Vital News Australia is a news network focused on providing independent and uncompromising journalism. We won't blindly follow wire services or official press releases that attempt to set the news agenda. We will cover the big stories of the day, but we will broaden the definition of what's important.
Monday, August 5, 2013
Kevin Rudd support takes a hit
VOTER support for Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has slumped, according to a poll published hours after he named a date for the federal election.
Mr Rudd claimed underdog status on Sunday as he announced Australians would go to the polls on September 7 and according to the latest Newspoll, he could be right.
The poll, conducted this weekend and published in part by News Limited late on Sunday, shows that although Mr Rudd is still more popular than Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, his support as preferred prime minister is at its lowest.
Voter satisfaction with Mr Rudd dropped four percentage points in the past two weeks from 42 per cent to 38 per cent and dissatisfaction jumped six points from 41 per cent to 47 per cent.
The survey found voter support for Labor had fallen one percentage point in the last fortnight to 37 per cent, compared to the coalition's 44 per cent.
On a two-party preferred basis, the coalition has kept its lead of 52 per cent to Labor's 48 per cent.
Support for the Greens is down one point to nine per cent, compared to 11.8 per cent at the last election.
Kevin Rudd support takes a hit: Newspoll
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange 'proud' of Australia's support
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange sits inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London |
CANBERRA, Australia -- WikiLeaks founder and Australian Senate candidate Julian Assange says he is proud of the level of support he enjoys in his home country and has pledged to enforce transparency in Parliament if he wins a seat in elections in September.
"When you turn a bright light on, the cockroaches scuttle away, and that's what we need to do to Canberra," the Australian capital, Assange told Nine Network television in an interview filmed in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London and broadcast in Australia on Sunday.
In a separate interview at the embassy, where he has taken refuge for more than a year, the 42-year-old fugitive told Ten Network that his popularity demonstrated by a recent opinion poll reflected poorly on the ruling Labor Party.
The centre-left government staunchly supports the U.S. condemnation of WikiLeaks' disclosure of hundreds of thousands of classified documents.
A national survey by Sydney-based UMR Research, a company that Labor relies on for its own internal polling, found in April that 26 per cent of Australian voters said they were likely to vote for Assange or other candidates running for his WikiLeaks Party in national elections, which Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced Sunday would be held Sept. 7.
"I'm obviously proud of that, but it's also something extremely interesting about the Australian people and about what is happening and the perceptions of what is happening in Canberra," Assange told Ten.
Assange did not favour conservative opposition leader Tony Abbott, whom opinion polls suggest will likely be the next prime minister. Assange told Nine that Abbott as head of government "wouldn't be good for anyone."
UMR managing director John Utting told Fairfax Media in April said that the poll showed WikiLeaks had "a good chance" of winning seats if Assange runs a clever campaign. A Senate seat can be won with as little as 17 per cent of the vote within a state.
The online survey of 1,000 voters had a 3 percentage point margin of error.
A poll published by The Monthly website in June conducted by Melbourne-based Roy Morgan Research found 21 per cent of voters would consider voting for Assange's WikiLeaks Party, with support greater among women (23 per cent to 20). The poll, taken June 4-6, was based on a telephone survey of 546 voters. No margin of error was published.
Assange has been campaigning by Skype from a room in the embassy, where he was granted asylum in June 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden on sex crime allegations.
He is one of three WikiLeaks Party Senate candidates in Victoria state. The party, which was registered by the Australian Electoral Commission only last month, will also field candidates in New South Wales and Western Australia states.
Assange argues his extradition to Sweden is merely a first step in efforts to move him to the United States, where he has infuriated officials by publishing secret documents, including 250,000 State Department cables. U.S. Army soldier Bradley Manning has admitted passing those documents to WikiLeaks. Manning faces up to 136 years in prison after being convicted of leaking classified information to the anti-secrecy group while working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq in 2010.
The Australian government has echoed U.S. condemnations of Assange's publishing, but also says he has not broken any Australian laws.
