NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption questions second member of Abbott Government

Has Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s notoriously bad judgment come home to roost again?

The Sydney Morning Herald 24 February 2014: Tony Abbott with Karen McNamara

Central Coast Express Advocate 27 April 2012:

Ms McNamara lost the preselection battle at a local level last year to Garry Whittaker.

At the weekend, Liberal Party chiefs decided to parachute Ms McNamara in to number one spot.

"All good things come to those who wait," Ms McNamara said.

"I am excited and enthusiastic about being selected.

"It's an honour Tony (federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott) and the party have confidence in my abilities," she said.

The Daily Telegraph 27 May 2012:

So on the Central Coast, Abbott decreed, there would be no more shed men. In fact, there would be no men at all; instead, two "strong women". In Dobell, it was Karen McNamara, who is backed by Hartcher, while in Robertson, it was Lucy Wicks of the Alex Hawke "soft Right" faction.

The Sydney Morning Herald 2 May 2014:

In other dramatic evidence on Friday, federal Liberal MP Karen McNamara was accused of participating in electoral fraud over her involvement in raising funds for Central Coast MP Darren Webber, the state member for Wyong, while the NSW Liberal Party's former chief fundraiser, Paul Nicolaou, was alleged to have taken a secret cut of all the donations he collected.

Transcript of the evidence given to the NSW Independent Commission of Inquiry by Karen McNamara Federal Liberal Member for Dobell on 2 May 2014. Evidence begins at Page 35.

UPDATE

Australian Financial Review 7 May 2014:

Meanwhile Lusted had shared his growing concerns with Hughes about his $5000 donation to Eightbyfive.

“I advised him to get whatever paperwork he had available to him in his business, to get on a plane and to go and talk to Bill ­Heffernan in Canberra,” Hughes told ICAC.

State director Mark Neeham wrote to Lusted on March 14, 2012, noting that all political donations must be disclosed but that, “I confirm that the Party has investigated your claim to the fullest extent permitted by your request that it preserve your anonymity during the course of its investigations. I confirm the Party has not been able to prove or disprove your claim.”

What to do about it was Lusted’s decision. Neeham suggested he talk to a lawyer.

But Lusted had already declared the $5000 and by mid-April the Electoral Funding Authority was investigating. By May 12 Koelma and Carter would be forced to stand aside as Hartcher staffers.

So it seems remarkable, given the questions about what McNamara knew of the hidden payments, that on April 20, 2012 the NSW state executive replaced Whitaker with McNamara as candidate for Dobell. Lusted the whistleblower was ignored.

Abbott would have been aware of the Eightbyfive investigation because it was his representative on the NSW state executive, Bill Heffernan, who reported it.

What were they thinking?

McNamara may be entitled to presumption of innocence but politically her appointment has now become a problem.

In the middle of the bad news coming out of the NSW ICAC corruption inquiry the Australian Prime Minister is selling access to himself for $11k a person

The Guardian on 30 April 2014 reveals that not only is the Prime Minister selling access to his 'august personage' - none of those paying over $11,000 a pop will ever have their names revealed:

The Liberal party federal director, Brian Loughnane, has offered “business observers” a breakfast with the prime minister, Tony Abbott, and access to his ministers’ chiefs of staff for $11,000, at the same time as New South Wales Liberal party members face scrutiny in the Independent Commission Against Corruption over influence peddling.

The $11,000 price tag – including GST – is pitched just below the $12,000 threshold at which political donations have to be disclosed to the Australian Electoral Commission.

Human Rights Commissioner Tim Wilson continues to make a parody of himself

This was Liberal Party protégée and Australia's human rights commissioner, Tim Wilson, on Twitter:

This was the predicable response from someone on the twitterverse:

Ex-serviceman takes cravenly anonymous letter writer to task

The convention has always been that in the print media, as opposed to the anonymity allowed on digital platforms, one must correctly identify oneself by name and town.

