I can’t tear myself away.
The latest from The Punch: Fake email may go to the heart of Turnbull’s office
Twitter is great fun.
@crazybrave: we’re all sitting at home with nasty colds watching Parliament on the telly. It’s like a bonus grand final for politics nerds.
@Pollytics: On the very day Shana’s returns to The Oz, Truffles looks like his political career has ended. Coincidence I ask, or powerful cosmic ballet?
@lucytartan: Imagine Costello´s feelings today. Fun isn´t it.
Have at it.
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Hoyden About Town 
I just love how five minutes ago Tony Abbott was the only frontbencher in the House as the Opposition’s resolution was being debated – it gets pointed out and mocked, and now they’re all back in! Who do they think they’re fooling?
*grabs popcorn*
So, who are we betting on for the next leader of the opposition?
Oh Beppie, don’t get my hopes up like that! Do you think Costello would deign to come back?
He’d have to hurry up and nominate for pre-selection. Nominations close on 30 June.
I’m betting Joe Hockey as leader with Tony Abbot (ugh) as deputy.
Hockey won’t get the leadership if he can’t control his temper better – he knows how to rein it in, but having to get reminded via reprimands is not a good look at all.
This is all such fabulous theatre. NZ politics has never come up with anything so good.
That’s pretty harsh on NZ, Deborah. Didn’t your whole Party system crap itself in the early nineties? I’d say that beats this little circular outrage competition.
/wellington-kremlinologist
But tigtog, who else do they have? Costello is going, Abbot as leader is utterly unelectable, everyone else is a non-entity. I am most amused by this, however:
“The ABC has reported that the Federal Police have found the disputed email in Treasury’s system and it is fraudulent.
AFP officers have interviewed Treasury official Godwin Grech, who is responsible for the OzCar scheme, about the email, which the ABC has reported appears to have been concocted within Treasury.
Mr Hockey said the reports contradicted Kevin Rudd’s claim that no email existed.”
The fake email means there was an email?? I think Mr Hockey may need some anatomical advice – he appears not to be able to distinguish his arse from his elbow.
Desperate times call for desperate measures Rebekka. Although, I agree the straw he is clutching at is illusory.
Heee! So, on the 7:30 Report, Turnbull accused Rudd of making “reckless allegations”. LOLOLOLOL!!!!
@Liam at 7
That’s pretty harsh on NZ, Deborah. Didn’t your whole Party system crap itself in the early nineties?
Hmmm…. well…. yes, except that it was mostly pollies being plain stupid and crass. But Undiegate was fun, while it lasted. What Undiegate didn’t have was the elements of conspiracy that seem to be in play in Utegate. And the whole thrill of whodunnit, and most of all, why on earth would you do such a thing?
Tabloid TV is all on the beatup about “can Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership survive?” No way he’s going to roll over for this one – a scapegoat will be found, and he will limp off to snipe away for a few more months, awaiting the inevitable leadership spill about 14 months before the next election is due. That’s always been going to happen anyway.
It would be rather delish if all this actually was a set-up aimed at spilling Truffles without all the negative publicity of a direct leadership challenge, and the fact that it was a rubbish plot would fit in with the general state of Libs “competence”, but I think that’s too much to ask.
awaiting the inevitable leadership spill about 14 months before the next election is due.
Either that, or late this year after the possible double dissolution.
Turnbull was excruciating on the 7.30 report.
I could almost hear the Keyboard Cat music starting in the background, its little paws hovering over the keys, just waiting to play him off.
He’s clutching at straws, honestly.
I’ll be interested to see what surfaces with regards to the continued targetting of Swan. So far it appears that Grant didn’t get anything more than his just entitlements under the OzCar scheme, in which case any extra emails and phone calls from Treasury officials and Swan himself are just a courtesy and not a corruption, surely?
Whether those emails and phone calls were “extra” as I understand it is still an open question.
I wonder what genuinely corrupt people would think about this kind of “corruption” where no-one got paid. Can you imagine Brian Burke working for nothing?
Good point: any purportedly extra emails and phone calls
Here’s the papers that greeted Truffles this morning, dearie me:
Most sensible summary I’ve seen of the whole rubbishness of the Turnbull charges against Swan:
Ken Lovell at LP:
All Grant wanted was what he was legally entitled to and asked his MP (and the Treasurer, who comes from the same town) to help him through the bureaucratic maze, and as it happened it appears that he didn’t even get any funds from OzCar in the end anyway – so where’s this smoking gun again?
Meanwhile, from the SMH:
And here I was thinking that six year olds weren’t eligible to stand for election…
And now from ABC Online:
I think Mr Grech’s career is over, even if Mr Turnbull’s isn’t. But I’m not sure the scalp of a senior public servant will be enough.
I feel sorry for Mr Grech – I see that he had an extended leave around the time of the last election, and his behaviour regarding this email doesn’t display the level of nous that I would expect from a senior public servant, so I am concerned about his health and how that may have been exploited by the Libs who’ve used him as a mole.
I’m also gobsmacked at how much faith was placed in a forged email by someone who headed up an early oz internet giant. Turnbull should have known better. It’s not that hard to detect a forged email for anyone who’s even mildly tech-savvy.
Or at least have a staffer check it out. A flaw in Mr Turnbull’s character I think. There is also a question of how long he knew about the alleged email before bringing it up. I suspect he will just try to brazen it out. Afterall, he has quite a role model to live up to.
I can’t think of a scenario in which *someone* in the office of an opposition frontbencher didn’t help fabricate the email and cook the whole thing up. I doubt very much Turnbull didn’t know it was a fake email all along, which would explain why he didn’t bother getting anyone to check it.
Well, one possible explanation for Godwin Grech’s behaviour, if indeed he was involved in concocting the e-mail, and that’s not known to be the case, is that there was a series of conversations or phonecalls, but no documentary evidence. Whoever concocted the e-mail may have been trying to represent the content of those conversations or phonecalls. So the content could be true, even if the e-mail itself is a fraud. Still a serious misjudgement, and ethical failing on the part of whoever made up the e-mail, but not quite as bad as making all the content up as well.
NB: this is sheer speculation on my part.