If Assange wins the election, he would be required to take up his Senate seat on July 1, 2014.
WikiLeaks Party national council member Sam Castro said that if Assange wins a seat but cannot return to Australia by then, the party can choose a replacement.
Assange spent almost two years fighting extradition over alleged 2010 assaults on two Swedish women, which he denies. In June 2012, Britain's Supreme Court ruled against him, prompting his asylum bid with Ecuador, whose leftist government had expressed support.
Assange told Australia's The Conversation website in February that he regards his bid to become a senator as a defence against potential criminal prosecution. He said that if he wins a Senate seat, the U.S. Department of Justice would drop its espionage investigation rather than risk a diplomatic row.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange 'proud' of Australia's support
Sunday, August 4, 2013
HANGOUT WITH JULIAN ASSANGE
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, speaking from the Ecuadorean embassy in London, invites readers to join him online to discuss the big issues.
Julian Assange: 'To build properly, sometimes it is necessary to sweep aside the old, corrupt foundations.'
Welcome to the Fairfax Media Election Hangout, where you can spar with politicians and debate the policies that will determine this year's closely-fought poll.
Streamed live across Fairfax Media's news websites and hosted by Online Political Editor Tim Lester, you can ask the questions live on Google's Hangout on Air.
First up is Julian Assange, Wikileaks founder and Victorian senate candidate, on Wednesday August 7 at 12.30pm.
If you want to participate, email us @ nationaltimes@fairfaxmedia.com.au with a question you'd like to ask of Mr Assange. We'll select our participants and email you back by Monday lunch time if you are successful.
Julian Assange: 'To build properly, sometimes it is necessary to sweep aside the old, corrupt foundations.'
Welcome to the Fairfax Media Election Hangout, where you can spar with politicians and debate the policies that will determine this year's closely-fought poll.
Streamed live across Fairfax Media's news websites and hosted by Online Political Editor Tim Lester, you can ask the questions live on Google's Hangout on Air.
First up is Julian Assange, Wikileaks founder and Victorian senate candidate, on Wednesday August 7 at 12.30pm.
If you want to participate, email us @ nationaltimes@fairfaxmedia.com.au with a question you'd like to ask of Mr Assange. We'll select our participants and email you back by Monday lunch time if you are successful.
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Meanwhile, Julia Gillard was campaigning for the Senate. Or working at Slater and Gordon. Or doing the weeding. Or helping Bruce sell Kerr Street or something. - @mpsmithnews
Do other countries have this drama with their Prime Minister?
Slater and Gordon is on the record - "In September 1995 Ms Gillard took a leave of absence from Slater & Gordon in order to campaign for the Senate".
Remember Slater and Gordon made that statement on Sunday, 19 August, 2012. Julia Gillard needed a cover story and Slater and Gordon delivered one.
Peter Gordon and Nick Styant Browne are in accord that Gillard elected to resign after her disciplinary hearing on 11 September, 1995 - and not "in order to campaign for the Senate".
On 15 October, 1995 Ebru Yaman's article about Gillard appeared in The Australian newspaper. Gillard said, "I'm still a partner with Slater and Gordon and I have no intention of leaving".
Right, so the version for the archives says she started with Brumby in 1995 (while she was campaigning for the Senate). And according to The Australian she was still with Slater and Gordon as a partner and had no intention of leaving.
This bio is similar from the APH handbook
Right. Not campaigning for the Senate. Working for Brumby in 1995. Except that's bulltish too, she started in May, 1996.
So maybe she'd tell the Young Lawyer magazine the truth - as an example to say aspiring women who might be looking for a role model.
Nope - that's full of bulltish too. This photo predates botox.
For sheer lying chutzpah, how's this exposition of the pain of making that decision to leave Slater and Gordon to campaign for the Senate, or to run Brumby's office or to watch Oprah.
CEOs who lie like this in their CVs generally get picked up. Surely to God someone in the Labor Party checked and saw that she had something to hide!
