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.





Dennis Shanahan finally loses any grip on reality

Mal Brough (top) and Dennis Shanahan (bottom)

 

Dennis Shanahan writing in The Australian on 12 December 2012:

 

FORMER Howard government minister and putative MP for Fisher, Mal Brough, is the latest political casualty in the ongoing scandals surrounding Peter Slipper….

But the real political victim is now Brough, who stands accused of working with Ashby and co-worker Karen Doane in an underhanded political scheme based on disloyalty, political preferment, duplicity, and lies - all aimed at bringing down Slipper and promoting Brough….

In the face of what is set out below, one wonders in what alternative reality this political editor now dwells if he can seriously apply the term “victim” to this man.

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….

http://youtu.be/AEWfsUO7YZY

* Photographs found at Google Images

UPDATE:

Justice Rares found that Mal Brough had known in early April 2012 that an application was to be filed by James Hunter Ashby. Court records show that it was filed on Friday 20 April 2012.

This is what Oppostion Leader Tony Abbott told the media on 13-14 December 2012:

'I think that Mal Brough was perfectly and properly endorsed by the Liberal National Party. He's been quite transparent and upfront about his involvement and, as I said, the matter is now subject to appeal,'

Harmers produces an exercise in the pathetic

Statement by Harmers Workplace Lawyers
Wednesday 12 Dec. 2012
"Whilst of course we respect the court's decision, we are shocked and disappointed by it. We will argue strongly on appeal that the conclusions in his Honour'sjudgment made about our conduct of the case are simply not justified by the evidence. Neither myself, nor this firm, are part of any conspiracy.
Harmers Workplace Lawyers has over many years assisted thousands of individual,corporate and union clients to access justice.
We have assisted James Ashby in that same way, as an individual who could not otherwise afford to run very expensive litigation in our courts.
This is the sole reason we took on James Ashby's case. Politics played absolutely no role in the decision to take on James as a client. As I swore in my affidavit, and as recognised by his Honour in his decision, my political views are notconsistent with the conservative side of politics. We are a law firm, consciousof our professional obligations, and take no role in politics.
As a firm, we will be examining all avenues to have this decision, and its comments, overturned through due judicial process."
Michael Harmer
Harmers Workplace Lawyers
Michael is not available for further comment.
MEDIA CONTACT Anthony McClellan
AMC Media
Mob. 0433 122 360
anthonymcc@gmail.com
T: antmac9

Is this the end of Mal Brough's renewed political ambitions? ASHBY v COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA and PETER SLIPPER - 12 December 2012 judgement

Earlier this year Australian Opposition Leader Tony Abbott had openly backed former Howard Government Minister Mal Brough’s attempt to return to Federal Parliament:

TONY Abbott has given a boost to former minister Mal Brough's campaign for Liberal National Party preselection in Fisher by declaring ''he would be a very welcome addition to our team''.

Now that Brough is linked to a political conspiracy to bring down the then Speaker of the House of Representatives, one wonders how Abbott will spin that sordid fact.

Excerpts from JAMES HUNTER ASHBY v COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA and PETER SLIPPER judgment:

132 Mr Ashby and Ms Doane had decided by 29 March 2012 that Mr Ashby would make allegations of sexual harassment in legal proceedings against Mr Slipper and would assist Mr Brough and Mr Lewis to damage Mr Slipper in the public eye and political arena with any information they could find including using the requested diary entries together with any proceedings. Mr Ashby referred to seeing or using lawyers in his texts from about this time. Accordingly, I have inferred that he, Ms Doane and Mr Brough intended that Mr Ashby would bring proceedings against Mr Slipper alleging at least sexual harassment.

133 Once they had decided on their course of action, Mr Ashby and Ms Doane did not go straight to see a lawyer to air any concerns about any legal wrongs that either may have suffered. Instead, Mr Ashby or Ms Doane contacted Mr Brough and they began working with him and Mr Lewis. That was an act of disloyalty that they both knew was antithetic to their continuing to work for Mr Slipper. But they did continue. They asked Mr Brough to help them find a lawyer. They used their positions on his staff surreptitiously to copy and provide extracts from Mr Slipper’s diaries for periods in 2009 and 2010 at the requests of both Mr Brough and Mr Lewis. There is no evidence that Mr Ashby ever provided any of Mr Slipper’s diary entries concerning the 2012 Cabcharge allegations to anyone. Mr Ashby met Mr Lewis on 4 April 2012 and Mr Ashby so enthused Mr Lewis that the latter wrote “We will get him!!” just before flying to Sydney.

