This was published in yesterday’s Crikey subscriber email. It raises some interesting questions that are worthy of discussion here at Pure Poison.
Utegate raises no end of questions for the media too
Here’s Crikey’s own Bernard Keane thinking out loud via Twitter on Saturday:
Not sure how both Rudd and Turnbull can still be leaders after this. One or other is in deep trouble.
And it’s starting to look quite that serious. Both men are calling aggressively for the other to stand down, and both are standing firmly by their stories. It’s a Mexican stand-off that will end with egg on face if nobody pulls the trigger. One (or possibly both) of the two men will certainly be seriously compromised when the truth does finally out.
Fairly amazing when you think about it. That political leaders withstand the political pressure exerted by wars, global financial crises, and overboard children, but the question of the existence of a single email, and the genuineness of that email, can threaten to end political careers
While there are many aspects to this saga, clearly the most central is the question of that email from the Prime Minister’s office to a public servant by the name of Gordan Godwin Grech (brainfart corrected.) The Daily Telegraph printed the email in last Saturday’s newspaper, later conceding that it was never actually sighted. The reporter in question, Steve Lewis, claims that it was read to him over the phone by a “primary source”. Kevin Rudd flatly denies the existence of the email and searches of the relevant IT infrastructure seem to suggest that no such email was ever sent.
Malcolm Turnbull has been hinting none-too-subtly since 4 June that he’s known about some sort of correspondence believed to be “smoking gun” evidence of Kevin Rudd’s dodgy dealings. Reading his statements in the context of the last few days (great summary by Possum) makes this clearer than it was at the time. Turnbull says that he had not seen the email prior to its publication in the Tele; unfortunately for Malcolm he blew that charade apart this morning when he said Senator Eric Abetz was reading the email from the newspaper a day before it went to print.
All in all it’s a tangled web of minutiae that promises to be explosive in its untangling. But the politics aside for a moment, whichever way you look at this whole thing the media is up to its armpits in it, and some serious questions have been raised.
Firstly, is Steve Lewis telling the truth about the manner in which he received this email? A cynic might suggest that the “read over the phone” story is a bit far fetched given that there’s an awful lot of information to be read out, what with email addresses, CC’s, timestamps and the rest. Is Steve Lewis trying to keep his informant at arm’s length to protect his or her anonymity?
Secondly, is it ethical for the Daily Telegraph to mock-up for display an email using the text read to one of its reporters over the phone, implying rather boldly that it is in possession of the electronic or printed version of the email? Shouldn’t the fact that the email has not been sighted be disclosed to readers who will otherwise interpret the mock-up as proof of possession?
Thirdly, and most seriously, should Steve Lewis and the Tele protect a source that has fed them an allegedly fraudulent email, now the subject of an AFP criminal investigation, that may possibly be the catalyst for the Prime Minister or Opposition leader of the nation quitting their job? While most people would agree that it’s important for journalists to be able to afford their sources a certain level of protection, surely there comes a point at which the interests of the nation override that protection. While the Tele deserves a certain amount of credit for breaking a story of significance, perhaps there are now greater priorities than an extra day at the centre of attention.
Steve Lewis has today written an article calling for “full transparency” from the Rudd government over Utegate. The thing is, if Lewis was a little more transparent himself the whole controversy would instantly become a lot clearer. And let’s put this in perspective one more time: the bona-fides of a single email, the source of which is likely known to a newspaper journalist, will either end the career of the nation’s Prime Minister or Opposition leader, or cause them significant damage. A heavy burden of responsibility for a reporter and newspaper who hold the key to the truth.
38 Comments
One can only draw the conclusion that there has been an elaborate conspiracy to trap the Government instigated by….whom? Its becoming more clear that this whole charade is turning into a debacle for the Opposition; I expect further investigation by the AFP will reveal the source of this campaign. Purely speculating, it wouldn’t surprise me if a certain Shadow Treasurer had a meaty paw in the pie…..
Firstly, is Steve Lewis telling the truth about the manner in which he received this email? A cynic might suggest that the “read over the phone” story is a bit far fetched
there’s also Grech’s testimony at the hearing on Friday where he said he’d been in a room “last night with 3, 4, 5 professionals” and didn’t expect what was said to be splashed (or words to that effect) in the papers. Who were these professionals? if they were treasury staff wouldn’t he have said “colleagues”? Very curious.