Meanwhile, Julia Gillard was campaigning for the Senate. Or working at Slater and Gordon. Or doing the weeding. Or helping Bruce sell Kerr Street or something'
How did Ms Gillard get away with it for so long! How come no one called her out, it's so obvious.@mpsmithnews
Last week we spoke about the weekend of 18/19 August 2012 when Hedley Thomas published the Slater and Gordon/Gillard record of interview, Paul Kelly and Peter Van Onselen hosted Ms Gillard on Australian Agenda on Sky - and then Slater and Gordon staff concocted a manifestly dubious media statement to advance Ms Gillard's personal interests.
With her background of bulltish that weekend should have been it and it may well have been if Slater and Gordon's current management had not been so helpful with the media statement.
Here are the links to last week's posts:
So our last public correspondence with Slater and Gordon last week ended like this:
And finally, is the Slater and Gordon statement that Julia Gillard "took a leave of absence in order to campaign for the Senate" in 1995 a true statement?
Yes.
Regards
Hamish
Senior Media Advisor SLATER & GORDON LAWYERS485 La Trobe St, Melbourne VIC 3000T: slatergordon.com.au facebook.com/SlaterGordonAU twitter.com/SlaterGordon
ENDS
I followed that email with this note to Slater and Gordon
Hamish,
Thank you for your speedy response.May I try to clear up Slater and Gordon's official position on the substantive reason for Ms Gillard leaving the firm?In late 1995, had Ms Gillard's "relationship with the equity partnership group become fractured, and trust and confidence evaporated" making it untenable that she continue in her employment?Was the firm "concerned as to whether (Ms Gillard) had acted consistently with (her) obligations of utmost good faith with regard to her partners" and was her resignation accepted in those circumstances?Did the partnership "consider terminating Ms Gillard" and in those circumstances did "Ms Gillard elect to resign" and did the partnership "accept her resignation without discussion"?
Was it "clear that the relationships had broken down irretrievably" between Ms Gillard and the remaining partners in the partnership?
Slater and Gordon's public statement of 20 August, 2012 gives the impression that the substantive underlying reason for Ms Gillard's absence from the firm from September 1995 was "in order (for her) to campaign for the Senate". Is that the major contributing reason for Julia Gillard's absence from the firm from September, 1995?
Finally, is Slater and Gordon aware of any reason, order or agreement of any nature that would restrict Ms Gillard from practicing as a lawyer at any time in Victoria?ENDS
Now here is some news! As you know I was crook late last week, during that time Slater and Gordon have responded to our questions.
Here is the response from Slater and Gordon:
We stand by the previous public statements we have made regarding this issue".So we have the law firm's current management coming in to work on a Sunday when Julia Gillard needs a positive media statement. Together with Ms Gillard they concoct a statement that protects Ms Gillard. Don't you wish they'd just told the truth?Next we'll look closely at those 6 months that Slater and Gordon says Ms Gillard was campaigning for the Senate.
How did Ms Gillard get away with it for so long! How come no one called her out, it's so obvious
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
What Slater and Gordon says is a matter for Slater and Gordon (and Julia Gillard's former flatmate Julie Ligeti) - @mpsmithnews
Exhibit One - Sky News Australian Agenda, Sunday, 19 August, 2012
Julia Gillard (coached Peter van Onselen) is interviewed by Paul Kelly. Kelly puts The AWU Scandal to Gillard, in particular the assertion reported in The Australian that her employers considered sacking her over her conduct - the exchange starts at 12.50 into the interview.
Kelly, "is it correct that in 1995 you had to resign as a partner from Slater and Gordon as a result of their investigation into misappropriation of funds around the legal entity that you had established?"
Gillard, "I am not going to dignify all of this scurrilous campaigning etc etc etc:"
The core question - did you resign as a partner in the law firm Slater and Gordon as a result of the AWU Scandal?
Exhibit Two - Slater and Gordon media statement, 20 August, 2012
Out of the blue, the publicly listed company Slater and Gordon releases this media statement the following morning. The statement is dated in the Slater and Gordon website as 20 August, 2012, however the contents of the statement were available to media on Sunday, 19 August, 2012 in time for Monday morning editions of newspapers - as the Financial Review put it, "Slater and Gordon promptly issued a statement...." after the Paul Kelly Australian Agenda interview.
