Australian Press Council finds The Daily Telegraph not fair and balanced in its 2012 reporting dismissal of case against Slipper

Australian Press Council:

Adjudication No. 1573: Margo Kingston/The Daily Telegraph (February 2014)  

Document Type: Complaints

Outcome: Adjudications

Date: 27 Feb 2014

The Press Council has considered a complaint about an article in The Daily Telegraph on 13 December 2012, headed “Court rejects Slipper case”. The article reported a Federal Court decision on the previous day to dismiss as an abuse of process a legal action for sexual harassment brought against Peter Slipper MP by James Ashby. It appeared on page 17 of the newspaper and on the publication’s website.

Margo Kingston complained that the report of the dismissal on page 17 did not give it sufficient prominence in light of the newspaper’s very prominent and detailed coverage earlier in the year of Mr Ashby’s commencement of the legal proceedings and his allegations against Mr Slipper. The “exclusive” report on 21 April 2012 about commencement of the proceedings and Mr Ashby’s allegations had occupied all news space on pages 1 and 2 and most of page 3. On the next day, Mr Slipper had stood aside as Speaker.

The Daily Telegraph said page 17 was a prominent page and the top half had comprised the report on the dismissal, a photograph of Mr Ashby and an article on another aspect of the proceedings. It had also published reports about the matter on its website on the previous afternoon and in the next few days had published related reports online and opinion pieces in print. The story also was covered widely in other media outlets.

The newspaper said placement on page 17 was partly because of an unusually high number of other important articles on that day. The greater length and prominence of the coverage in April was due to the topic having much greater political significance as Mr Slipper was then the Speaker and his acceptance of that position had crucially influenced the balance of votes in the House of Representatives. It was also partly because the April story was an “exclusive”.

The Council agrees that the political significance and “newsworthiness” of an event are obviously relevant to the length and prominence with which it is reported. By the time of the dismissal of the proceedings, the political situation had changed considerably, especially because Mr Slipper had stood aside and then, in October, resigned as Speaker. Also, several unrelated news stories (especially the funeral of a police officer) clearly merited prominent coverage in the issue of 13 December.

The Council’s relevant Principle states: “Publications should take reasonable steps to ensure reports are accurate, fair and balanced”. The Principle does not necessarily require complete, or almost complete, fairness or balance. But a combination of factors meant that avoiding serious unfairness or imbalance was of special importance in this particular case.  

First, the commencement of legal proceedings was a story the newspaper had “broken” in April, describing the allegations as “amongst the most serious ever raised” in Australian political history and “potentially deadly”.

Second, the allegations, and progress of the proceedings, were reported prominently on many occasions in ensuing months, often in the first few pages of The Daily Telegraph.

Third, dismissal of the proceedings raised important questions about Mr Slipper’s decision to stand aside as Speaker, which in the words of the newspaper happened “after The Daily Telegraph revealed allegations of sexual harassment and Cabcharge misuse - [which] means the government loses a precious vote in parliament”.

Fourth, readers of a daily newspaper of this kind can reasonably expect to be informed by it of such a key development as the dismissal of these proceedings as an abuse of process for political reasons, especially when it had previously given the matter great prominence.

In the circumstances of this case, it is not reasonable to assume that readers who saw the very prominent coverage across pages 1-3 of the 21 April edition were likely to see the very much less prominent report of the dismissal on page 17 of an edition eight months later or see the report on its website. It also is not reasonable to regard the newspaper’s obligations of fairness and balance as having been met by the story being widely covered in other media outlets.

The Council upholds the complaint due to the very stark difference between the detail, tone and prominence of the newspaper’s initial coverage on 21 April and of its report on 13 December of the dismissal. The later report did not need to match the prominence and detail of the earlier report by, for example, being of similar length and on the same pages. But in the circumstances of this case the degree of difference was so great as to constitute a clear breach of the Council’s Principle concerning fairness and balance.