Secondly, is it ethical for the Daily Telegraph to mock-up for display an email using the text read to one of its reporters over the phone, implying rather boldly that it is in possession of the electronic or printed version of the email?
the mock-up had in the ‘To’ field “Godwin Grant”. Mock-up fail, or self-pwn. Either way the tele, its editorial staff and Lewis have serious questions to answer in my view.
for Malcolm he blew that charade apart this morning when he said Senator Eric Abetz was reading the email from the newspaper a day before it went to print.
I think he said that in a 2GB interview yesterday morning Scott, not today.
Thirdly, and most seriously, should Steve Lewis and the Tele protect a source that has fed them an allegedly fraudulent email, now the subject of an AFP criminal investigation,
Isn’t this a question of can they? This isn’t a whistleblower situation where there is potentially damning consequences for someone who is innocent or has acted innocently or in good faith. The source Lewis would be protecting might know about the circumstances in which a fraudulent email was concocted and made to look like it was sent from a third party. That is a criminal act which IMO will only look bad for Lewis and the tele if they do clam up.
Why is nobody commenting on the time-line of this story?
Turnball said in parliament, back on June 4 “I ask the Treasurer: were there any discussions or communications regarding Mr John Grant’s interest in seeking finance from OzCar between himself and the Prime Minister or between their respective offices?”
This morning on ABC Radio, Turnbull is trying to convince listeners that he didn’t ask about the email until afteer Grech gave his evidence in Senate Estimates.
Turnbull is saying he acted responsibly in reaction to Grech’s testimony, but it is clear from the question he asked on 4 June that he was already building a case based on the fake email.
Turnbull should apologise immediately for trying to remove our 2 top politicians from their positions while relying on an unsubstantiated email, which he says he never even saw, and which is now shown to be a fake.
The Libs should be considering whether a man who can do this should really be their leader.
The timeline of the saga is certainly interesting. How Turnbull knew about the email weeks in advance and apparently a liberal senator apparently read it in a senate hearing when it had not been made public certainly raise questions about the Daily Tele, contacts within the Liberal party as well as current and former public servants.
Swan still needs to answer questions and to provide evidence of no special treatment of the said car dealer.
Any wonder that:
“The anti-political trend was mirrored in the most trusted professions survey, which ranked politicians at 38 out of 40.
Journalists fared a little better at 32, but the least trusted profession was telemarketing at 40 with car salesmen at 39.”
from: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25648444-2,00.html
First we had the defense department rebelling against their minister and now we had someone inside Treasury trying to set up Rudd.
Looks like Honest John has done a pretty good job of politising the public service.
First off an update from Turnbull “The case that Mr Rudd misled the house about the communication is not sustained,” he told ABC Radio on Tuesday.
“There is no doubt about that.” Will Malcolm now apologise to Andrew Charlton who he “threatened” at the midwinter ball? not a good week for the Liberals really.
What I find amazing is that neither Steve Lewis or the originator of this email reallised that could be tracked and found? When Gerch faced the senate I wondered why no one thought it strange that he could not produce an email sent to him at his work and presumably archived by his work email system, this is a public servant and they keep records, an email from the PMO would have been noted and should have been traceable instantly. Even if the email had been sent to Gerch’s home email he surely should have (and we know did) keep a copy, so why couldn’t he produce it? This whole affair smells and it is going to be a messy clean up.
Turnbull will apopogise only to Rudd, BUT …
Mr Turnbull said he would only apologise to the prime minister over the incident if Mr Rudd apologised to him. “I’ll apologise … for saying he misled the parliament when he apologises to me for saying I had a hand in fabricating this email.” http://www.smh.com.au/national/utegate-turnbull-admits-theres-no-case-against-rudd-20090623-cucx.html
Hilarious.
“the Tele deserves a certain amount of credit for breaking a story of significance”
This is just absurd. Why do they deserve credit for being part of a sensational fabrication?
The Hitler Diaries were also a story of significance which Murdoch published knowing it to be a fabrication.
Those people really have you guys scared don’t they?
OzPol tragic @ 7: I watched turnbull say this on Melankochie this morning and literally laughed at the TV. What a joke he is!
He also repeatedly refused to answer kochie’s questions about where and when he got wind of the email, something O’brien didn’t press him on last night. It all sounds pretty dodgy to me.