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….

167 …..In my opinion, Mr Ashby included the Cabcharge allegations in the originating application for the predominant purpose of injuring Mr Slipper and assisting a political attack on him to benefit Mr Brough and the LNP…

199...I am satisfied that the exceptional situation that enlivens the Court’s power to dismiss (or stay) proceedings as an abuse has been proved to the heavy standard required: Williams 174 CLR at 529. The duty and power of the Court to protect its own processes require that I give effect to the findings I have made by dismissing the proceedings under r 26.01...

Judgment transcript here.

Taking to the air

Pic from teh googles

 

James Ashby Statement

7 October

In response to media inquiries, we note that Fairfax Media claim to have an Affidavit admitted into evidence on Thursday but as yet not released by the Court. The affidavit contains the details of all the text messages between Mr. Ashby and Mr. Slipper. It was introduced into evidence to show the full context of the communications between the two men. The Fairfax report does not do that. This affidavit was not given to Fairfax by Mr. Ashby nor by anyone associated with Mr. Ashby. All parties to the litigation, including the Commonwealth, had copies of this document that has now been released to Fairfax. ENDS

Anthony McClellan.

AMC MediaMob: 0433 122 360

anthonymcc@gmail.com

After reading the documents it's hard not to think of this as a political conspiracy

ABC TV 7.30 Report 26 July 2012:

There’s mounting evidence of a concerted plot against Peter Slipper in the form of hundreds of pages of fresh evidence filed with the Federal Court based on emails and text messages between the key players. There've always been questions about whether the claims by Mr Slipper's accuser, James Ashby, were politically motivated. That's the basis of Peter Slipper's defence in a case that could have serious repercussion for the Federal Parliament. …..

Now in the Federal Court, hundreds of pages of evidence, emails and text messages that reveal a web of planning and prior knowledge by key political figures. The two Slipper staffers, James Ashby and Karen Doane, were in frequent contact with several players before the case blew up. The first is Mal Brough, former federal minister, arch enemy of Peter Slipper, rival for his seat. Karen Doane was seeking his help to line up a job with the new Queensland Government or with the mining magnate Clive Palmer….

Mr Brough also met with James Ashby and had many contacts via text and email. He told him to get a lawyer, a point he's acknowledged publicly….

But it's the effort to expose Mr Slipper's travel records that's one of the most intriguing aspects of the new evidence. Ashby and Doane secretly accessed their boss' diary…..

The diary extracts were sent to the journalist Steve Lewis and to Mal Brough. He replied ... "Can that be emailed, James? It is hard to read."…..

The next figure to emerge is the Queensland Government minister Mark McArdle. He too appeared to have inside knowledge of the Ashby complaint before it went public. He promised to keep it to himself and Ashby kept him in the loop…
JAMES ASHBY...."One day I'll ask you to don a shirt that says 'Vote 1 Ashby'."

On and on the alleged plot wends its way towards eventual publication the mainstream media.

The evidence has been made public by the Federal Court of Australia and can be found at Online file - Ashby v Commonwealth of Australia NSD 580 of 2012.

Ashby argues the Constitution made me do it?

Granny Herald carried this last Monday:
“Michael Lee, SC, barrister for Mr Slipper's former media adviser, James Ashby, told the Federal Court he intended to argue Mr Ashby was justified in leaking Mr Slipper's diary extracts under the freedom implied in the constitution to publish material discussing government and political matters.”
Have hours of fun finding this implied freedom to leak in the Australian Constitution here. 

James Ashby apparently desires that the Commonwealth and Slipper defend all allegations before he supplies evidence of these same allegations to the Federal Court

 

In the matter of Ashby v Commonwealth of Australia:

Click on image to enlarge

What Manager of Opposition Business Christopher Pyne doesn't want canvassed in the Australian House of Representatives

Online file - Ashby v Commonwealth of Australia NSD 580 of 2012

In view of the high number of media requests for file access in this matter, the Court has established an online file on to which publicly accessible material has been placed and will be placed in the future. Consistent with Rule 2.32 of the Federal Court Rules 2011 restricted documents, such as affidavits and exhibits, only become public once admitted into evidence and approved by the Judge.

Material will be added here as it becomes available.  