The Slater and Gordon statement said this:
Upon the Slater & Gordon partnership learning of what has been described as the AWU/Bruce Wilson allegations in August 1995, it conducted an internal legal review as it would do, and has done, whenever any such allegations might be made.
Ms Gillard co-operated fully with the internal review and denied any wrong doing.
The review found nothing which contradicted the information provided by Ms Gillard at the time in relation to the AWU/Bruce Wilson allegations and which she has stated consistently since the allegations were first raised.
In September 1995 Ms Gillard took a leave of absence from Slater & Gordon in order to campaign for the Senate.
Exhibit three - former partner Nick Styant Browne says Slater & Gordon statement "stunningly incomplete"
In August of this year it became clear to me that after all these years this story was finally going to come out and Slater & Gordon made a public statement that Ms Gillard had been cleared of any wrongdoing, had taken a very long sabbatical, had resigned from the firm and a meeting room had been named after her. And that was on any view a stunningly incomplete account of the circumstances of her departure. And it was following that that I resolved it was in the public interest to release both non-privileged parts of the transcript of the interview of September 1995 together with Pete Gordon's statement concerning the circumstances of her departure.
(there are further questions and Styant Browne describes the "spectrum" of views about Gillard's acts and omissions. He says Peter Gordon was prepared to give her the benefit of any doubt...)
I was towards the other end of the spectrum in that I was not readily prepared to give Ms Gillard the benefit of the doubt and I made that clear. There was never any real resolution of that debate in the partnership because as events transpired, Ms Gillard agreed to resign, and so it was never necessary for the partnership to resolve itself what actions should be taken.
Exhibit Four - what Slater and Gordon says is a matter for Slater and Gordon - and possibly Julia Gillard's flatmate Julie Ligeti
Slater and Gordon has duties to many stakeholders to be honest and complete in its disclosures. In particular, the directors of Slater and Gordon have a duty to ensure the company makes continuous disclosure to the Australian Stock Exchange of matters that are material to its operations. The public media statement issued on Monday, 20 August was a statement of the company. In order for the company to satisfy its obligations that statement has to be a true and correct statement. Because it was issued by Slater and Gordon using Slater and Gordon shareholder assets the statement should be a statement that is necessary to meet an obligation of - or to advance the interests of - Slater and Gordon.
The person who is responsible for Slater and Gordon's relations with Governments is Julie Ligeti.
Here is her page on LinkedIn
Ligeti's responsibilities include the firm's relationship and interactions with the Federal Government.
Her personal relationship with Gillard goes back to university days.
When she was elected education vice-president of the Australian Union of Students (AUS) in 1982 she deferred her studies and moved to Melbourne, into a share house in Brunswick. Old friend Julie Ligeti was struck even then by how serious Gillard was about politics. "We were all trying to work out how we were going to buy our first car or which share house we were going to live in. Julia had this other level happening.
She was beginning her career in politics." Personal ambition and agitation for change appeared to dovetail. "She had a clear view at a very young age that she wanted to make a mark in Labor politics. But it wasn't just about identifying her own opportunities, she was also trying to push society along," says Ligeti.
Ligetti and another female Gillard housemate Robyn McLeod appear in this grab elsewhere in the story, talking about Tim Mathieson.
Friends say that Gillard is content. "He seems to have given her a bit of a stronger grounding," says Julie Ligeti, a mate from student politics days who is now chief of staff to Victorian Attorney-General Rob Hulls (2007). Robyn McLeod, who has been close to Gillard for 15 years, says, "They're a very grounded, sensible couple, dealing with an extraordinary time in her career." She compares the situation to a couple of years ago: "Julia wasn't in a relationship and my marriage was ending and we'd sit around talking about blokes.