It is not the Council’s role to say precisely how this unfairness or imbalance should have been avoided. There were clearly a number of possibilities between which the publication could choose.

Additional note (not required for publication by the newspaper):
The newspaper said that the prospect of an appeal by Mr Ashby influenced its decision not to give the issue more extensive treatment. The Council notes, however, that it is common and accepted practice to report court decisions, sometimes in great detail, even though they may be subject to an appeal.

The newspaper also quoted from an Advisory Guideline of the Council on bias. The words which it quoted relate to bias and fairness in publishing different political opinions, but this adjudication relates to fairness and balance in the reporting of facts.

Relevant Council Principles (not required for publication by the newspaper):
This adjudication applies part of General Principle 1: “Publications should take reasonable steps to ensure reports are accurate, fair and balanced.”

The Daily Telegraph’s hissy fit ‘editorial’ on Page 59 of its 27 February 2014 issue:

@margokingston1

The 2013 Australian Federal Election may be over but the circus will continue.......

Palmer United Party Leader Clive Palmer's electoral status may still be in doubt but Mal Brough has been confirmed as elected to the Australian Parliament, so there is now a little extra sting in the tail of this court case.

Sunshine Coast Daily 5 September 2013:

CLIVE Palmer has issued a Supreme Court writ seeking more than $800,000 in damages from Fisher LNP candidate Mal Brough.

The billionaire Palmer United Party candidate for Fairfax alleges Mr Brough made statements to the Press which effectively claimed he had lied to Australian voters and that he had done so for his political gain and that of his fledgling party.

In a statement of claim issued in the Supreme Court this morning Mr Palmer stood by his own statements that Mr Brough approached him last year to fund the James Ashby sexual harassment suit against sitting Member for Fisher Peter Slipper who is standing as an independent against Mr Brough.

Mr Palmer's legal team yesterday emailed Mr Brough asking him if he had solicitors on whom the writ could be served. The email said if no response had been received by 11am today it would be taken that Mr Brough wanted the writ served personally on himself.

The writ seeks $355,500 in general compensatory damages and a further $450,000 in aggravated compensatory damages and costs.

Clive Palmer continues to claim Liberal-National Party candidate Mal Brough asked for money to destroy Peter Slipper's reputation

Brisbane Times 22 August 2013:

Billionaire businessman Clive Palmer has claimed LNP candidate Mal Brough asked him for money to fund a campaign to destroy Peter Slipper’s reputation.

Mr Palmer dropped the bombshell on Thursday, more than a year after the alleged meeting at Palmer’s Coolum Resort on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast in April 2012.

Mr Brough, who is standing as LNP candidate for Mr Slipper’s seat of Fisher, has been approached for comment.

‘‘Mal Brough said it was important the Liberal Party should win the seat of Fisher,’’ Mr Palmer alleged.

‘‘He said to me, ‘we need to destroy Peter Slipper’.

‘‘He said he had all the evidence that would put Slipper way for a long time.

‘‘He then outlined to me a case he had that would destroy his integrity and what the community thought about Mr Slipper.’’

The mining magnate alleged Mr Brough asked him to fund a sexual harassment lawsuit James Ashby would bring against his former employer, Mr Slipper.

Mr Palmer also alleged Mr Brough asked him to employ a woman who would play an integral role in the former House of Representatives speaker’s downfall.

He said Mr Brough did not outline the woman’s role……

Mal Brough defiant - I'd do it all again

The Courier Mail 20 July 2013:

Article 1. 

Mal Brough says he has no case to answer over the Ashbygate affair and said he would act the same if he had his time over again.

The LNP candidate for the seat of Fisher yesterday spoke to the Daily about the saga in what he said would be his final interview on the subject.

Mr Brough was implicated in the affair which led to current Fisher MP Peter Slipper resigning as Speaker of the House of Representatives after former staffer James Ashby brought a sexual harassment lawsuit against Mr Slipper.