Lewis needs to explain himself as does News Ltd. This is the Hanson pics all over again. It was crap journalism especially the way it was bodgied up into a front page graphic (with the Godwin name incorrect) No matter what you think of Ruddy he is the PM and perhaps was entitled to a little consideration like asking to see the email not have it read over the phone (Do we believe this it is handy if the AFP come knocking with a warrant) Remember they didn’t verify the Hanson pics either.
Lewis is guilty of dodgy journalism as is News and seeking to divert attention away from this is not surprising. I just hope this doesn’t get court and Lewis is asked his sources because he will have to go to jail to protect them. And Turnbull doing the softest of soft interviews on sunrise with morning show bum boy Kochy even managed to stuff that up. He is rattled can’t keep his narrative intact from one interview to another. Have a look at what he says when asked if he knew what Godwin was going to say in the Senate. I expect to hear more of this in Parliament this arvo
Speaking of the Tele. Somehow this is news:
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,25674134-5001021,00.html
Therese looks sideways at Kev… Nooooooos I tell you !
I read this a little differently than most of you all. The way I see it is that this was an elaborate set up to catch out Gretch and with luck it has also got the opposition and the daily telegraph.
The email that was sent from the treasury to gretch was a fake and i would be amazed if the author of it were ever found. But somehow the email found its way to the liberals or at least that appears to be what the time line suggests. Now who would have passed that email, it seems that gretch is the prime candidate being as I understand it the sole recipient of the email. Exactly who passed the email to the tele is unclear but it can be extracted from lewis if enough pressure is bought to bear. All up I read this as an elaborate plot by the Labor party to be rid of a treasury official who passes information to the opposition and along the way they have managed to snare both turnbull and the telegraph. Pretty handy collateral damage wouldn’t you say?
The police now suspect that gretch created the email http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/06/23/2605932.htm
(which in my opinion is doubtful) but if a Labor official were to send a set up email I would expect it to originate from a computer that the target had access to. After all who would send such an email from their own computer?
I love a conspiracy theory and invite someone to point out the glaring hole in my propositions (if there is one that is).
How did Rudd know from day zero it was a fake?
One obvious and very large hole is the complete and utter lack of evidence to support your theory. There is absolutely no evidence that the fake email originated from the ALP. Other than that, totally watertight conspiracy theory you’ve got there.
Why would the government of the day risk losing its Treasurer so recently after losing its Defence Minister? It’s irrational. Also this was put in play before Costello departed, and that was destabalising enough to HM Opposition without needing the Government to help it along. (Also with a 8 point lead in the opinion poll – why would a fed government seek to destabalise the Opposition – it would only make sense – if they go to an early election – which is unlikely as every other Government that has gone early in a first term of recent times (Hawke and Howard) nearly lost it all).
This is the third email fake the Liberal party has fallen for at State and Federal level. You think after the experience in South Australia someone -anyone would have thought it through for just a second or two. It is particularly damning of the lot of them because 90% of them are trained as lawyers with experience of what counts as evidence and what counts as being said under oath.
They should have settled for the 2nd place prize of Wayne Swann, instead they went for double or nothing with Rudd and Swann and have ended up with nothing.
OMFG! this takes the cake:
how low can the tele go?
confessions – that is crazy. Yesterday they were reporting on Grech’s bowel function and now this??
I had a school teacher whose surname was Grech. Maybe I should call confidential and tell them.
Very low it would seem. Does anybody else think they’re definitely getting worse ever since Rupert left the building?
JonB2@14
Rudd knew it was a fake because he didn’t send it or order anyone to send it, pretty simple, as to any notion that the ALP could be involved, I am floored by that, why would they do such a thing? This sounds like something that would appear in Andrew’s comments.
jonb2@16,
Pretty easy really. If Rudd himself didn’t write it and nobody in his office wrote it then it must be a fake. Not to mention the fact that rumours of this e-mail have been circulating for weeks. Rudd would have had plenty of time to develop a ready made answer if the Coalition went public with it.
I find it bizarre that some people would think that Rudd would fake a document that implicates himself.
My question is, are all coalition MP’s going to make all their office and personal computers available to be searched by the feds? What’s the bet they don’t.
And if the ALP instigated the fraud fred they would definitely have left evidence of themselves as authors of the email? My theory is complete conjecture and part of that conjecture is that evidence of who wrote the email will not be forthcoming. Ever. I doubt that the treasurer will be lost or is even at risk of loosing his position and the timing with costello leaving could just be fortunate. Then again he has been a great labor asset lately hasn’t he?
