Poison Deviny

TONY Windsor’s hot seat will be even hotter tomorrow, after Craig Thomson makes his statement to Parliament justifying himself. Then it should be the turn of the independents to justify their support for Thomson.

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Is Abbott going to have to justify his “support” of convicted assaulter Mary Jo Fisher and accused assaulter Bill Heffernan? Is Chris Pyne going to be made to release his phone records so we can find out if he has engineered a sexual harassment claim? Is Abbott going to be asked why he claims the carbon price is a tax when it isn’t one, or why he claims the carbon price is the world’s biggest carbon tax when it won’t be, or why he can attack a government policy for being a “big new tax” while having a paid parental leave scheme which is actually a big new tax? These questions are based on fact, the allegations against Craig Thomson are weak at best, from an organisation with ties to the Opposition Leader. Whether an opposition will get a free ride to the lodge with no scrutiny on its policies or members is more of a concern than whether one member of the house misused money of a union he worked for years ago. But I guess that’s the point, why actually prove to the Australian people that you’re suitable for government when you can just overblow scandals until you win by default?

9/5/12: “How do Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott justify their vote of confidence in Craig Thomson yesterday? For that is the message they sent by voting with the government against the Opposition motion to suspend Thomson for 14 days. Their assistance allowed Thomson to escape parliamentary censure in the wake of the damning Fair Work Australia report alleging financial mismanagement and rorting at the Health Services Union. The report alleges Thomson spent $500,000 of HSU members’ money on prostitutes, ATM cash withdrawals, fine dining and election expenses in his central coast seat of Dobell

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15/5/12: “CRAIG Thomson has been cleared of almost all allegations of dodgy election funding following an investigation by the Australian Electoral Commission. But there will still be demands for him to use his address to Parliament next week to explain why his old union, the Health Services Union, spent a significant sum on his political ambitions. The AEC today reported that just over $88,000 in money from the Health Services Union, where Mr Thomson had been national secretary, had been used to support his 2007 bid for the seat of Dobell on the NSW central coast as an ALP candidate. However, most of the amount - totalling about $71,300 - were either below the threshold for compulsory declaration, or had been declared by the HSU.”

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/national/craig-thomson-cleared-of-dodgy-election-funding/story-e6frea8c-1226357611368

“Who is Michael Lawler? For starters, according to reliable sources, Michael Lawler is friends with a man named Tony Abbott. Apparently, the two of them socialise regularly. Conveniently, Tony Abbott is also the leader of the political party making so much ground out of the claims Michael’s partner is making. Michael Lawler works for an organisation called Fair Work Australia, where he is a Vice-President on a salary of $400,000 a year. The only person higher than him at that organisation is Iain Ross, who just replaced Geoffrey Giudice – the one who Tony Abbott and Lawler’s partner Kathy Jackson were attacking daily – as President of Fair Work Australia. On the 11th of October 2002, according to the FWA annual report, Michael Lawler was appointed Vice President of Fair Work Australia — although back then it was called the Australian Industrial Relations Commission. Previously, Lawler was a barrister who made his mark representing employers in employment disputes. The man who appointed him to the AIRC was none other than Tony Abbott — who at the time was Employment and Workplace Relations Minister under John Howard’s Coalition Government.”

http://www.independentaustralia.net/2012/politics/how-the-hsu-tangled-jackson-lawler-and-thomson-with-abbott/

How do Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott justify their vote of confidence in Craig Thomson yesterday? For that is the message they sent by voting with the government against the Opposition motion to suspend Thomson for 14 days. Their assistance allowed Thomson to escape parliamentary censure in the wake of the damning Fair Work Australia report alleging financial mismanagement and rorting at the Health Services Union. The report alleges Thomson spent $500,000 of HSU members’ money on prostitutes, ATM cash withdrawals, fine dining and election expenses in his central coast seat of Dobell,

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“Leader of the House Anthony Albanese said Mr Thomson was a backbench member of parliament and entitled to stay there until authorities came to their conclusion. He said that was the sentiment of Mr Abbott when Liberal MPs Andrew Laming and Ross Vasta were subject to police and Criminal and Misconduct Commission investigations in Queensland in 2007.”

“Searched by the AFP last Friday were the Brisbane offices of three Queensland federal Liberal MPs - Gary Hardgrave, Andrew Laming and Ross Vasta. The investigation has been linked to allegations of abuse of electoral allowances for printing of campaign material. A printing firm in Woolloongabba, in south Brisbane, and a graphic artist’s office were also the subject of police searches. All MPs have denied any wrongdoing, complaining the investigation began following an allegation by a “disgruntled employee”.”

IF anyone is to blame for the current political predicament afflicting the nation, it is New England independent Tony Windsor. He and his sidekick independent Rob Oakeshott promised “stability” as the excuse for betraying their conservative electorates during their fabled 17 days of decision after the 2010 election. And yet, as the government grows increasingly erratic, stubborn Windsor still won’t admit he was wrong.

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—	The people of New England must be damning Windsor for securing them faster internet, interest rates lower than they ever were in the Howard years and a carbon price which will bring money to energy sources that won’t poison their water and land like CSG.

Classic Miranda, 2011: “Windsor went back on air later to continue the interview but still refused to explain his unfounded smear against 2NZ. He also said, “low income earners could possibly profit” from a carbon tax. And he claimed the 2NZ phone poll showing 97 percent of callers were against the tax was part of a “campaign that’s being pushed to frighten people” by websites with an “American-style political agenda… We shouldn’t encourage it.”

How stupid does he think people are?”

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Classic Miranda, 2011: “As proof of his suffering, Windsor released a phone message he had received: “You’re a f…ing dog Windsor,” said the male caller. “You’re a f…ing liar, a dog, a rat, a big f…ing MP dog doing damn nothing. You wait. You’re not going to get voted in again. I hope you die.” Unseemly language aside, if that’s the worst threat Windsor can drum up then all he’s proved is that he’s a tricky wuss.

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—	Miranda’s got some balls if an anonymous phone caller telling her “I hope you die” wouldn’t freak her out.