The latest Reuters Poll Trend weighted average of Newspoll, Morgan and ACNielsen results has federal Labor with a two-party lead of 55.8-44.2, presumably being weighed down a little by recent results from before the weekend.
UPDATE: Roy Morgan has joined in on the action with a small sample (546) phone poll including questions on leadership approval, which Morgan doesn’t normally do. It finds Malcolm Turnbull’s approval rating down to 25 per cent from 43 per cent in May, with his disapproval up a breathtaking 33.5 per cent to 62.5 per cent. Kevin Rudd’s approval rating on 63 per cent, up from 57.5 per cent in May, with his disapproval rating down from 33.5 per cent to 29 per cent. Labor holds leads of 56-44 on two-party preferred and 46 per cent to 39 per cent on the primary vote, which is actually quite mild by Morgan standards. Newspoll has also published its quarterly geographic and demographic breakdowns of recent polling by state, age, sex, and capitals/non-capitals.
Apart from that:
• Robert Taylor of The West Australian reports that Labor preselections for some highly winnable Liberal-held seats in Perth appear to be ”stitched up”. In the only two seats in the country which the Coalition gained from Labor in 2007, Cowan and Swan, those respectively named are Wanneroo mayor Jon Kelly and Slater & Gordon lawyer Tim Hammond. Kelly is interesting, as he ran as an independent against state Labor MP Margaret Quirk in Girrawheen at the 2005 election after a split in the Right faction. In Stirling, where decorated Iraq war veteran Peter Tinley failed to unseat current Shadow Workplace Relations Minister Michael Keenan in 2007, the nod is apparently set to be given to Karen Brown, former deputy editor of The West Australian and current chief-of-staff to Eric Ripper. Brown famously failed to win the new notionally Labor seat of Mount Lawley at the state election last September after suffering an 8 per cent swing, which many blamed on Alan Carpenter’s insistence that local member Bob Kucera make way for Brown. Peter Tinley is said to be holding out for a safe seat or a Senate position, and the unlikelihood of either suggests he will not be a starter at the next election. In Hasluck, which Sharryn Jackson recovered for Labor in 2007 after a term in the wilderness, Liberals are said by Taylor to be “working behind the scenes” to secure the endorsement of Mike Dean, who last week stepped down from his high-profile position as president of the Police Union.
• The ABC reports that Kathryn Hay will seek Labor preselection for Bass at next year’s state election. Hay is a former Miss Tasmania who became Tasmania’s first Aboriginal MP when elected at the age of 27 in 2002. After surprising everybody by dropping out at the 2006 election, Hay ran as an independent against Ivan Dean in the upper house seat of Windermere in May, and did very well to finish within 5 per cent of victory on the final count. With incumbent Jim Cox retiring, Michelle O’Byrne a sure bet for re-election, and Labor looking certain to win a second seat but very unlikely to pick up a third, the battle for the second seat is looking like a tussle between Hay, Beaconsfield mine disaster survivor Brant Webb, CFMEU forests division secretary Scott McLean (who famously came out in support of John Howard at the 2004 federal election) and Winnaleah school principal Brian Wightman, with only the latter looking an obvious also-ran.
• Rick Wallace of The Australian reports that George Seitz, western Melbourne Labor Right potentate and state Keilor MP, proposes to publish a “warts and all” account of his career in politics. Seitz is being forced out after nearly three decades in parliament due to a Victorian Ombudsman’s report which probed into the involvement of various state MPs in goings-on at Brimbank City Council. The aforementioned Wallace article is worth reading for a broader overview of the episode’s far-reaching impact on the Victorian ALP.
• Andrew Landeryou at VexNews reports that the closure of nominations has brought no challenges to sitting federal Liberal MPs in Victoria – including Kevin Andrews in Menzies, who was believed to be under threat from former Peter Reith staffer Ian Hanke.
• Nick in comments informs us that according to a Channel Nine news report, Labor polling has it trailing the Coalition 57-43 on NSW state voting intention.
2,238 Comments
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steve
Does the transcipt show a the beginning whether or not Grech was sworn in?
JV here is the transcript.
http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/senate/commttee/S12204.pdf
“Correspondence” usually means letters. Grech had said specifically only a few minutes earlier that he recalled an email from the PMO. (However, if we want to be technical, he says “Prime Minister’s Department”, and the PMO is not part of the Prime Minister’s Department, PM&C.)
thanks Steve, for the transcript link.
