Malcolm Turnbull was the key decision maker when he gave a dodgy $10 million grant to his friends just before the 2007 election while he was still the Environment Minister in the Howard government. This puts Turnbull in the same club as the corrupt Eddie Obeid, Arthur Sinodinos and others.
Obeid is looking at jail time after being charged by the police and Sinodinos had to resign yet some people want to make Turnbull the Prime Minister.
This one point alone makes Mr Turnbull an easy target and the Labor Party will attack him on it as they have previously. I wrote about some of Malcolm Turnbull’s dodgy past in 2012 and covered the $10 million scam. It worth raising again as it has never been resolved, will be an issue again if Turnbull is elected PM and also given the current anti-corruption political environment. (Click here to read the 2012 article)
While Turnbull might be able to palm off some things in his past he will never be able to justify the $10 million for his mates and that is why the Labor Party will go after him hard on the issue.
The Malcolm Turnbull scam
Mr Turnbull has refused to answer numerous questions in relation to the $10 million grant he gave in 2007 to his friend Matt Handbury when he was the Environment Minister.
Mr Turnbull’s electorate fund-raising is done though an organisation he set up in 2007 called the Wentworth Forum. The SMH reported in 2009 “Regarded as the country’s most sophisticated political fund-raising machine, the forum offers membership packages that give the most generous supporters more opportunities to gain access to Mr Turnbull.”
“It costs $5500 to be a “member”, $11,000 to be a “sponsor”, $16,500 to be a “patron”, $25,500 to be a “benefactor” and $55,000 to be a “governor”.”
“A governor can host boardroom events, and gets two tables at big functions featuring Mr Turnbull, and attendance at an exclusive dinner for supporters.”
“An analysis of forum donations, fund-raising events and memberships between 2007 and last December shows Mr Turnbull received more than $1.4 million. He personally contributed about $10,000 in catering for forum events. Most of the money was raised before the 2007 federal election.” (Click here to read more)
Matt Handbury was one of the donors to Mr Turnbull’s Wentworth Forum.
Even the well-known tax cheat Kerry Stokes donated money. And Kerry always wants a return on his investment. I wonder what Malcolm gave him?
.
Before the 2007 election and two weeks after the election was called Malcolm Turnbull announced that the government would spend $11 million ($10 million plus GST) funding a trial of rainfall technology. The company in question was Australian Rain Corporation which was then part owned by Matt Handbury.
It says on Mr Turnbull’s Wikipedia profile “During the 2007 election campaign, Turnbull announced that the then Government would contribute $10 million to the investigation of an untried Russian technology that aims to trigger rainfall from the atmosphere, even when there are no clouds. Literature suggests that the technology is based on bogus science. The Australian Rain Corporation presented research documents written in Russian, explained by a Russian researcher who spoke to local experts in Russian.”
“Although Turnbull claimed that Australian Rain Corporation is Australian-based, investigations have shown that it is in fact 75 per cent Swiss-owned. It was also revealed that a prominent stakeholder in the Australian Rain Corporation, Matt Handbury, is a nephew of Rupert Murdoch. Turnbull has refused to answer questions regarding Matt Handbury’s contribution to the Wentworth Forum, the main fundraising organisation for Turnbull’s 2007 election campaign.” (Click here to read more)
It was even raised in parliament in 2009 during the infamous Godwin Grech / Utegate scandal. On the 22nd June 2009 the following statement by Tony Burke Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population shows up on Hansard:
“There is an interesting organisation involved in what is described as ‘rainfall enhancement technology’—a company named the Australian Rain Corporation. Apparently they have decided to corporatise rain! The Australian Rain Corporation sought money and the National Water Commission commissioned an independent review of the technology that they were putting forward by a former senior CSIRO officer and professor of physical sciences and engineering from the ANU. The National Water Commission insisted that the Australian Rain Corporation give a presentation of this technology to a panel of physicists. They then provided it with the research papers and made the presentation in Russian.”
“The independent review concluded: ‘There is no convincing evidence that the Atlant technology operates as believed by its proponents.’ But in the end the department recommended that the member for Wentworth provide them with $2 million for a trial, which was arguably a generous offering, given what had been said about the technology. What did the Leader of the Opposition, as a minister, do with a recommendation to give them $2 million? He wrote to the Prime Minister seeking a lazy $10 million for the Australian Rain Corporation. You have to ask: what would be the circumstances of taking a departmental recommendation for $2 million and turning it into $10 million? Why would the Leader of the Opposition have done that as a minister?”
“This is where we discover that an executive of the Australian Rain Corporation happened to be a next-door neighbour of the Leader of the Opposition. The same person, the same neighbour, was a member of his electorate fundraising committee, the Wentworth Forum, with membership costing a cool $5,000 to get yourself into the room. If you want to find deals for mates, there are stories of deals for mates and there are stories that rest very squarely with the Leader of the Opposition.”
“This is the same person who was able to run around saying, ‘Well, we’ve got this email. You’d better publish it,’ and who went to members of staff, intimidated them and said that he had documentary evidence. All we ask of the Leader of the Opposition is: prove that you have been telling the truth. We know what will happen. We know we will be greeted with the same deathly silence that we get now. We know that he is pretending to write and focus on something else, but we know full well that the Leader of the Opposition has been caught out and caught out badly.” (Click here to read more) And on the 23rd June 2009 it was raised again in parliament by Tony Burke. (Click here to read)
Another article says: “Rainmaker Ian Searle, the father of cloud seeding in Australia for the Tasmanian Hydro scheme, has also expressed doubts, as has Israel’s internationally respected cloud physicist Professor Daniel Rosenfeld.”
“There is no single scientific paper, only the patent, and one can patent anything claiming it’s to do anything that he likes, as long as no one else has made the same claims before,” Professor Rosenfeld said.