Three excerpts from one court document now publicly available:

Ashby: Hmmm interesting. I had no idea of that rule... I bet the likes of Jacki and Bruce McIver have some influence. Jacki is definitely a key player in the party these days. To arrange a lawyer for $1 of that caliber is a big thing in my mind.

Doane: Agreed. It is also due to the barrister's ties to the LNP and the way this will tip the govt to Mal's and the LNP's advantage. Definitely a good move for us to meet with him so he gets to know us other than w the black mark from being w Peter!!

Doane: The email for Mal doesn't seem to work. I have: Mal.brough1@bigpond.com . Do you have something different?

Ashby: Whoops it's Mal.brough2@bigpond.com sorry bout that. My fault.

Doane: I want to balance your harassment charge with one of my own. He is demeaning, aggressive and w his bcc's unprofessional at the very least. However I don't want to diminish your claim in any way. As you said last night, both claims may strengthen the case. I might look for a lawyer myself if we don't have contact soon.

Ashby: Yeah I will contact Mal again today. Failing that I will make contact with someone myself as well.

Update

The Australian 27 June 2012:

LNP president Bruce McIver has conceded that Howard government minister Mal Brough approached him, and possibly party donor and mining magnate Clive Palmer, searching for a job for a Slipper staffer, believed to be Karen Doane, who in April proposed launching a harassment case against the Speaker.

The Queanbeyan Age 27 June 2012:

NEWS Limited and one of its journalists were involved in an elaborate plot to bring down parliamentary Speaker Peter Slipper, according to documents filed with the Federal Court.
The documents expose private communication between News political correspondent Steve Lewis and Mr Slipper's former staff member James Ashby, including one in which Lewis says: ''We will get him.''
The documents also reveal that News - the Australian arm of Rupert Murdoch's media empire - paid for Mr Ashby to stay in a Sydney hotel and meet Lewis on April 10 this year. In one text, the reporter told Mr Ashby: ''I will sort out payment'', and: ''Just tell hotel to book u in again and News will sort''.

Growing dirt pile is getting closer to NSW O'Farrell Government Resources and Energy Minister, Chris Hartcher - Part Three

 

It would appear that the Ashby virus is spreading……………….

The Sydney Morning Herald 19 May 2012:

POLICE are investigating a claim Senator Bill Heffernan assaulted an employee of Chris Hartcher, the NSW Energy Minister, in an alleged homophobic attack at a fractious Liberal Party meeting on the central coast.

Ray Carter, 67, has accused Senator Heffernan of assaulting him and, according to sources, vilifying him over his sexuality at a gathering of party members in the federal electorate of Robertson.

Senator Heffernan was acting as an emissary of Tony Abbott at the Breakers Country Club at Wamberal on May 3. A Liberal source said the pair had been seen to physically clash on two occasions during the evening and also alleged that Senator Heffernan had aimed ''homophobic slurs'' at Mr Carter. In a statutory declaration, Mr Carter alleges Senator Heffernan hit him on his shoulder, causing him to fall into his seat, and later saying to him: ''I didn't know you were a poofter.''……..

Mr Carter, who has been suspended from Mr Hartcher's electorate office over a donation scandal, waited nearly a fortnight to report the allegation to Gosford police.

 Part One here.

James Ashby sends it all to Twitter and Scribd

Anthony J McClellan‏@antmac9

#slipper Ashby Statement coming shortly #auspol

7:03 PM - 17 May 12 via Tweetbot for iOS · Embed this Tweet

It would appear that Twitter and Scribd are being used to bypass the mainstream media in all matters pertaining to James Ashby v Commonwealth of Australia & Anor.

Letter to AHRC Re Bob Carr and Barnaby Joyce Sent 17 May 2012

 

Who is this spinmeister? According to The Power Index it is:

 

Anthony McClellan – Managing director, AMC Media
The former 60 Minutes veteran is now one of the most respected crisis management specialists in the country. Tough and competitive, McClellan represented Kristy Fraser-Kirk in her legal battle with David Jones and mine managers during the rescue operation at Beaconsfield.

Christopher Pyne, Mal Brough & James Ashby - the plot thickens

Liberal Party frontbencher and Manager of Opposition Business Christopher Pyne protesting his ‘innocence’ in The Sydney Morning Herald on 2 March 2012:

Mr Pyne had gone to the Speaker's office to see Mr Slipper, but he was in the chamber. Mr Pyne was then invited for a drink with Mr Ashby and another staffer while he waited.