The witnesses were not sworn – Lewis is, in fact, incorrect when he says Grech was sworn inn nat the committee.
If the ALP had won the `61 election then how long would the DLP have stayed popular among Victorian Catholics? Would the Victorian ALP have been cleaned out earlier? Would the ALP have one back office in Victoria sooner? What things would be better about Australia?
These are odd questions which seem to indicate that he had some idea that something was going on.
Why would he ask a question about threats and the like unless he had some word from somewhere, a leaker in News Ltd?
And Grech’s answer was equally odd. Just a simple no would have been easy, his answer implies that is was a little more complicated than that.
We have allegation that Grech showed Turnbull and Ebetz the email before the Senate Committee hearing, that Grech has on one day contacted Lewis at least 4 times and before that who knows. We have Turnbull seemingly alluding to the contents of the email in the Parliament before the Senate hearing and we have Hockey refer to Grech specifically on the Sunday show.
It all sounds like a grand collusion by the forces of evil except that it appears the forces of good had some idea that things were afoot and some idea of the detail.
At the same time Turnbull was alluding to the subject matter of the email in Parliament we had Gillard giving the OO bit of criticism and both Rudd and Gillard doing that since, which is something new. Rudd was seemingly confident right from the beginning about the issue and was very quick to advise that the email was false and quickly involve the AG and AFP.
I am begining to see that the quiet message to Cameron to lighten up on playing interference at the hearing was more like telling him to stop over playing and over acting.
Probablly the AFP have known pretty much from the start what was going on and who all the players were and Rudd was given some idea at least a day or two before hand. It almost seems as Rudd and Gillard know a number of people are in trouble and possibly some inside the murdoch media and is why they are gently giving them some criticism.
My personal favorite bit of the transcript is where Cameron tells Erica that, “you are making it up”.
Mr Martine—Senator, as I have just indicated, and Mr Grech indicated this as well, there were no phone calls from the Prime Minister’s office. As I have indicated, we have had no correspondence. We have been able to locate no correspondence whatsoever in relation to—
Senator ABETZ—Why can I not ask Mr Grech that question, which resides personally in Mr Grech’s knowledge?
Senator CAMERON—Because you are making it up. You are making it up. That is what you are doing.
331 Gary Bruce,
That doesn’t stop us from trying and wishing
Someone seems to be able to predict a bit of trouble for Turnbull.
Senator ABETZ—Yes, but I am asking whether the name Andrew Charlton rings a bell for him in relation to—
Senator CAMERON—It rings a bell, but not for the Prime Minister.
Senator ABETZ—Can I finish?
Senator CAMERON—It rings a bell for the Leader of the Opposition.
Ruawake 371, have always voted Labor but consider myself “on the fence” [and have been described as such by others on PB in the past] as I came mm’s from voting for the Greens in the 07 election.
Would answer your question with policies on immigration and/or detention (while BETTER than the Libs do NOT go far enough) and the Republic (they don’t give that nearly enough priority in the queue) and Aboriginal policy (Howard’s changes in the sunset days/months of power need to be rolled back and disposed of). Probably a few more but it is getting late and can’t think of what #4 and beyond might be.
Cheers from Perth
Hi Juliem, long time no see. Good luck tomorrow, but not too much
I’m off to watch the tour de force now, go Cadel!!!
434,
Too bad we couldn’t have said same about Eddie AND Jeff in the same weekend …..
Thomas Paine
Yes, it seems when you listen to the committee again that there was something known by the ALP members, sufficient for them to stop Grech from answering key questions – until the very end. I can’t accept it was choreographed though. The chair genuinely seemed to me to be doing everything possible to stop the key questions being answered by Grech – if it was a charade it was better choreographed than anything I’ve seen.
And what about Martine? Was he in on the joke with the government members? I doubt it?
Martine was probably trying to shut Grech up because he knew Grech had been blown out of the water, and was the Treasury mole, and had no credibility any more. Why would his boss want Grech answering anything in that situation? Maybe the government members knew that much too, and thought Grech unreliable and a LNP stooge, and should be shut down on that ground.
I doubt if any of them in the room, apart from Grech, knew what the AFP know now however, about the origins andf progress of the fake email.
And possibly Abetz of course
Steve,TP
The more and more one analyses the available evidence, the more obvious that malcolm and co are in deep merde.