Federal Court judge Steven Rares dismissed the case as an "abuse of process" and politically motivated. He was damning of Mr Brough in his comments….

Article 2. 

Mal Brough's role in the failed James Ashby sexual harassment case against Peter Slipper continues to raise questions about whether the LNP should ever have endorsed him.

It also puts in question Tony Abbott's judgment - and his wisdom and truthfulness in saying Mr Bough had always been upfront about the whole affair.

The issue is not likely to go away…..

If we are to believe the version of events, as determined by the court, and your initial lies about your involvement in it, this scandal goes to the heart of your character - and whether your are worthy of being elected as the man to replace Mr Slipper.

Mr Brough argues he only wanted to help Mr Ashby after he came to him with claims of sexual harassment.

It is interesting to note that similar approaches to Sunshine Coast MP Mark McArdle, Julie Bishop and Christopher Pyne came to nothing.

Perhaps they had better judgment.

Or was the work delegated to Brough as an opportunity to put Slipper - his arch enemy - out of action?.....

Background:

North Coast Voices 14 December 2012:

Justice Rares findings concerning Mal Brough in his Ashby v Commonwealth of Australia and Peter Slipper judgment of 12 December 2012:

135 Mr Ashby asserted to Mr Harmer that his justification for his disloyalty as an employee in providing copies of Mr Slipper’s 2009 and 2010 diaries was that he wished to place the material in the public domain. That was, his assertion went, because he “believed that the conduct was morally and legally wrong and he felt aggrieved that he had been placed in the situation of becoming, as he understood it, exposed to (and potentially implicated in) what he regarded as the wrongful conduct of a public official”: [116] above. The words I have emphasised were ambiguous. If they referred to Mr Slipper’s conduct on the days covered by the 2009 and 2010 diary entries he surreptitiously sent to Mr Brough and Mr Lewis, there is no evidence to support Mr Ashby’s description or that he had any knowledge of particular conduct of Mr Slipper that was morally or legally wrong prior to him or Ms Doane sending the diary extracts to Mr Brough and Mr Lewis.

136 …..Rather, Mr Ashby’s and Ms Doane’s conduct at that point indicated that he and she were anxious to supply information to Mr Brough and Mr Lewis so that they could use it to assemble an attack on Mr Slipper, if they could find sufficient material to do so, using the diary entries and other evidence…..
138 I am also satisfied that Mr Ashby and Ms Doane by about 29 March 2012 were in a combination with Mr Brough to cause Mr Slipper as much political and public damage as they could inflict on him….

141 Mr Brough was unlikely to have been offering to assist Ms Doane and Mr Ashby in seeing Mr Russell QC for advice or looking for new careers out of pure altruism. Realistically, his preparedness to act for them was created and fed by their willingness to act against Mr Slipper’s interests and assisting Mr Brough’s and the LNP’s interests in destabilising Mr Slipper’s position as Speaker and damaging him in the eyes of his electorate…..

142…. Certainly, the nature of the allegations that Mr Brough, Ms Doane and Mr Ashby had provided Mr Lewis in about late March and early April 2012 would have suggested to a political journalist that there would now be more than one news story about Mr Slipper to pursue….

146 Mr Ashby and Mr Lewis had planned that articles about Mr Slipper’s use of travel entitlements would be published shortly before these proceedings were filed. They both knew that Mr Lewis would be able to publish further articles on the subject matter as soon as it was filed in Court in the originating application. Ms Doane and Mr Brough had also discussed the timing and sequence of publication of stories by Mr Lewis. So much is clear from Mr Ashby’s texts to Mr Nagle of 10 April 2012, Glen of 11 April 2012 and Ms Doane’s email to Mr Brough of 10 April 2012: see [82], [90], [86]. The planning reveals that Mr Ashby calculated how he would attack, and use the press to attack, Mr Slipper.