STBD @ 21: turnbull said this morning on Melankochie that he would make all computers available. But from what we’ve seen with pollies saying you’ll do one thing often means doing something else.
I had a school teacher whose surname was Grech
I feel like ringing and saying i dated him once, or he’s my secret half-brother or something. if the Tele take as gospel email contents read out to them over the phone, they should have no trouble believing that. Right?
Actually, i wonder if they’d believe it I told them I have nudie pictures of Grech taken 20 odd years ago….
surlysimon: “Rudd knew it was a fake because he didn’t send it or order anyone to send it, pretty simple, as to any notion that the ALP could be involved, I am floored by that, why would they do such a thing? This sounds like something that would appear in Andrew’s comments.”
I’m disappointed Bolty is on holidays. It would be great to know what the pro-opposition spin on this would be as of now, with the email having been discovered as a fake. I’m sure he could make a better go of it than Piers has. Then again, Bolty doesn’t like Turnbull so maybe he wouldn’t bother. But Jay Santos won’t know what to think without Bolty to tell him.
Turnbull changes focus to Bennelong car dealer: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25678329-29277,00.html
Does Malcolm have another fake e-mail up his sleeve?
confessions@21: Would that be before or after they erase and then write zero’s to all their hard drives?
confessions @23/24 – Hmm that won’t fly. He is a male who lives alone, gardens in the dark and has bowel issues. I think he must be into S+M or something.
I cannot wait until the Sunday Tele full spread on “The Grech Files”
Fred p
there will be a lot of people who don’t know what to think without Andrew. I am sure they would have been wetting themselves up to yesterday and now would be trying to say Rudd was behind the fake email.
confessions@24, try telling them you have pics of Grech with Hokey, on the Kokoda track, bit of photoshop and you are away
I want to know how much Joe Hockey knew about the whole affair. Joe was quick to jump in when he saw blood, but very quite on the whole affair later. This poor little public servant that used to work for Joe, lied for Joe and has now ended his career for Joe. But Joe did do the right thing he called him on Satruday to find out if he was OK. That was sweet of you Joe, such a big boof caring politician is our Joe.
Maybe Joe could give Godwin a job now.
In a desparate attempt to rid focus from himself over the relationship and favours for his car dealer mate/next door neighbour, and to protect his politician 2IC Wayne Swan from the firing line, Kevin Rudd took an unusual turn of tactic to appear on all high profile prime time news programmes Channel 9 and 7 on Monday night, where he pleaded pathetically to the public and the interviewer that he and Swanie are not going to fess up to any inquiry on the back room wheeling and dealings for Mr Grant.
INTERVIEW OVER UTEGATE
In an interview with Laurie Oakes, Wayne Swan faces some facts;
Wayne Swan:
..what you can see is that Mr Grant didn’t receive any assistance from OzCar or Ford Credit, what Mr Grant did, through a Member of Parliament, was to contact me, through Mr Bernie Ripoll and then I put him in contact with a departmental lesion officer..
Laurie Oakes:
Well, you say that Mr Grant didn’t get special treatment, but on the same day that – that a Treasury official made representations on his behalf to Ford Credit, they are also discussing with Ford Credit that company’s application for a $500 million line of credit. Now, that’s enormous pressure, isn’t it?
… what we know about this is that Greg Cohen the Managing Director of Ford Credit says that Treasury made it clear to him that Mr Grant was an associate of the Prime Minister, so they go into this meeting having been told that Mr Grant’s a mate of the Prime Minister, they’re after a half a million loan from the government and Treasury said oh, by the way, this bloke needs a bit of help. That’s enormous pressure, what are they going to say, no?
WS:
Laurie, Mr Grant didn’t receive any assistance from Ford Credit. You have to go back…
LO:
Wasn’t it offered?
WS:
I don’t know, Laurie,
LO:
The email showed that you were being kept informed of the progress of Mr Grant’s application, they were even sending copies of the emails to your home fax, now, how many other applications, like that, were you informed of in such detail.
.. DIVERSION ..
Laurie Oakes:
Let me ask you this, the Prime Minister’s called in the Auditor General to invesigate whether he or his office made representations on Mr Grant’s behalf, but I noticed the terms of reference of the Auditor General inquiry don’t mention you, would you be prepared to ask the Prime Minister to extend that inquiry so the Auditor General looked at the propriety of your conduct and the conduct of your office in this?
