NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption now has evidence before it that implicates members of the election campaign team which helped Tony Abbott become Prime Minister of Australia

@Kate_McClymont

Well it can no longer be ignored, the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption now has evidence before it that implicates members of the election campaign team which helped Tony Abbott achieve his goal of becoming Prime Minister of Australia.

This is a section of the 2010 email (above) copied to Brian Loughnane, Federal Director of the Liberal Party of Australia and husband of Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s chief of staff, as well as Arthur Sinodinos who was then Honorary Treasurer of the NSW Division of the Liberal Party and a former chief of staff to John Howard when he was prime minister:

This email makes it clear that one property developer is unlawfully donating $25,000 to the NSW Liberal Party of Australia via the party’s federal associated entity, the Free Enterprise Foundation.

So will Brian Loughnane assert that he didn't read his emails in 2010 or will he, like Senator Sinodinos' lawyer, claim that routing unlawful donations to the NSW Liberal Party through the Free Enterprise Foundation was a legitimate action.

UPDATE

According to a report in The Sydney Morning Herald on 8 September 2014, Liberal Party MP for Mackellar and Speaker in the House of Representatives Bronwyn Bishop has been identified in evidence before the Operation Spicer investigation as being a director of the Dame Pattie Menzies Foundation Trust which received $11,000 from the Free Enterprise Foundation on December 9, 2010, which it then directed to the NSW branch of the party for use in the 2011 state election and The previous day, Mr Partridge has sent a cheque for $125,000 to the Free Enterprise Foundation with a note which read: "We trust this donation will provide assistance with the 2011 NSW State election campaign". Additionally, A $2000 donation to the Dame Pattie foundation from Australian Corporate Holdings, a company connected to Sydney property developer and sailor Syd Fischer, was also passed on to the NSW Liberals.

The same article also pointed out that:

Previously suppressed emails at a corruption inquiry raise serious concerns about major donors to the Liberal Party being rewarded with extraordinary access to senior party figures.

The emails are from the chief fundraiser of the NSW Liberal Party Paul Nicolaou to Peta Credlin, one of the most powerful figures in the federal government….

As well as being chief of staff to Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Ms Credlin is married to Brian Loughnane, the party's federal director.

The emails reveal that, in March 2011, while in Opposition, Ms Credlin was advised by Mr Nicolaou that the managing director of Brickworks, Lindsay Partridge, was "a very good supporter to the party".

 Brickworks was one of the largest corporate donors to the Liberal Party, giving a massive $384,000 in a nine-month period from July 2010 to April 2011.

As well as its brand Austral Bricks, Brickworks also lists property development as a core business. The ICAC has heard that Brickworks used the Free Enterprise Foundation, a shadowy Canberra-based organisation, to channel $125,000 in illicit donations  to the NSW Liberals for the March 2011 state election.

The warmonger is in...............

The Sydney Morning Herald 6 September 2014:

If there was some way Tony Abbott could squeeze himself into a camouflaged hi-vis outfit, he surely would. A fetching ensemble it would make too. Combat-ready battle dress in bright orange dessert warfare pattern to signal to Australia's mining billionaires that no matter how small the threat from a balanced tax system, he stood ready to go to war with everyone everywhere to distract our attention in their defence.

Abbott is not the first politician to beat the drums of war but there is something striking in the difference between his concern-trolling of the Islamic State (and Russia for that matter) and Barack Obama's reticence, caution and obvious care for the unintended consequences of intemperate action.....

BBC News 4 September 2014:

The growing list of military commitments has led to a lengthy debate in the Senate on whether Australia's federal parliament should be required to approve such deployments.

Analysts are also worried the nation could be trying to punch too far above its weight.

"It is hard to understand how a military deployment to Ukraine is in Australia's national interests given that we didn't have diplomatic representation there a month ago," said James Brown, a fellow at the Sydney-based Lowy Institute and former Australian army officer who served in Iraq and Afghanistan,

"There is a real danger now that Tony Abbott finds himself over-committed with his use of military force. He came to power claiming a foreign policy that would be more Jakarta-orientated than Geneva-orientated," he warned.

"Now Australia finds itself contributing soldiers to a European war in Ukraine. It finds itself contemplating contributing significant forces to Iraq and Syria and all the while, we have still got issues in our region that we are responsible for if they flare up."

On the anniversary of the 7 September 2013 Australian Federal Election

Happy anniversary to a prime minister that was not universally liked to begin with and quickly became hated by many.

The Tony Abbott Song.........

http://youtu.be/Z-qUBPyqHPs

Although this September 2013 song is satire, it is telling that at around 7:09 minutes into the video a member of the audience suggests killing Prime Minister Abbott.

In October that year this desire was being turned into calligraphy on Instagram.

By February 2014 he was being beheaded on stage by GWAR to cheers from the audience during the Soundwave tour.

While someone is squatting on a Facebook page titled Kill Tony Abbott and on another page one contributor suggested in May that; If every Australian donated just $1 we could have a private Hitman kill Tony Abbott anyone up for the job you will be WELL payed.

In June a page called Tony Abbott should be assassinated appeared.

Come July and one blogger was posting; Please kill Tony Abbott. No need to make him suffer. Just make him stop being alive. He’s hurting pretty much everyone. He’s happy about it. His actions benefit no-one other than handful of ultra-wealthy people who don’t really need him. He brings nothing good, kind or honest to the world, only selfishness and suffering.