147 Mr Ashby had planned with Mr Lewis, and probably separately with Ms Doane and Mr Brough, the sequence of publications so as to raise the more serious allegations in the originating process, after the stories of 16 April 2012 appeared. The timing of those 16 April stories was linked to when the originating application would be filed. Once Mr Ashby began seeing Harmers and went into “lock down”, Mr Brough and Mr Lewis became anxious to know when the proceedings would be ready to be filed. Hence their strenuous attempts to contact Mr Ashby once he began to act on Mr McClellan’s advice to filter media contact through him. Mr Ashby had emphasised in his text to Mr Lewis on 10 April 2012 that “We need to act fast mate”. And Mr Brough told Ms Doane on learning that, eventually, Mr McClellan would meet Mr Lewis “Everything will be fine”: [94]. 

196 Having read all of the text messages on Mr Ashby’s mobile phone, as Mr Ashby’s senior counsel invited me to do, as well as the other evidence, I have reached the firm conclusion that Mr Ashby’s predominant purpose for bringing these proceedings was to pursue a political attack against Mr Slipper and not to vindicate any legal claim he may have for which the right to bring proceedings exists. Mr Ashby began planning that attack at least by the beginning of February 2012. As Mr Ashby and Ms Doane agreed in their texts of 30 March 2012 what they were doing “will tip the govt to Mal’s [Brough] and the LNP’s advantage”: [66]. It may be a coincidence that Mr Ashby suggested to Mr Slipper the idea of becoming Speaker just as Mr Brough began to move towards challenging Mr Slipper for LNP pre-selection for his seat and Mr Ashby ended up in an alliance in late March 2012 with Mr Brough to bring down Mr Slipper after he became Speaker….

The Ashby-Slipper-Harmer matters still wending their way through the Australian judicial system

Excerpt from bouefbloginon 14 June 2013

As Ashby v Slipper - NSD22/2013 and Harmer v Slipper - NSD31/2013 wend their way through the judicial system, placing yet more submissions before the Federal Court, J at bouefbloginon adds another perspective.

Full list of court documents available online here.

One more reason that Clarence Valley Council should replace that missing section of the Yamba Road Cycleway sooner rather than later

 

Letter to the Editor, The Daily Examiner 17 May 2013:

 

Money spinner

Earlier this month, a group of cycling friends travelled from Queensland's Sunshine Coast to the Clarence. This was our third visit in less than five years and again Maclean was the base.
The Lower Clarence is a delightful area to cycle and among our wonderful experiences, starting on day one, was the ferry ride from Yamba to lunch at Iluka before returning to Maclean via Ashby and Harwood (pub).
Day two we were on a back road near Tucabia when a car pulled up. Out jumped a local lass amazed to see such a group and proceeded to take our photos. Lunch was at the Ulmarra pub.
Day three we were invited to ride in the Woodford Island fun ride organised by Maclean Rotary. Day four was an early morning sprint out to Brooms Head before our departure.
Everyone was again taken by the beauty of the region and appreciated the consideration given by motorists on roads that were not always cyclist friendly.
Our group of about 30 would have put about $15,000 into the local economy for our stay.
Cycling is a massive growth area driven by baby boomer retirees. With money well spent on improving cycling facilities in the Clarence (eg paths/lanes Maclean to Yamba; sealing road between Ashby, Tullymorgan and Lawrence; and road markings to make motorists aware of cyclists) there would be a huge financial boost to the area.

RON GOOCH

Peregian Beach

 