I would hazard to say that certain interested parties will be doing as much history re-writing as they can.
The most damning evidence of some form of collusion is the fact that the headline couldnt be changed and “the presses were ready to roll”-pure poppycock
that statement would have been true back in the ’50’s but with modern techonology a headline can be changed even as the presses are rolling.
Vera 510,
I’m always here. Not always posting atm unless there is something particularly useful to add. Will admit to not reading every post every day but in and out several times a week. Same old, same old ….. probably why I’m not in an a regular basis these days ….. step out for several days and the rusty, creaky corners are still in the same places they were when I last checked in
…..
Btw, we’re having a crap season atm so I don’t expect much tomorrow. And, don’t forget, you have my offlist email so feel bloody free to use it whenever you want if there is a specific political issue you want my input on and I’ve not checked in here often enough for you
Rudd and Co would have been suspicious to something from Turnbull’s comments in Parliament, Hockey’s mention of Grech and to complete the picture Turnbull’s fronting Charlton.
No doubt they did a quick check of everything after Turnbull collared Charlton with regard to documents and correspondence as much as they could guess.
If there is no games going on at the Committee then they (Cameron) were maybe at the stage knowing some of what had gone on but not yet that it was to do with a forgery. But it seems to me that Rudd came up to speed very quickly on the whole affair and had the air of a man who knew he had nothing to worry about.
The most interesting questions revolve around the hows, whens and who of the faked document. Look forward to it all coming out, hopefully reality is even more interesting than my imagination.
david marr ( I think) rehashed the kirby thingy.
Eerily the echoes were familiar, if not the participants.
as an aside , one of the things that really pisses people off about Rudd , is that he is a “straight arrow”.and apparently is principled.
To those unused to such lofty idealism, he certainly can be hard to “smear”.
Once the libs get used to that, perhaps they may get back to being an oppositiona s opposed to a bunch of blaggards amd malcontents
Grech’s evidence all the way through was clear and articulate until he got to the email bit where he seemed very reluctant and even put doubts on his own word, which is strange if he went to all the trouble of making up the faked email. And if it wasn’t him he still would have known the email was fake, given Martine’s evidence.
He also seems he was reluctant for it to be used in the press.
It does seems a bit like Grech has been used in all this. So it is possible the ‘plan’ has been forced on him. Or he was having second thoughts all the way through.
William, what criteria must be met before someone is banned? Can you be banned for repeated posts of poorly written and quite frankly hard to follow baiting, stawmaning and tr o ll i ng when coupled with almost no constructive and enlightening comments (when you come to think of it) and the excessive use of the same old phrase to the point when you only bother to type in it’s two key words?
I have much to say on todays discussion but are too sleepy to formulate a responce right now. Needles to say, a certain someone has left me rather confused and frustrated.
On a completely unrelated topic: 368 & 442 – what the heck?
Also William if the excessivly used phrase is misused to mean either “ditto” when strictly speaking that is not it’s exact meaning or as a substitue for argument, would that add further weight to the banning prospects? Particulaly if s/he is the primary barrier preventing social harmony between people of different political pursuasions?
Cheers.
THM, I gather that #520/#522 is an attack on a commenter you don’t like, rather than an actual question worth answering. I would much prefer it if you just said what you meant rather than try to drag me into it.
I knew i was on to something yesterday:
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/australia-third-happiest-place-on-earth-20090705-d8ns.html
I must say I am surprise about Costa Rica. I always had an image of it as kinda banana republic. I am sorry, Costa Rica.
BTW: Julia Gillard had a wardrobe malfunction this morning on Ten’s Meet the Press.
Further to the comments earlier re Lewis stating that Grech’s evidence was “sworn testimony”, Turnbull has been putting that out all over the place also.
One of the “few” threads still holding him from falling down the cliff face!
[Mr Turnbull has told Sydney radio the Coalition can win the next election despite recent poor poll results.
"We can win this next election and we should win the next election," Mr Turnbull said, according to The Weekend Australian Financial Review.
"If Australians want to see their economy managed in a way that will not put an intolerance burden of debt and deficit on the shoulders of their children and their children after them, if they want to see Australia's economy managed responsibly, then they should vote for us."
He also defended his role in the OzCar scandal, saying he had never raised the matter of an email - allegedly from a government adviser - asking for special treatment for a car dealer friend of Mr Rudd. The email later turned out to be fake.