Mr Pyne said in a statement that he had met Mr Ashby three times, twice in the Speaker's office and ''once when he came to my office to collect wine being given to a former Coalition staffer as a farewell gift''.

He said that ''on no occasion did he raise the matters canvassed in the Federal Court'' and that he had never had any telephone contact with Mr Ashby.

Earlier yesterday, he said that, as manager of opposition business, he had more contact with the Speaker's office than other MPs, and it was not unusual for him to socialise with Mr Slipper's staff in his absence.

He said he was ''simply passing the time of day. We had a beer and a political discussion.'' But he said: ''I don't remember ever having asked for Mr Ashby's number.''

One voter writes a letter to the editor to the Brisbane Times which is published on 3 May 2012:

If Christopher Pyne was drinking with Mr Ashby in the Speaker's office while Parliament was in session, I can think of at least three questions that Mr Pyne should be asked: who was paying for the booze; was he (Mr Pyne) drinking while at work; and, isn't drinking during working hours a dismissable offence (''Pyne caught up in Slipper scandal'', May 2)? Over to you, Chris.

Trevor Nayler

Ermington

Now The Australian on 5 May 2012 reports that Slipper’s arch-rival became involved and Pyne finally outed for an email to Ashby he originally denied:

FORMER Liberal cabinet minister Mal Brough has admitted telling James Ashby to go to the police and take legal action over allegations of sexual harassment and misuse of taxi vouchers by Peter Slipper after a series of secret meetings with the political staffer earlier this year.
After a Gillard government campaign to link federal opposition MPs to the court action that led Mr Slipper to step down as Speaker, Mr Brough yesterday revealed he was briefly a confidant to Mr Ashby, even organising him legal advice, in the weeks before the adviser launched his explosive law suit against his then boss.
Mr Brough, who is standing for pre-selection in Mr Slipper's Queensland seat of Fisher at the next federal election, rejected speculation the Liberal National Party turncoat had been snared in a "honey trap" set by Mr Ashby with the backing of senior Coalition figures.
The one-time indigenous affairs minister in the Howard government, who lost his seat in the 2007 election landslide, revealed his role in Mr Ashby's court action as Labor stepped up its bid to tie Tony Abbott and Liberal frontbencher Christopher Pyne into setting up the Speaker.
In an exclusive interview, Mr Brough outlined the chain of events that led Mr Ashby to file his legal claim in relation to the sexual harassment he alleges to have suffered at Mr Slipper's hands, as well as the veteran MP's alleged misuse of taxi dockets, now the subject of an Australian Federal Police investigation…….
Mr Brough, who waged a two-year campaign in the LNP branch to oust Mr Slipper as candidate at the next election, said he had had little interaction with Mr Ashby before the "distressed" parliamentary adviser approached him. ….
Mr Abbott yesterday admitted that Mr Pyne, manager of opposition business, had sent an email to Mr Ashby after the pair had drinks in the Speaker's office on March 19. But Mr Abbott said Mr Pyne had not made further contact with Mr Ashby.

The Yass Tribune on went on to state on 5 May:

THE man who has accused Peter Slipper of sexual harassment and fraud, James Ashby, was undermining his boss's re-election even as he continued to work in the Speaker's office.

Mr Ashby was promoting one of Mr Slipper's potential rivals for the seat of Fisher in a series of YouTube videos while he was a media adviser to the Speaker……

The subject of two videos compiled by Mr Ashby is the Sunshine Coast businesswoman Peta Simpson who, with Mr Brough, plans to nominate as the Liberal National Party candidate for the seat of Fisher, now held by Mr Slipper.  

Ashby’s YouTube account can be found here.

Update:

Pyne's lie caught out.

Abbott on Slipper in 2011 - "He's a mate of mine"

It is hard to see Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's recent statements concerning The Speaker Peter Slipper as anything other than hypocritical manufactured outrage, given he was still supporting this member of parliament during periods when other serious allegations had surfaced, including those mentioned in current court papers.

Abbott and Slipper posed photograph from Google Images

He’s a mate of mine

Abbott speaking at 7.32 mins on 2011 audio clip

http://youtu.be/kLP2MIggvLs

QUESTION:

Are you concerned that Peter Slipper last night issued a statement threatening to resign from the Queensland Liberal National Party?

TONY ABBOTT:

Look, there are all sorts of issues at a local party level and they’re things that should be sorted out at a local party level.

QUESTION:

Will you be talking to Peter Slipper and Mal Brough to sort out their situation?