Lower Clarence residents need to boil their water due to E. coli contamination

Mayor: Richie Williamson General Manager: Scott Greensill                                                                   16 May 2013 BOIL WATER NOTICE – Lower Clarence water supply areas Regular monitoring for E. coli bacteria in the Lower Clarence water supply system is conducted by Clarence Valley Council. Recent monitoring has shown E. coli to be present in the Lower Clarence water supply system. As a precaution you are advised that water for consumption should be brought to a rolling boil. Water should then be allowed to cool and stored in a clean container with a lid and refrigerated. This boil water notice applies to consumers in the Lower Clarence including the following areas: Maclean, Brooms Head, Yamba, Harwood, Ashby, Iluka, and areas in between these towns Cooled boiled or bottled water should be used for drinking, cooking, washing raw foods (such as seafood or salads), making ice, and cleaning teeth. Dishes should be washed in hot soapy water or in a dishwasher. Children should take bottled or cooled boiled water to school. Precautions should be taken until further notice.  You will be advised when the boil water notice is lifted. E. coli itself is generally not harmful but its presence in drinking water indicates that the water may be contaminated with organisms that may cause disease. The NSW Department of Health advises that special care is advisable for certain consumers at this time, these include people with severely weakened immune systems (the immunosuppressed), individuals receiving dialysis treatment, and aged individuals. Please contact your doctor or local Public Health Unit (02 6620 7585) for more information. Council, in conjunction with the NSW Department of Health is investigating the problem and is carrying out rectification works including cleaning reservoirs, flushing of mains, supplementary chlorine dosing, and additional surveillance.  Residents may notice elevated chlorine levels in the water supply. If you require further information please contact Council’s Customer Service staff on 6643 0200. Schools: For Precautions for Schools and Child Care Centres during Boil Water Alerts refer to NSW Department of Health website:  Release ends. Authorised by: Scott Greensill, General Manager 02 6643 0212 For further information contact: Rob Donges  Deputy General Manager

Clarence Valley Council Locked Bag 23 Grafton, NSW, 2460 Australia

What will the Australian Press Council do about this?

The Daily Telegraph's blatantly false Page One headline of 18 March 2013

Mr Denmore ‏@MrDenmore

Oh, the author of The Tele's carbon collapse fiction is our friend Steve Lewis, he of Ozcar and Ashby fame.

Mr Denmore ‏@MrDenmore

The Tele's source for the 'carbon collapse' are unnamed 'experts'. Odd as the share market is at a 4-year high and business confidence is up

Yesterday morning I happened on these two tweets and this snapshot on Twitter. Given New Limited's involvement in the current hysteria surrounding the Federal Government's response to the 2011 and 2012 independent media reviews, I went to that day's issue of The Daily Telegraph and this is what I found. The Daily Telegraph's Steve Lewis and Phil Jacob are asserting that: New data from the corporate regulator reveals insolvencies have hit a record high over the past 12 months, led by widespread failures in manufacturing and construction, which accounted for almost one-fifth of collapses. The Australian Securities & Investments Commission reports there were 10,632 company collapses for the 12 months to March 1 - averaging 886 a month - with the number of firms being placed in administration more than 12 per cent higher than during the global financial crisis. While the high Australian dollar is seen as the main factor behind manufacturing closures, experts say the carbon tax is adding to increasing cost burdens for many firms struggling to stay afloat. The first problem with this statement is that it is plain wrong. The "10,632" figure does not come from a twelve month period ending on 1 March this year - this total is for the 2012 calendar year. A clue for these two journalists might have been found in the fact that the data set was released on 18 February 2013. What The Daily Telegraph journalists also do not say is that in the total figure quoted almost half of these external administration/insolvencies occurred before the introduction of the 'cabon tax' and, that prior to the tax, in February-March 2012 there were 2,137 insolvencies which made this the highest combined figure for two consecutive months in a data set which begins in 1996. As for the more than one business is going the wall every hour in Australia found in text in the snapshot above - I suggest that The Daily Telegraph invest in new batteries for the office calculator as that Page One assertion is wrong on so many levels. So what else in that Lewis-Jacob article is open to question? Well, let me start with Grain Products Australia the country’s only manufacturer of caramel and dextrin and one of only two wheat starch and gluten manufacturers. A company in liquidation since 11 March this year and one the journalists try hard to mold into a carbon tax victim. Over six months before the introduction of the carbon price, this company went into voluntary administration citing the high cost of wheat and what were then solely state electricity charges. That leaves Penrice Soda Holdings the only Australian soda ash manufacturer. It was quoted by the Lewis-Jacob team as saying that the reason it was ceasing local raw material quarrying and importing its soda ash was that the carbon tax was effectively the straw that broke the camel's back. However, a little basic fact checking would have shown that last February it told its shareholders and the Australian Stock Exchange that the factory closure was reflecting deteriorating demand conditions in soda ash and quarry material markets as well as impacts from a high Australian dollar. There was not one word about the carbon tax. Finally, the biggest whopper these two journalists told about the business sector in 2012 which is this line; with the number of firms being placed in administration more than 12 per cent higher than during the global financial crisis. The Global Financial Crisis began in 2007-08 and did not lose momentum until 2009-10. Even the most mathematically challenged News Limited employee would realise that the business external administration/insolvency totals for those years far exceed the 2012 total which The Daily Telegraph is currently treating as an end of days event. So what will the Australian Press Council do about a newspaper which so distorts the facts and journalists whom I'm told now know that they have based their 10,632 company collapses on a dodgy premise? Why its twenty-three members will pretend that they never saw or heard of this article - unless a member of the public makes a formal complaint. UPDATE: The Leader of the Opposition makes the mistake of relying on the Lewis-Jacob article during the House of Representatives Question Time on 18 March 2013. A reliance the Minister for Industry and Innovation and Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, Greg Combet, notes during that same Question Time: ...over the last couple of days the Leader of the Opposition, the New South Wales government and the Daily Telegraph have been misleading the public yet again about the impact of carbon pricing. Yesterday it was a false claim about electricity prices in New South Wales. Today the Daily Telegraph is back with ridiculous claims about economic catastrophe, repeated here today in the very first question by the Leader of the Opposition—there seems to be some commonality of approach that we are witnessing. The Telegraph story today takes the misuse of statistics, hysterical headlines and distortion of facts to levels that would have done Pravda proud during the height of the Cold War.