WS: Well, I’m sure that the Auditor General will be looking at the email traffic between the Treasury and, between the Treasury and others…
LO: But in the terms of reference, specifically refer to the Prime Minister and his office, they quite obviously leave you out. Will you ask the Prime Minister to extend the terms of reference to cover you and your office?
WS: What I would be happy for the Auditor General, or anyone else, to do, is to look at all of the emails which demonstrate that Mr Grant – Mr Grant was not treated any differently from any other.
LO: In that case, why not ask for the terms of reference to be extended so that can happen?
WS: Well, I’m not sure that your characterisation of the terms of reference is as you say.
LO: Well I can ?? what the Prime Minister told us on Friday night?
(The Treasury official, Mr Grech told the Senate Committee he thinks he was originally approached about Mr. Grant’s situation by someone in the PM’s office. Now, did Mr Grech imagine that?)
http://www.australia.to/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11373:wayne-swan-laurie-oakes-interview-channel-9&catid=115:headlines&Itemid=203
spot the bigger dog @27, If I was them I wouldn’t be relying on rewriting the drives, which is itself not 100% effective. I’d be taking them out of the computer, drilling holes in them and then finding a high temperature incinerator.
The thing I don’t get about Grech is if he was involved in a conspiracy then surely when things started to blow up anyone with a modest degree of intelligence would have been removing the hard drive from their home PC and disposing of it before the police turned up.
I agree with Megan and others the Telegraph should be investigated by the Feds, that outlet has played a bigger part in this than has been revealed. Lewis has shown abysmal professional conduct and at least should be investigated by the Press Council but must front up with who he telephoned with the contents of the phony email. names and places he discussed it with. Bernard knows damn well this email was the talk of the corridors in Canberra at least 2 weeks ago, who has been leaking. The supposed timid Grech may be a patsy but he will have to open up now. Sen Abetz, so far he has kept his head down since the infamous grilling of Grech, he knows more, Govt front benchers know that, they are waiting. Hockey, too keen to switch the attack back to Swan, as was Turnbull today. This mongrel lot havent learnt a thing from the days of 2007 when any dirty trick would do, the rat pack under head rodent Howard threw mud in all directions, welcome back slimy ones.
Incidently anyone who had the misfortune to read that fool Akermans outburst on Saturday last will notice the wimp has gone into hiding, no answers to blog entries, silence. Even his devoted balmy Liberal correspondents are asking, where is Akers?
What a waste of space. The Telegraph has a lot to answer for employing a no hoper like him.
The mighty Heffernan has moved a kind of motion thingy and tomorrow the senate privileges committee will be asked to consider whether the AFP interview of Grech constitutes harassing a witness to the senate.
Go get those commies Heff!
Very hard to trust isn’t it. The media, the public servants. I really trusted Hedley Thomas in the media and also I like the Sky news reporters. Hedley no longer works in the business so does not leave me much.
So I have to make it up myself.
Something stinks in the public service. Spies in defence?, Treasury faking emails?. Worse than normal pollution levels seems. Though is it true the AFP are finally acting in favour of truth rather than political influence? Good. So Liberal Party still have sway over public servants but some would know who butters the bread so would no doubt lean toward favour for the labor party. Could not assume only liberal public servants are corrupt, especially in looney left Canberra.
So in summary, cannot trust either party, no public servant or the media.
Some things never change.
The Missus.
@31
What so Rudd invented the fake email? and the fact the Mr Grech was a liberal mole and has been for years? You’ve been watching to much TV old son. Turnbull is the one in the wrong here, even if Wayne Swan asked to be kept informed of the progress of Mr Grant’s application he does not appear to have put any preasure on anyone to give him preference, in fact Mr Grant didn’t get anything. Even the Motor Traders Assoc. thinks that it was all fair and above board.
The liberals have shot themselves in the foot and Turnbull and Hockey should resign
And if Rudd is a Communist that’s all right because if the Nazi’s are really lefties, communists must be right wing, you silly person
Interesting to compare the Hun website to the Age website this morning.
HUN – you have to find the one liner on the Ute-gate: Police hunt Deep Throat under other articles such as car break ins in South Morang or David Boon’s son on an assult charge.
AGE – Third article highlighted under the Swine Flu death and alleged rapes by an Oscar winning director.
Possum