The former Attorney General Robert McClelland has let Julia Gillard know it is game on in relation to the prime ministership. By naming Julia Gillard and the case involving her then boyfriend Bruce Wilson who was involved in fraud and theft when he worked at the AWU in parliament last Thursday Mr McClelland has put the focus and blow torch on Ms Gillard and her involvement in the fraud.
Mr McClelland’s motives are fairly clear given that he is a well-known Kevin Rudd supporter and lost his position as Attorney General because he supported Kevin Rudd in the last leadership ballot in February. It has been picked up by two senators, the Nationals Barnaby Joyce and the Liberals George Brandis, who started asking questions on Friday in parliament.
Andrew Bolt broke the story on Thursday and has done two posts on it since which I will get to in a minute. But it looks like it could explode so let’s have a quick overview first.
This has been on the boil since last year when Julia Gillard moved hard and fast when it hit the main stream media. It started right here on this site with the post I did on the 7th August 2011 titled “Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s criminal history and her hypocrisy with WikiLeaks and Julian Assange.” (Click here to read the post)
It was picked up a couple of weeks later by Mike Smith who was then a radio announcer at 2ue and he ran with it but focused on Julia Gillard’s involvement in the fraud. Andrew Bolt from News Ltd joined in the reporting and so did Glenn Milne from News Ltd.
Julia Gillard personally jumped on the phone to the then CEO of News Ltd John Hartigan and had the reporting by Bolt and Milne stopped. Mike Smith was also stopped from reporting on it so it is not hard to work out Gillard also phoned a director of Fairfax Media (owner of 2ue). At that stage Mike Smith had done an interview with Bob Kernohan who had signed a statutory declaration that implicated Julia Gillard and Channel Seven had also recorded the interview. The Channel Seven interview never want to air. So one has to assume Gillard also phoned Channel Seven owner Kerry Stokes or one of his executives. This has been covered in a previous post on the 5th of September 2011 titled “Has Julia Gillard blackmailed the Media to cover-up her corrupt past? The Fairfax Media and News Corp scandal.” (Click here to read the post)
Glenn Milne was sacked from a casual on-air position with the ABC and has never been heard of again at News Ltd. Mike Smith was suspended from 2ue and lawyers from 2ue told Mike Smith’s lawyers they were about to sack him so he took court action seeking an injunction to stop them. It was settled out of court and Mike Smith left 2ue.
There was nothing legally wrong with the reporting of her past or the Bob Kernohan statutory declaration. I have reported on it and posted the statutory declaration on this site and have never heard from the PM. My next post on the matter was on the 11th September 2011 titled “The Michael Smith 2ue emails to Julia Gillard and the Bob Kernohan Statutory Declaration.” (Click here to read the post)
The ABC television show Media Watch came out in support of Julia Gillard with an extremely biased show which I did a post on the 19th of September 2011 titled “The lies and deception of Media Watch and host Jonathan Holmes in defence of Julia Gillard.” (Click here to read the post)
My final post on the matter was on the 15th November 2011 titled “The day the Australian media died.” which covered the black out by the media under Julia Gillard’s instructions and their failings. (Click here to read the post)
Now back to Bolt and his latest posts on Robert McClelland throwing a hand grenade into the Prime Minister’s office.
On Thursday Bolt reported “McClelland brings back Gillard’s past to haunt her”
In Parliament today, McClelland hit back – by referring obliquely to an explosive scandal in the 1990s involving her then boyfriend Bruce Wilson, an Australian Workers Union state secretary accused of ripping off union money. McClelland said it was a case in which Gillard and he were “representing opposing clients” and “that matter has coloured much of my thinking in this area (of cracking down on malfeasance by union officials).
Even more pointedly, McClelland told Parliament the Government’s proposed toughening of Fair Work Australia’s investigative process did not go far enough, and needed the power to force union officials “to compensate the organisation for loss arising from their misconduct”.
As I mentioned, these issues also arose in those matters that I was involved with in the mid-1990s, which were file in both the then Industrial Court of Australia and the Federal Court of Australia. There are a number of matters, generally under the name of Ludwig and Harrison and others, but probably most relevantly matter no. 1032 of 1996. (Click here to read Bolt’s full post)
On Friday Bolt wrote “Gillard confronted with the scandal she almost buried”
Robert McClelland has lifted the lid on a story that many in the media have been too scared to touch – a scandal involving a then boyfriend of the Prime Minister.
The Financial Review reports on a story I broke yesterday:
Dumped attorney-general Robert McClelland says the Labor Party has not gone far enough in cracking down on corruption in the union movement, citing examples going back to the 1990s connected to Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
It is a good read as it has the transcript of the Nationals Barnaby Joyce and the Liberals George Brandis raising it in the senate. (Click here to read Bolt’s full post)
Then today, Saturday, Bolt writes “McClelland twists the knife”
Robert McClelland confirms he was indeed referring to a scandal involving Julia Gillard and her former partner:
Pressure on Julia Gillard’s leadership has intensified after an act of internal destabilisation by dumped attorney-general Robert McClelland that triggered a Coalition attack on the Prime Minister’s integrity…
Labor MPs viewed the comments as inflammatory and an act of revenge on Ms Gillard… (Click here to read Bolt’s full post)
This will obviously play out over the next few days and weeks. Why was it left to an ALP MP to bring this to a head in parliament and why the liberals and nationals have not gone after this sooner who knows.
But if the Nationals and Liberals drop off it will be very sad indeed. With Julia Gillard’s past she should have never been Prime Minister in the first place.
I was going to publish an affidavit that has come into my possession today but this story overrode it. But the affidavit is well worth a read to say the least. What is it about? I won’t say as it would pre-warn the person involved. But I will publish it in the next few days. So check back or subscribe to the free email notification.
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