Taking the mickey out of Abbott's relentless self promotion

Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's crass attempt to ride on the back of last month's devastating bushfires across New South Wales drew an almost Where's Wally? response across the Twitterverse.

His image was inserted into a good many photographs.

This happens to be my personal understated favourite. It may be the only time James Hunter Ashby and Abbott are ever sighted together.

Michael Daniel Harmer goes to Court

 

In NSD31/2013 Federal Court of Australia:

Clause in Harmer’s  Application for leave to appeal in matter listed as Michael Daniel Harmer v Peter Slipper & Anor.

 

The Anor would appear to be James Hunter Ashby, his client in Ashby v Commonwealth of Australia & Peter Slipper.

 

Besides lodging the application for leave to appeal, Mr. Harmer also made an interlocutory application and submitted an affidavit.

 

Lawyers Weekly 18  January 2013:



The Office of the Legal Services Commissioner could not reveal whether Harmer is currently being investigated over “abuse of process” allegations in Rares’ judgment. However, Assistant Legal Services Commissioner Lynda Muston told Lawyers Weekly that the office always investigates claims of abuse of process or misleading the court.

“Where the evidence supports those allegations we’ll prosecute accordingly,” she added.

But an investigation could be on hold until the outcome of Harmer’s appeal.

“If we were looking at findings of a particular court in a particular matter and that matter then went on appeal we would ... defer that investigation pending the outcome of an appeal,” said Muston.

 

Mr. Harmer's matter is before the court on 8 February 2013.

Ashby lodges a tit for tat appeal in Ashby v Commonwealth & Slipper

 

James Hunter Ashby and his new legal team finally files his appeal in Ashby v Commonwealth & Slipper – asserting that the Rares judgment which found the original proceedings were an abuse of process was in error.

 

Predictions for 2013

* Biggest under the radar problem for Federal Labor in 2013 - Robert John "Bob" Carr.

* Most troublesome MP for Federal Liberal Party in 2013 – Anthony John "Tony" Abbott.