"I never raised the matter of the email. I didn't quote from it, I didn't even refer to it.
"The criticism I made of the Prime Minister a week ago on Friday was based entirely upon the sworn evidence given by a Treasury official [Godwin Grech] before the Senate … I didn’t publish the email or wave it around or refer to it. I was relying simply on the sworn evidence of the Treasury official given in the Senate committee.” ]
http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/Poll-shows-Rudds-approval-at-70-pd20090703-TLFUU?OpenDocument
I prefer the first part of this article though.
Witnesses are not ’sworn in’ before giving evidence before a Senate committee anyhow.
Of course there are possible penalties for providing false or misleading evidence… but it’s still not ’sworn evidence’.
Gusface @518 “blaggards and malcontents” perhaps “blowhards and malcontents” has a better ring to it ?? your thoughts
Err Talcum, it wasn’t just criticism, it was basically impled they acted corruptly and you demanded they all resign..not just ‘criticism’.
Turnbull is still a political fool, novice and naive. When you get thoroughly embarrassed and found out to be a real tool over an issue you don’t then again raise it trying to defend your toolish behaviour.
Every time Turnbull tries to excuse himself on this episode he is asking the people to again make a judgment on his behaviour, but they already have. Good way to remind the people Mal, keep it up until election day. And he might, he just can’t accept that he got beaten and out played by a professional and will keep want to pick at that sore.
http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,25735714-5005962,00.html
Tony Smith? But he’s a punce of Pyne proportions!!! Oh well, he’d guarantee Labor remains in power.
So if there’s a leadership change, that’ll be the fourth Liberal leader in 21 months. Is four leaders in 21 months a record? I believe it is…
Steve 502
Thanks for the transcript link – great reading the whole thing in perspective. One point I found fascinating early on (P11 from Abetz to Mr Cohen of Ford Credit) was that the Ford Credit guy never actually followed up and spoke to John Grant anyway. In other words, no favour was ever received by Grant, even potentially. So the sum total of this “gotcha” even if it had been true, was an unsuccesssful attempt to sek a favour for a mate.
Another point early on in the testimony that is regretable to have been lost in this was the evidence from Mr Cohen (Ford Credit) about how successful the OzCar scheme had been in supporting car dealerships and their employees including mechanics, apprentices etc, many of whom work in regional areas. So they are attacking a scheme that is shoring up a lot of jobs in their own electorates. Not exactly pork barreling by government. Hypocrites.
Clarification of 530 – the Ford Credit guy never met with Grant; they did have a phone call but no meeeting. Ford Credit were not interested in supplying credit to a Kia dealer.
Mr Delaney (Motor Dealers Assocaition) clarifies that 75,000 jobs were at stake in the firms guaranteed credit by OzCar. The OzCar policy is actualy a terrific govt success – it works out at about 1 permanent job protected for every $6000 of the guarantee. That is a bargian compared to the $70,000 per job the former govt spent (money lost) propping up (unsuccessfully) Mitsubishi. And the money isn’t even lost anyway – it is either a credit guarantee (not exercised) or a loan that is being repaid.
[Youthful Ideals Shaped Obama Goal of Nuclear Disarmament
In the depths of the cold war, in 1983, a senior at Columbia University wrote in a campus newsmagazine, Sundial, about the vision of “a nuclear free world.” He railed against discussions of “first- versus second-strike capabilities” that “suit the military-industrial interests” with their “billion-dollar erector sets,” and agitated for the elimination of global arsenals holding tens of thousands of deadly warheads.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/world/05nuclear.html?_r=1&hp
Bob, it looks as though the Liberals are preparing to spoil their Christmas as well as midyear maybe it is their idea of having vision and plans for the future. Why backbenchers aren’t worried now escapes me.
Re Utegate: C1990 + and – a few years, Kev Rudd was such a lethal nit-picking, paper-trail hounding Q bureaucrat he earned the name Dr Death. Note paper-trail hunting. Keeping a paper-trail is a PS taken for granted Had a tricky question been asked of Premier Goss in Q parliament, Rudd’s first order would have been, “Check the files. Check the paper trail.”
In 2009 that order would have been, “Check the PMO, Treasury and any other possible servers and server logs.” Given his very certain and aggressive counterattack on Turnbull in QT’s closing minutes of 4 June 09, I’d have a tenner on there being a note (on the info on which his response was based) going something like: “Checked and cross-checked all servers. No email.”