This is John Edwards response on 29 April 2014 to one cravenly anonymous letter writer given space by The Daily Examiner in its letters to the editor section:

Quote of the Week

“A police operation is planned to take place at Bentley to both facilitate a lawful protest and ensure normal operations at the gas exploration site” [NSW Police spokesperson quoted in The Daily Telegraph on 30 April 2014 explaining the intention to use riot police against a peaceful demonstration at Metgasco Limited’s Bentley ‘tight gas’ drilling site]

Cartoon of the Week

The Guardian 30 April 2014
  Click on image to enlarge

Moggy Musings (Archived material from Boy the Wonder Cat)

An it has to be cheap but does it need to be nasty? musing: Hearing that social housing provider North Coast Community Housing Co is laying new and necessarily cheap carpets in some of its rental premises. The colour schemes are the darkest of grey possible before black intervenes, a dark brown that cannot possibly go any deeper on the dye spectrum and something that can only be described as the hue of poo - apparently the company thinks the poor have no taste and should live with such affronts to the eye and interior house wall colours.

A Bazza musing: It was hard to cadge a treat from the two-legs last Wednesday as everyone was talkin' bout that Barry O'Farrell resigning as NSW Premier. I don't have any questions about that wine bottle - what I want to know is why in 2011 after years and years in politics the man didn't own even one square foot of house or land according to his member's declaration.

A swear box musing: I'm in trouble. I have to meow a hundred times, "I shall not call Operation Sovereign Borders Operation Stupid B@stards and then yammer hysterically". What? Cats can't have a sense of humour?

An SPC Sunday musing: I'm a cat so I don't eat much fruit, but the Blues Brothers budgies (who are into all sorts of fruit 'n' veg) tell me that SPC Sunday is going off with a bang and lotsa two legs are buying SPC Ardmona products and telling the world about it today. Over at Twitter on #SPCardmona they are jumping out of their skins and folks at SPC Sunday on Facebook are happily getting into the mood as well.

A rumour has it musing: Whispers are doing the rounds in the first few days of February 2014 that David Bancroft, a former The Daily Examiner editor and later an editor of the Rural Weekly, is taking a position as Clarence Valley Council's media/public relations spokesperson. In-ter-esting....

A fractured history musing: On 1 February 2014 The Northern Star confirmed what many have suspected. Clarence Valley Council has been allowing local government paper records to rot in a paddock for years -When the NSW Land and Environment Court called for the documents to be made available, the Crown solicitor was told "they must be with the Clarence Valley Council". He was later referred to the Coffs Harbour Council but eventually it was discovered that the majority of documents obtained from the former Ulmarra council were "housed in a shipping container in a paddock" and the Clarence council believed it "would be a big job to try and access the shipping container because it is full". Justice Craig admitted he was left to "guess" what some of the documents might have contained.

A karma musing: Maclean Court House, 9.30 am 12 February 2014,NSW Police v Geoffrey William Leviny, Case Number 201300148044,LC Sentence.

A spam is getting sillier by the minute musing: This email caused a hoot of laughter from the two legs in my house - Happy New Year! 800,000 Pounds sterling has been awarded to you from my wife & I. Kindly reply with your Name, Address, Phone Number for details of prize if you are interested. Adrian.

A she saw red musing: If there is one thing a house going paperless hates it's junk mail so She really was annoyed enough to say a sweary word when telling me the tale.

What if people don't want to receive advertising material and have a "no junk mail" sign on their letterbox? Putting mail into these people's letterboxes is not against the law but it is against the distribution industry's Code of Practice. Distributors should respect people's wishes not to receive this material.

Unfortunately one new local business is choosing to ignore this advice and when the person distributing its advertising was challenged by my owner he asserted that the unwanted advert was not junk mail. Well, in all likelihood he is acting informally and not covered by any industry code of practice. But I think the letterbox stuffer was probably the CCW owner – so he made a bad business decision that day.

A grinning from ear-to-ear musing: My human came home today all cock-a-hoop. A group of young lads from north of the Rio Tweed (who read this blog) brought the Administrator of North Coast Voices her very first mobile 'phone. I can't wait to see her learn how to drive the thing. Bet she falls over furniture, trips over apps and crashes into walls!