from politicoz ….

Last week Justice Rares found that James Ashby's sexual harassment case against Peter Slipper was a planned political attack and an abuse of the legal process. Ashby was assisted by a News Limited journalist and senior Coalition figures, most particularly the man aiming to win Slipper's seat, preselected candidate Mal Brough.

There is a scandalous lack of curiosity in the media about this story, and many questions remain unanswered. For example, did any Coalition members assist with Ashby's legal representation and its costs? Who (if not Ashby) will be paying Slipper's costs, as ordered by the court? Was it legal for Ashby to send Mal Brough copies of Slipper's diary? Was Ashby offered anything, such as future employment, in return? Was this ever discussed? Who else in the Coalition, besides Mal Brough, Christopher Pyne, Warren Entsch and Julie Bishop, had communications with Ashby prior to the court case?

Just as importantly, would the cross-benchers have pushed Slipper if they understood the case was an abuse of process? Or, if they understood the involvement of Coalition figures?

Brough initially denied any prior knowledge of Ashby's legal action - a clear deception. 

Tony Abbott's office issued a press release that had been generated before news reports of the case hit the press, according to its server timestamp. Abbott said the timestamp was wrong, but his explanation as to how this happened is technically implausible at best. What did Abbott know in advance? Did he lie when he said he only learnt about the court action from the press reports?

It's interesting to compare the virtually non-existent coverage of these matters in the mainstream press (subsequent to the judgement) with the pursuit of the AWU affair, which was 20 years ago and had no bearing whatsoever on today's parliament.

Tony Abbott wins the 2012 mushroom award for keeping voters in the dark and feeding them unmentionables for declaring Mal Brough has been ‘quite transparent and upfront’ on the Peter Slipper saga. What a load of baloney. Mal Brough lied when first asked by journalists if he had prior knowledge that Slipper's staffer James Ashby planned to lodge a sexual harassment suit.

in the meantime ….

One deeply troubling question for the Coalition emerges from the last The Age/Nielsen Poll of the year: are Tony Abbott's dismal ratings now pulling down the Liberal primary vote - and threatening the victory that seemed assured at next year's election? The Liberal leader now has an approval rating of just 34 per cent.

The poll, therefore, sets up the big question for 2013: can an opposition leader who is so disliked win an election? We don’t really know, because the other people on the list of those recording the highest disapproval ratings – Peacock and Simon Crean in 2003 – were dispensed with by their parties before it could be tested.