Obviously neither Turnbull, nor any other Opposition member he consulted (inc Abetz), has any idea how the PS works. At that stage, any person who aspires to be PM would have sought out someone who could tell him why Rudd appeared so absolutely sure, and would have been told, “Any email sent on/received by a parliamentary computer will be recorded on the servers and their logs, even if it’s been deleted by the person/s concerned.” (There’s oodles of room – all the room on those slow old mainframes that cost squillions – to store every email for the foreseeable future) And a wannabe PM with nothing to hide would have replied, “How can I put a check in train? Whom do I ask?”
That Turnbull neither understands the Public Service, nor Rudd, either:
says a great deal about his fitness to be PM,
and/or shows that he knew from the start that neither any trace of this email, nor of earlier ones behind earlier leaks, existed on Parliamentary servers.
The next time Turnbull asked the same questions, Rudd knew (given Turnbull’s notoriously short span of patience and more notorious tendency to overplay his hand) if he could keep his cool and keep Malcolm playing long enough, he’d identify the Treasury mole, then out her/him and Malcolm in a way that provided perfect examples of those old saws: Know thy enemy, Softly softly catchee monkey and Hoist on his own petard.
Malcolm span of patience must have shown signs having run out for Rudd to hand his Blackberry to a staffer for a photo op (even a handy phonecall – every word recorded on mobile phone logs) when, at the Midwinter ball, Turnbull shirtfronted Charlton.
Friday’s Hansard record (thanks steve @ 502) and Rudd’s dealings with Steve Lewis should be read with the above in mind, and that (a) Abetz & Turnbull had briefed Godwin Grech (b) that key ALP MHRs and senators must also have been briefed about what the government then knew.
Although NewsLtd journos claimed to be perplexed at the emergence of what QLDers knew as Dr Death, QLDers weren’t; nor, if they’d done their “investigative journo” job, should the journos – Steve Lewis in particular – nor should any MHR aspiring to the PMship.
Where are we now?
Think of the main Howard Gov scandals. Part of a PM’s role, especially if s/he chooses all ministers, is ministerial and party discipline (JH had, remember, lost 4 ministers by this time in his first term, Rudd lost 1). Which of them happened because Howard was, quite frankly, as slack a PM as he was woeful a treasurer – Children Overboard? The MRI scandal? AWB? Haneef?
What’s the likelihood these sort of scandals will happen under Rudd’s Dr Death(ray)’s eye? Julia’s gimlet glare?
Oz Poll Tragic
Agreed; I have worked in the Qld public service under Rudd and his reputation was well deserved.
This was why I found Grech’s evidence so odd when this story first broke. On the one hand he didn’t have/wasn’t sure about the critical email. Yet on other aspects he was meticulous, even going beyond normal public service practice in referring to hansard:
“Senator ABETZ—I ask you why—you raising John Grant’s plight at this meeting I assume was on instructions, advice, suggestion, from the Treasurer’s office?
Senator CAMERON—Assume what you like—we are going to deal with the facts.
CHAIR—Senator Cameron, no interjections, please.
Mr Grech—Senator, I know that the Treasurer is in Hansard dated 4 June. The Treasurer has made clear that the case of Mr John Grant from Ipswich Motors was referred to Treasury by his office. When you talk about Treasury in this context, it was referred to me.
Senator ABETZ—Right. In these emails that we have just been provided, I note with some interest—I am just wondering: do the witnesses have these emails.
Mr Martine—We do have a copy, Senator.
So Grech is keeping track of everything Swan says in parliament and hansard references to it, yet failig to file his own emails of work requests from PMC? People should have realised then and there that this was fishy – normal practice is the opposite of that.
Tony Smith famous for running stimulus packages in boom times.
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/08/07/1091732142367.html?from=storylhs
William C
I felt it would be a disservice to blowhards everywhere to lump ‘em in with this bunch of remorseless,ramshackle and reprobate libs.
I mean a person’s got to draw the line somewhere.
Vera, IF you are online and IF you read this before NOON your time in Sydney, next 20 mins., can you dash off an email to as asap? Need to reach you before NOON if possible, going out then … if you don’t read this till after 12 noon for you, just disregard ….. Cheers
Juliem said last night: “Would answer your question with policies on immigration and/or detention (while BETTER than the Libs do NOT go far enough) and the Republic (they don’t give that nearly enough priority in the queue) and Aboriginal policy (Howard’s changes in the sunset days/months of power need to be rolled back and disposed of).”