She said, 'Men, they're just net energy takers.' And we'd talk about whether we had time for them or not." She's glad Gillard has made time for Tim Mathieson. "I love seeing her so happy."
At the time that Gillard was planning to knife Kevin Rudd in 2010, she'd go home to Julie Ligetti at night in the flat they shared in Canberra. This article by Michelle Grattan describes Gillard's pre-Lodge domestic circumstances with a notably absent Tim Mathieson, it's dated July 2010, just weeks before she rolled Rudd.
While Gillard's work life is a hotbed of change, at least at a personal level she's keeping some continuity until the election, staying in her Canberra flat which she shares with her friend Julie Ligeti, chief of staff to a minister, Brendan O'Connor.
Questions for the PM and Slater & Gordon
What discussions took place between the ASX listed company Slater and Gordon, its Government relations advisor Julie Ligeti and her former flatmate and now Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Sunday, 19 August 2012?
Did Slater and Gordon have a notifiable conflict of interest which it should have disclosed upon the issuance of its public statement of 20 August, 2012?
Did Julia Gillard have an obligation to declare her relationship with her "old friend" Julie Ligeti when Slater and Gordon issued its statement, particularly given Gillard's public position that "what Slater and Gordon says is a matter for Slater and Gordon."
And finally, is the Slater and Gordon statement that Julia Gillard "took a leave of absence in order to campaign for the Senate" in 1995 a true statement?
What Slater and Gordon says is a matter for Slater and Gordon (and Julia Gillard's former flatmate Julie Ligeti) - Michael Smith News
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
AWU SCANDAL EVENT LOG ..... WHO, WHAT, WHERE AND WHEN !
Sunday, March 10, 2013
60 Minutes Australia POLL ! Do you think Tony Abbott is a changed man?
60 Minutes Australia POLL ! Do you think Tony Abbott is a changed man?
click here to vote or click on the picture above
Sunday, March 3, 2013
The 18 broken promises of Rooty Hill
Ten days before the last Federal Election, Julia Gillard visited Rooty Hill and spoke to the people of Western Sydney about the promises she said were “at the heart of this election campaign”.
Two and a half years later, Julia Gillard is back in Western Sydney and she needs to explain how she got it so wrong!
As the people of Western Sydney already know, Julia Gillard says one thing before an election and then does another thing after it. Julia Gillard needs to apologise to the people of Western Sydney for the 18 promises she made in Rooty Hill and then broke.
Julia Gillard promised to consult on climate change and instead delivered a carbon tax. | |
Julia Gillard guaranteed a budget surplus and instead delivered more huge deficits. | |
Julia Gillard promised less debt and now we have a record $160 billion in net debt. | |
Julia Gillard promised jobs and national unemployment is now 60,000 higher than when she made the speech. | |
Julia Gillard promised to cut company tax. After the election, she scrapped the tax cut. | |
Julia Gillard promised to give an early company tax cut to small business and she scrapped that tax cut too. | |
Julia Gillard promised to give $2.1 billion for a transport link in Western Sydney (the Epping to Parramatta rail link) and now won’t provide the money for transport in Sydney. | |
Julia Gillard promised to build an NBN – over two years later, hardly anyone in Western Sydney has it and no one knows when it will be finished or what it will cost. | |
Julia Gillard promised to build 2650 Trades Training Centres in Schools – and 2409 of them have not been built. | |
Julia Gillard promised cash rewards for schools that improve and has not yet paid a cent. | |
Julia Gillard promised to keep giving children in schools computers and has since walked away from the computers in schools program. | |
Julia Gillard promised to introduce a mining tax to help pay for a company tax cut. The mining tax and the company tax cut are now in tatters. | |
Julia Gillard promised to pay bonuses to good school teachers. Not a cent has yet been paid to teachers. | |
Julia Gillard promised an automatic tax deduction of $1000. Another broken promise. | |
Julia Gillard promised to ease cost of living pressures on Western Sydney households and instead introduced a carbon tax and cut the private health insurance rebate. | |
Julia Gillard promised more money in your superannuation and instead has taken out $8 billion in Labor super taxes. | |
Julia Gillard promised to build more GP super clinics. She’s delivered only one of the 28 promised. | |
Julia Gillard said she was cutting waiting list times, but instead they have increased. |
Click here to download an A4 copy of the 18 broken promises of Rooty Hill.
