The real problem is not that Tony Abbott hasn't read the judgment in which the Federal Court threw out the sexual harassment case against Peter Slipper.

He has – as he says – been doing "important things" such as visiting the troops in Afghanistan and holding meetings in Britain.

The problem is that, having been fully briefed on the judgment's contents and ramifications, as Mr Abbott obviously has been, the Coalition leader still declares without any hesitation or caveat that Mal Brough – his candidate in the Queensland seat of Fisher – has acted "rightly at all times".

Was Mr Brough "acting rightly" when, as the Federal Court has found, he worked "in combination" with the former Slipper staffer James Ashby before he brought a sexual harassment case, which has now been thrown out as a politically motivated abuse of process?

Was Mr Brough "acting rightly" when he urged Mr Ashby to copy Mr Slipper's private diary so he could pass it on to a journalist?

Mr Brough has said he was simply helping a young man who came to him in distress and that it would have been a "poor reflection on my values as a human being" if he had done otherwise.

 

But the diary had nothing to do with the sexual harassment allegations, and Justice Steven Rares, in his judgment, rejected the idea that Mr Brough had been acting out of "pure altruism"in this case.

"Realistically, his preparedness to act (for Mr Ashby and another staffer) was created and fed by their willingness to act against Mr Slipper's interests and assisting Mr Brough's and the LNP's interests in destabilising Mr Slipper's position and damaging him in the eyes of the electorate," the judgment says. It's unclear how or why Mr Abbott thinks that is "acting rightly".

Mr Abbott says he considers Mr Brough a friend and a valued colleague, but other senior Liberals who feel the same way about the former Howard government minister, can still see that there are legitimate questions about the way he acted in this case.

Mr Abbott's own parliamentary secretary, Senator Arthur Sinodinos, for example, said last week that Mr Brough was a bloke "with his heart in the right place" but conceded he "has got some questions to answer".

According to Senator Sinodinos, after listening to Mr Ashby's original complaint, Mr Brough "should have maybe distanced himself more" and that "getting involved in trying to facilitate" assistance for Mr Ashby had "created this perception that Mal has just cooked all of this up to knock off Slipper".

Indeed. And that's exactly why Mr Brough – who has made no comment since the judgment other than a brief written statement – has questions to answer before anyone can decide whether he "acted rightly" at all times.

And it's why Mr Abbott's "nothing to see here" response isn't sufficient – whether the Coalition leader has read the whole judgment or not.

 

http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/dogged-abbott-caught-in-slips-20121219-2bmax.html

meanwhile ….

The sinister conspiracies against Slipper and Thomson

IT IS TIME, I think, we joined some dots.

A week ago, two young people accidentally caused a suicide. They were fired, their show was cancelled, they said sorry, and they wept; one offered to hug the dead person’s relatives, and money was given to those relatives by the radio station they worked for.

Two days ago, a similar story was told. Four grown men, Ashby, Abbott, Brough and Pyne, tried to drive to suicide a vulnerable man and nearly succeeded — and they did it deliberately.

They falsely accused him of a criminal act, and published some private, light-hearted, letters that distressed his family and ruined his career. When it was discovered they had done this they did not weep, nor say sorry, nor offer money, nor show contrition; they said his ‘potty mouth’ showed him to be underserving of office and if he had suicided, well, big deal.

Two of the same men ‒ Abbott and Pyne ‒ tried as well to drive another man, Craig Thomson, to suicide, and a doctor, Mal Washer, warned them they were doing so. They did it by saying falsely he had with half a million thieved dollars paid for whores. They distressed his pregnant wife and endangered his tiny children and cost him, with these arrant falsehoods, his career. They did not say sorry for this either.

These comparisons have not thus far been made; because it common practice for the Liberals to accuse opponents of being slime-balls and harass them in the chamber and on television. One of them, Nick Sherry, attempted suicide — apparently as the result of Peter Costello’s incessant slurs. Another, Greg Wilton, succeeded, and is dead now and will not be alive again.

And Abbott, a few hours ago, did not say sorry, or weep, or offer money or contrition. He defiantly asked if the ruined man would be Speaker again. He knew full well that his mob had used the court to publish letters that would never otherwise have come to light; which made restoration politically, and diplomatically, impossible. It resembled closely the publication by Murdoch of Prince Charles’ ‘tampon’ phone call and a subsequent campaign that he should, therefore, never be King.

What has happened resembles blackmail, in the sense that a secret letter damaging to the author is revealed — and the author is asked to advantage the blackmailer and so save his reputation.

Blackmail is a crime, and attracts a prison sentence, and this should also.

http://www.independentaustralia.net/2012/politics/the-sinister-deadly-conspiracies-against-slipper-and-thomson/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=IA+Newsletter%3A+Overlooking+Australia%E2%80%99s+...&utm_source=YMLP&utm_term=Abbott-and-Pyne.png