Juliem,
My views on the Rudd Labor Govt. are very much in synch with these viewpoints of yours. I’d add (as a Vietnam Vet) that I’m deeply disappointed in both Rudd and Obama for letting the global warmongering military/industrial complex escalate our war in Afghanistan. This will result in many more dead and maimed Afghan civilians and Occupation countries’ soldiers, the waste of untold billions of dollars of debt-money during the GFC to prop up the corrupt city-state govt. in Kabul and a continued flooding of the world’s drug market with their only cash crop, opium.
Like yourself, I’m now reading posts in PB daily, but only comment once in a while due to exceptionally busy schedule. The quality of analysis in here on the Grech-Turnbull debacle/farce has been singularly cogent and well ahead of MSM most of the time (as it is again this weekend). So, ‘onya, Bludgers——–played strong, done fine!
Poss, i am really amazed that Gorgeous George and Crabby Annabelle would allow themselves to be bullied and humiliated by Bolt on a national TV show, without even a whimper of a fight.
William Conroy (527). I think Gusface’s use of “blaggards” is just as good as “blowhards”. He is spelling it phonetically. A blackguard was the lowest servant in the big house. They were given the worst jobs, like tending the fires and scraping the burnt gunk off the pots and pans. They were covered in soot, coal-dust and the contents of the privvy. They made Baldrick look like Jeeves the butler. Essentially, they were regarded as the lowest of the low, untrustworthy, foul-mouthed and, well, blackguards. Sounds like merchant bankers and dodgy email peddlars should apply for any vacancies.
bolt is a fool but more in touch with reality than ackerman, and i dont mind the token torie on insiders. but he said a few things today that should not have gone without question such as using the indigenous report (which only measured up to 2007) to attack Rudd’s lack of progress on these issues
the tories are making exactly the same mistake labor made for years when howard was in power. they hate rudd so much and think its just a matter of time when the rest of the electorate wake up. rudd did well by accepting that howard was popular and agreed where necessary whilst developing a few important points of policy difference. it seems the libs are 2 terms away from doing this
JJ @ 540, not necessarily a heavy schedule in my case; but 50% other competing interests when online and 50% some of what I read when I am on PB (same old arguments get tired after awhile). Glad to see I’m not the only one in this boat
Bolt still denying the impact of the stimpacs on Insiders was hilarious. How he manages to keep a straight face is beyond me.
Looks like Tony Abbott has his running mate – the two Tony’s dream team.
The Conservative wing of the Rabble is sounding out support – via Glen Milne. It may just work.
I know… I know…
But…
Just having a look at Milne in the Sunday Tele today and I cannot but ask: “What the hell is this guy on about?”.
Last week it was AFP Stormtroopers reminded him of Stalin.
The week before it was “Rudd The Nerd” trying to speak Strine.
A bit before that it was… Oh I dunno… something else.
This weeks it’s Hospitals that’s going to bring him down where he belongs, apparently in the drainage ditch of politics.
This Very small Person has far too much hatred to appeal to anyone else than the Rusted Ons (plus spot-welded). The Poor Little Guy can’t find one thing – one thing – that Rudd has done right. Everything’s a muck-up. Everything’s spin and deception. Nothing is as good as Howard did.
Poor, nasty Glen. Cozzie’s left him. Malcolm never wanted him. The Libs are in total disarray. Yet he keeps on punching.
It’s a wonder they let him draw breath, much less draw pay.
Julie, Julie, Julie it was Milne behind it just ask him. Or maybe ask Lewis who his source was?
Just read some of Lawyer Malcolm’s recent speeches and even in parliament he claims Grech gave “sworn testimony”.
http://www.openaustralia.org/debates/?id=2009-06-24.97.2&s=speaker%3A10643#g98.7
I have tried to put myself in the position Peter Dutton finds himself. A very slim margin where he literally needs every vote he can muster.
How long would I persist with a leader who provides little or no leadership? Would I persist with a deputy who has less talent.
Maybe that is why he came up with this ludicrous comment.
“Smoking tax ‘would be cash grab’”
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/07/05/2617204.htm?section=justin
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