Click here to download an A5 copy of the 18 broken promises of Rooty Hill.
The 18 broken promises of Rooty Hill
Friday, March 1, 2013
AFP suspend investigation into Brough political conspiracy @mpsmithnews
You may recall that school-teacher-turned-pornographic-fiction-writer Graham Perrett MP sent a lengthy letter to the world's highest paid police commissioner Tony Negus last year.
You can read the whole letter here. And if you live in Moreton and you've got a few parcels to pick up, Graham's delivering for the community, his phone numbers are conveniently on the bottom of the letter. Stick it on the fridge.
Since then, Her Majesty's former Speaker of the House has been charged by one of Her Majesty's Constables of Police under the command of Her Majesty's Highest Paid Police Commissioner.
You can read each parlicularised information for an offence here.
Now the world's highest paid police commissioner has decided to take a break from looking at the Brough/Ashby conspiracy theory, as postulated by the pornographic fiction writer.
Police suspend Brough-Slipper conspiracy probe
From the taxpayer funded newsgathering apparatus of the ABC published here
Federal MP Peter Slipper has questioned why police have suspended their investigation into whether former Howard government minister Mal Brough was involved in a conspiracy to bring him down.
Labor MP Graham Perrett wrote to the Australian Federal Police (AFP) in December, asking them to investigate allegations Mr Brough was part of a campaign to harm Mr Slipper and the Federal Government.
He made the request after a Federal Court judge threw out a sexual harassment case against Mr Slipper, declaring it to be an abuse of process and designed to further the political interests of Mr Brough and the Liberal National Party (LNP).
It emerged during the court proceedings that Mr Brough had requested extracts of Mr Slipper's diary from the staff member who ultimately filed the sexual harassment case, James Ashby.
Mr Ashby has sought leave to appeal against the ruling.
In a letter sent to Mr Perrett, AFP Commander Errol Raiser says the investigation into Mr Brough's actions has been suspended because of the ongoing legal action.
"The AFP is aware that an appeal has been lodged with the Federal Court to be heard on May 30, 2013," the letter states.
"As the facts surrounding the appeal are consistent with your referral, the AFP has suspended its evaluation of the matter until the outcome of the appeal has been finalised."
Mr Perrett says he is disappointed by the decision, given that the September 14 election is now less than 200 days away.
"It's really drifting on, and obviously in terms of investigating any trails, they will get colder and colder and staler and staler," he told ABC News Online.
"I'm comforted by the fact that they obviously see this as serious, but I'm troubled by the fact that they've suspended their investigation.
"A three-month delay is quite significant.
"We've got an election on September 14 where Mr Slipper's credibility and good name with his voters is significant."
Mr Perrett says he will be writing back to the AFP, arguing that parts of the investigation could continue despite the appeal because Mr Brough is not party to the ongoing legal action.
Concern
In a statement to the ABC, Mr Slipper says it is clear that the AFP are taking Mr Perrett's complaint very seriously, which must be a concern for those members of the LNP who support Mr Brough.
But he has questioned why the police investigation has been suspended, given Mr Brough is not involved in the application to appeal.
"To my knowledge, (Mr) Brough and (former staffer Karen) Doane... are not seeking to contest the judge's adverse findings against them and thus have not sought leave of the court to challenge His Honour's findings," he said.
"In these circumstances it is difficult to understand why the AFP has suspended/postponed (though not cancelled) its investigation of the matters raised in Mr Perrett's letter to the AFP Commissioner.
"It will be interesting to see how long the LNP is prepared to tolerate unresolved matters concerning Mr Brough.
"I would be very surprised if Mr Brough is still the LNP candidate at the election to be held on September 14."
AFP suspend investigation into Brough political conspiracy
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