* Most likely political scandals next year –

Abbott’s political plots

who knew of James Ashby's plans and who funded his court case

the relationship between past and present MPs or their advisers and mining companies operating in New South Wales

super trawlers in Australian waters

NSW Health performance

Cardinal George Pell if his congregation don't manage to gag him during the Federal Government royal commission into child sexual abuse

The Australian newspaper's rightwing shenanigans

the entire federal general election campaign from start to finish

Sortius seeks answers

 

Sortius is a Geek sent this email below to the Department of Parliamentary Services on 18 December 2012. The next day Sortius alleged his website was being blocked so that staff at Parliament House could not read his opinions concerning Opposition Leader Tony Abbott.

 

The email:

 

Hi,

 

My name is Kieran Cummings & I write for Independent Australia (& my own blog) about technology & politics.

I recently wrote an article in regard to the press release offered by Tony Abbott’s office regarding James Ashby’s case against Peter Slipper. During my investigation I have uncovered quite a lot of information about the PDFs & when they were produced.

Yesterday I was contacted by journalists to advise that DPS had made a statement in regard to when the PDFs were produced. I feel this statement raises more questions than it answers & I would like to get some more information from DPS on this.

What are “technical staff” using to determine when the files were created/converted to PDF? Are you monitoring every computer on the network & all file creations/accesses?

How is it possible for APH’s computers/servers to run on a time zone outside AEST/AEDT? To my knowledge this will cause all sorts of problems with appointments, logs, etc.

The original press release does not use a “z date” format for time stamping, so I ask which file is DPS referring to? The one modified on 23/04/12 or the original that does not include the “z date” formatting? (I have included the original file that was emailed out before the press release that has passed on from a journalist to myself)

No other files around the time this was created exhibit the same symptoms, if APH does indeed use UTC on all the computers this would be easily replicated. Why is this not the case?

When DPS notes that this was a “technical problem”, where is it arising from?

Tony Abbott’s office advised on 13/12/12 that they were aware of the problem in April 2012, yet DPS does not seem to have known about the problem until 13/12/12. Can DPS please confirm that this has been a continual problem?

Your prompt responses would be appreciated.

 

Regards,

Kieran Cummings

 

	sortius @sortius
@colinfry666 yeh, they are actually investigating it. Apparently my blog has been blocked at APH.

 

The electorate still mocking Abbott

This time it’s @AshbySlipper who says “Since @TonyAbbottMHR hasn't had time to read the judgement, I thought I'd tweet it to him. One line at a time.”

The beginning of this Tweetathon in reverse order:

@AshbySlipper .@TonyAbbottMHR suggested that he was planning to use the record of his texts with Mr Slipper to empower others in a way that would affect
@AshbySlipper .@TonyAbbottMHR contemporaneous texts with his friends, of Mr Ashby feeling upset as a result of sexual harassment. Rather those texts
@AshbySlipper .@TonyAbbottMHR Ashby went to see Mark McArdle, a senior frontbencher in the then Queensland State LNP opposition. There was no hint, in
@AshbySlipper .@TonyAbbottMHR "closer", and hence sexual, relationship. Mr Ashby rebuffed whatever the proposed closer relationship was. The next day Mr
 @AshbySlipper .@TonyAbbottMHR text messages with Mr Slipper. That exchange could be read as conveying a proposal by Mr Slipper that the two have a
@AshbySlipper .@TonyAbbottMHR pages of Mr Ashby's text messages with Mr Slipper and many other people. On 1 February 2012, Mr Ashby had an exchange of

The pain is not over for Brough, McArdle, Pyne, Entsch & the rest of Abbott's merry men

Ashby and his backers get an early and unwelcome Christmas present.

In the matter of James Asby v Commonwealth of Australia and Peter Slipper:

Antipodean Watergate: What did Tony know and when did he know it?

