile phones are provided to those who arrive as unaccompanied minors.

This is the honeypot that has combined with civil strife to cause entire villages to empty in Sri Lanka and thousands of young men to travel from Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Pakistan to get on illegal boats to Australia.

The viral email about Australia's generosity to refugees may be wrong in its details, but the truth is a story of government gullibility without end.

Its time the Australian connections within the Union GetUp funded Labor / Green Loon / Independent "Co Party" Government are rounded up and charged with treason.Aussie.