And sentiments such as this were floating in cyberspace; Excuse me while I go kill Tony Abbott with a shovel and feed his corpse to a pack of dingoes.

As well as this; someone kill Tony Abbott already. I know he has a family and that’s tragic, but he needs to be stopped.

A Google search this month reveals the term I hate Tony Abbott occurs 4,890 times and Kill Tony Abbott 13,800 times on the Internet.

Before November this year Abbott is taking delivery of an est. $500k custom made BMW capable of withstanding explosive devices and automatic fire from AK-47s or rounds from armour-piercing weapons.

By Christmas I expect to hear that he has hired two official food tasters to compliment his Close Personal Protection (CPP) detail which accompanies him everywhere.

The "very well known person" the ICAC is referring to

The lads at the table of knowledge at the local watering hole, who are not averse to having an occasional wager, are flabbergasted that the sports agencies (aka the online betting mob) haven't framed a market on who the "very well known person" is that the ICAC is currently referring to in relation to a chain of controversial emails between that "very well known person" and a Liberal identity.

 It's possible to punt on just about every other imaginable event, so why not the identity of the "very well known person"?

For example, one agency is offering odds (see below) on who will be first to confirm by September 2015 they have been abducted by aliens.

BTW, one of the lads reckons both Clive and Alan are well over the odds in the Aliens Stakes and is real keen to have a a few bob that the "very well known person" is someone who came undone at the ICAC quite a few years ago. Could he be right?

The Northern Star today

The scoreboard at the Star today reads:

Advertising Department 1, Newsroom nil

It seems "juxtaposition" isn't in the dictionary at the Star. Shame, shame, shame!

 

Images  from today's digital edition of The Northern Star

Playing hide and seek with NSW ICAC Operation Spicer exhibits

An interesting incident which occurred during evidence given by former NSW Greiner Coalition Government minister, Robert Webster on 4 September 2014:

MR WATSON: I’m sorry to interrupt but there’s been something drawn to

my attention. I understand there’s some complaint made about material

which is Exhibit Z83 and Z84 they’ve been removed from the screen.

Perhaps it’s better for present purposes, Commissioner, if you make a

suppression order in respect of the material which had previously been put

onto the unrestricted website and marked as - - -

THE COMMISSIONER: Well can you give me a page number?

MR WATSON: No, well at the moment I can’t and I know it’s not the

whole of the volumes but I’m just doing this as some sort of general

protection. We’ve been threatened - - -

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (not transcribable)

MR WATSON: Well I don't know anything about this but I’m trying to

protect them but I’ve got some people who’ve got a better idea then go for

their lives.

THE COMMISSIONER: Anyway the solution presently is, I don’t want to

interrupt this for too long, the solution presently is that Z83 and Z84 are

restricted from publication in their entirety until that order is varied.

Z83 AND Z84 ARE RESTRICTED FROM PUBLICATION IN THEIR

ENTIRETY UNTIL THAT ORDER IS VARIED

MR WATSON: And I’ll have a look at this correspondence and - - -

THE COMMISSIONER: All right, thank you.

MR DUGGAN: It might be something (not transcribable)

MR WATSON: I think it’s not coming from Senator Sinodinos it was

coming from the Liberal Party.

MR DUGGAN: I thank Counsel Assisting for raising this issue and we can

talk about it after (not transcribable)

MR WATSON: Yes. I’m sorry, I - - -

Both restricted exhibits are from The Free Enterprise Foundation folders and one these folders contained some correspondence from the Liberal Party of Australia Millennium Forum whose official patrons in 2010-11 were Tony Abbott MP and Barry O’Farrell.

The Sydney Morning Herald 5 September 2014:

Media organisations have joined forces at a corruption inquiry to fight a suppression order over a controversial chain of emails involving a "very well known person" and a Liberal identity.

The emails, headed "Re Carbon Tax", were suppressed at the Independent Commission Against Corruption on Thursday after questions were raised about whether publishing the documents would breach parliamentary privilege.

Robert Newlinds, SC, the barrister for NSW Liberal Senator and former party president Arthur Sinodinos, wrote to the ICAC to alert the commission to the potential breach.

"The letter we wrote simply said that we were somewhat perturbed that there may be a breach by counsel assisting [Geoffrey Watson, SC] and the commission of the federal Parliamentary Privileges Act," Mr Newlinds told the hearing on Thursday afternoon.

"I don't really want to say out loud what the topic is because the private individual is a very well known person.

"I  just don't want this to get out. Can we at least have a suppression order about the debate."

The hearing was closed to the public while the matter was discussed.

On Friday, media organisations including Fairfax Media  (the publisher of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian Financial Review), the ABC, News Ltd and Channel 9, briefed barrister Sandy Dawson to challenge a suppression order over the emails.

Several journalists had read the emails before they were suppressed.

The emails were tendered as part of a public exhibit on Thursday morning during the ICAC's inquiry into Liberal Party fundraising.....

The risible aspect of all this, is that notoriously biased Liberal Party MP and Speaker in the House of Representatives, Bronwyn Bishop, is being asked by ICAC to rule on whether the exhibits can be made public.