21 April 2012 front page

 

At 1am in the morning of 21 April 2012 The Daily Telegraph online published a series of articles and an editorial^** breaking news that the then Speaker of the House of Representatives Peter Slipper was being taken to court by a member of his staff.

 

On that same day Opposition Leader Tony Abbott issued a media release titled Statement on Peter Slipper MP.

 

The timing of this media release is now a subject of interest, as there is speculation that Abbott knew the basic facts concerning the application to the court before news broke in the Australian media.

 

The Sydney Morning Herald 13 December 2012:

 

The metadata of the media release on the Ashby matter sent by Mr Abbott's office to media outlets indicates it was "created" at 11.08pm on Friday, April 20, 2012 - before News Limited published its exclusive story on the Saturday.

Asked to explain the discrepancy between the time the document was apparently created and transmitted to the media at 9.17am on the Saturday, Mr Abbott's office said that during April the computer server timestamps were sometimes out by up to 10 hours.

AAP saw several other documents on an office computer which showed the same discrepancy.

"Our records clearly show that the press release was drafted, converted into a PDF, and issued on the morning of the April 21, 2012," a spokesman for Mr Abbott told AAP. [my red bolding]

 

Abbott’s maths just don’t add up. In endeavouring to explain away what at first glance appears to be a pre-emptive media release, he forgets to check the Internet and therefore does not discover the fact that his Statement on Peter Slipper MP media release is quoted in the published transcript of an 8am radio show a whole 1 hour and 10 minutes before the revised time he gives for transmission by his office of that same media release.

ABC AM Staffer accuses Slipper of sexual harrasment

Adam Harvey reported this story on Saturday, April 21, 2012 08:07:00

 

ELIZABETH JACKSON: The Federal Opposition has called for the Prime Minister to stand down the Parliamentary Speaker Peter Slipper after allegations today that he sexually harassed a young male staffer and misused taxpayer-funded Cabcharges.

In a statement issues this morning the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, said it was "incumbent on the Prime Minister to require him to stand aside until the matters were concluded before the courts"…. [my red bolding]

Obviously the media release began its journey before the start of the business day, so when was it created, where and by whom?

 

Footnote:

^**Read extracts of the allegations made against Speaker Peter Slipper

^**Sexual harassment allegations include claims of bizarre behaviour

^**Editorial: A scandal that is no small matter

^**Crisis: Court case a slippery slope for Gillard

Update:

14 December 2012 snapshot of the document properties

of the April 2012 media release

Statement on Peter Slipper MP

supplied to Australian Parliament House by Tony Abbott

 

UPDATE 17 December 2012:

 

I have been sent the original, unedited PDFs by a journalist. Looking at the PDFs & the date formatting, it seems the date output by MS Word 2007 has defaulted to a “null time zone” format, meaning it is timestamped with the local time....

Some testing by twitter users with Word 2007 & Adobe Acrobat have confirmed that a file output by Word 2007 with a null time zone will be reverted to Zulu time upon being edited & saved in Adobe Acrobat as there is no timezone information available so Acrobat assumes Zulu time. This does mean that the original files were output at 23:08 (& 32 seconds) on 20/04/12 in the AEST (+10hrs) time zone, meaning Abbott’s office was not only aware of the impending report from News LTD, but had enough time to prepare a statement the night before. [Sortius 10 Hours of Bullshit ]

 

UPDATE 18 December 2012:

 

The Australian today; The Department of Parliamentary Services, however, backed Mr Abbott's explanations on Monday after The Australian raised the issue earlier in the day. "The date stamp on the document in question is incorrect," said a DPS spokeswoman. "The press release was created on the 21 April, 2012.

"DPS technical staff can see that the original Word document was saved at 9.07am on April 21, 2012 AEST. The document was converted to a PDF at 9.08am on April 21, 2012 AEST.
"The time on the date stamp is 10 hours behind AEST due to a technical problem."

This limited explanation does not explain why it was only the PC of one particular staffer which was affected and only one particular media release among the multitude Abbott sent out in 2012.