TONY ABBOTT:

In the end, they’re both loyal members of the LNP here in Queensland. Peter is a good, strong member of the Coalition down in Canberra.

[Tony Abbott Doorstop, 5 September 2011,transcript]

THE Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, is urging the Queensland Liberal National Party to show restraint amid a growing push for a quick preselection challenge against the federal Liberal MP and Deputy Speaker, Peter Slipper.

Mr Abbott and others in the Liberal Party feel that if Mr Slipper loses his preselection, he may quit the party and sit on the cross benches, costing the Coalition a precious vote in the finely balanced Parliament.

The Liberal Party federal director, Brian Loughnane, was making representations to the LNP state president, Bruce McIver, yesterday.

Sources said Mr Loughnane was trying to defuse the situation on behalf of Mr Abbott.

[The Sydney Morning Herald, 20 November 2011]

The leader of the opposition, Tony Abbott, recently came out in support of Peter Slipper in an on-air interview with 101.5FM - 4OUR.

Mr Abbott said Mr Slipper was a "good bloke" and was loyal.

"He has been a good loyal servant of the Liberal Party, and more recently the LNP," Mr Abbott told the Morning Magazine in an interview. (Listen to the podcast below)

[101.5FM, Morning Mag, 24 November 2011]

Mr Speaker, we have known each other for many years. We have shared good times and not-so-good times. You have been an extremely effective and efficient Deputy Speaker of this parliament. You certainly have the technical skills and the knowledge of this parliament to be effective in this chair. We congratulate you. We wish you well and we express the hope and the confidence that you will serve without fear or favour. [Tony Abbott welcoming Slipper as The Speaker, Commonwealth Hansard, 24 November 2011]

UPDATE:

When Peter Slipper became an independent Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Tony Abbott-led Opposition began ‘leaking’ damaging documents to The Australian:

SIX months ago when Peter Slipper was spectacularly reinvented by the Gillard government as Speaker, seething kingmakers in the Liberal Party organised a dump.

Slipper, the member for Fisher who had been begrudgingly tolerated by his party despite his penchant for stretching the public purse to accommodate premium travel and perks, was officially a turncoat. The gloves were off.

Among the documents provided to The Australian by political operatives last November was an email exchange dating back to 2003 when Julia Gillard was in opposition and Tony Abbott a minister in John Howard's government. In themselves, the emails are hardly explosive - they evince a warm relationship between two adults: the boss, Slipper, and his employee, Tim Knapp. They discuss plans for a private weekend meeting. It would be thwarted because, as Knapp wrote, "it may be awkward ... unless you want me to introduce you as my boyfriend to them all".

Slipper asked if "Sat night my place for dinner" would be OK. Knapp replied: "To be honest i am a little unsure of coming to your place for dinner i think we need to keep things within the workplace to keep suspicions at a minimum."……….

When this becomes common knowledge in April 2012, Abbott does not deny knowledge of the allegations or the leaks, but tries to spin the facts:

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says complaints made to Howard government staff by the man accusing Peter Slipper of sexual harassment did not constitute a "formal" complaint.

Former aide James Ashby has filed a civil claim in the Federal Court, alleging Mr Slipper made unwelcome sexual advances towards him in January this year.

The documents also allege the Sunshine Coast MP misused taxpayer-funded taxi vouchers.

The only reasonable conclusion which can be drawn from this scenario is that the Liberal Party of Australia and Tony Abbott (both in government and opposition) concealed serious allegations from the Australian Parliament and voters in order that the Coalition could hold onto the federal seat of Fisher in Queensland, which was retained by Slipper in the 2010 federal election with a +2.28% swing.

Note:

Although Coalition political operatives were involved in approaching the media after Slipper became Speaker, Tony Abbott offers a carefully-worded denial of any Coalition involvement in preparing the Ashby sexual harassment case:

Mr Abbott says he has no knowledge of any coalition personnel helping to prepare the case against Mr Slipper.

Further update:

Slipper on Abbott via Twitter in April 2012.....

Peter Slipper MP‏@PeterSlipperMP

I have been a good friend of Tony Abbott even when he didn't have many. I even delivered him the key vote he needed to become leader!

Peter Slipper MP‏@PeterSlipperMP

#auspol Tony was an honoured guest at our wedding 6 years ago and it was great to have him and other friends and family there.

Peter Slipper MP‏@PeterSlipperMP

@AussiePlease#auspol That's true but if I had voted another way, he wouldn't have become Leader.