“Mr Searle says all the literature he has seen on the technology shows it to be a bogus science.” (Click here to read more)
At one point the government were talking about having an inquiry into the grant to Australian Rain Corporation but it never eventuated. As it turned out when the Rudd government came to power in November 2007 the new Environment Minister Penny Wong cancelled the grant but $2.97 million had already been paid and there were likely other costs in terminating the funding agreement. (Click here to read more)
There are a lot of unanswered questions that Malcolm Turnbull needs to answer about the Australian Rain Corporation grant. So far he refuses.
The mainstream media have not been reporting Mr Turnbull’s dirty laundry in recent times but you can be guaranteed that the Labor Party will raise it if Turnbull wins. Even worse for the liberal party is that social media will be raising Turnbull’s dirty laundry day in day out until the next federal election and social media is where a lot of the damage will be done with voters.
One would have thought with corruption inquiries around the country and the anti-corruption mindset of many voters anyone with even a hint of corruption about them would be ruled out as a candidate for any political party let alone the leader’s job.
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Categories: Malcolm Turnbull, Tony Abbott
The Band just keeps Playing On as the Titanic Sinks, no wonder so many Good People are just Losing Faith in the Whole Rotten System.. !!
Politicians are robbing us blind.
None of this mischief comes as a very great surprise…just that there is no limit to its persistence and complexity. My God, I’m praying for Tony Abbott just now.
What about the Independent Commission Against Corruption? No concerns?
Are we sure ICAC knows the true meaning of “corruption”? I have my doubts considering the result of several corruption cases which have been nothing more than a slap on the wrist…. that’s about as tough as it gets. Shame..Shame..Shame!!!!!!!
There is no federal independent commission against corruption.Th
So, if as you say, Labor has dirt on Turnbull and will stir the dirty laundry basket belonging to Turnbull should he become leader and PM why have they not found more in Abbott’s basket than a dent in a wall. (They have had 5 plus years to swirl around in his laundry basket) Abbott is obviously a clean skin or Labor and it sycophants who pass themselves off as MSM professionals have found nothing. The weak people who pose as Liberal MP’s should put their thinking caps on pretty quick smart.
They haven’t, which is why they are using this method of getting rid of him. Turnbull is textbook NWO, as can be seen by the list of contributors to his fundraising machine. They want one of their own there, and Abbott didn’t do what he was told by putting Australia ahead of the Globalist Elite.
Not that it will bother the good readers of this column,but if they oust Tony Abbott in favour of Turnbull I will resign from the Liberal party along with many others I know.Ditching or trying to ditch first term prime ministers is not the old Liberal party’s DNA. Although a successful entrepreneur and also a good politician the means of his achievements are very shaky almost as shaky as Shorten’s. I am sick of parlour games and musical chairs in parliament is not on and with the ABC conducting the music and the drongoes in the electorate that appear to want more chaos by voting Labor, I have come to the conclusion that either masochism or altzheimers has taken over the Australian electorate. Please may I leave the planet as I am not impressed. Allan from Myalup WA..(the traitor state)..
I’ll be doing the same, Allan Usherwood! Seems the position of PM is worth very little to the majority of the population, and in the current political climate, it’s more likely that the “handsome”, popular or easy-going person who’ll give the dreamers all they want, will always win out over someone who’ll return us to a common sense and viable Government! Tony Abbott has not been given a fair go! Everything he’s tried to do to repair the Labor Party’s mess has been blocked by the very people who made that mess, along with support from the questionable element in the current Senate! We’ve become a very selfish/self-serving people!
A NEW political party kicks off in October 2015, Australian Liberty Alliance – l have dumped the Libs after all this garbage, & there is no decent choice in any of the other parties, so l will vote for a change for the better, can’t get any worse !!
Turnbull wants to be Treasurer?
There are three types of liar, liars, damned liars and politicians. As a supporter of conservative politics I am dismayed over events since the election. I had a lot of hopes for Tony Abbott but these hopes have been crushed. I simply cannot understand why anyone would make a statement, or promise if you like that leaves no room for compromise in the future. If asked ‘do you intend to cut funding for the ABC?’ why make a categorical denial? as Tony Abbott did. Should events change or should you really intend to make the cuts say ‘At the moment we have no intention of making any cuts however we will need to look at the costings etc etc’ this gives you an out later,
Mr Abbott made so many categorical promises that he dug a huge hole for himself. Not only that but he then made another and another set of promises which have also been broken. This all seems to lack any sort of common sense and a failure to learn from events.
As for Malcolm Turnbull, he is sitting on the wrong side of the chamber and should not be entertained as a candidate for PM. In fact he should not be entertained as a member of the Liberal Party. I haven’t forgotten his support of the Tasmanian pulp mill and an ETS.
Australia needs a fresh look at our political structure as this confrontational form of politics is destroying us.We have an opposition devoid of policies with a history of fiscal failure blocking everything on principal and a government lead by someone that seemingly thinks it is reasonable to make cast iron commitments fail to implement them or reverse them and then replace them with another set of commitments that will follow the same path.
I have lost faith in our political system and Mr Abbott.
With over 4260 and counting ‘leadership’ stories on Abbott in the past 24 days from the MSM and over 90% baying for his blood I don’t think it is all Abbott’s fault
Saxon, Tony Abbott can hardly be blamed for the broken promises with the stone walls thrown up by his detractors, so isn’t it better that he make the best of it by changing his approach when he can’t have the final say on keeping those promises? The “fresh look at our political structure” should include more power in leadership decision-making i.e. promises made by any PM before an election must be adhered to, regardless of Senate approval, as agreed to by those who elect him/her to the position, by law! If changes need to be made to the Constitution, bring it on. No second chance for any PM who fails to do so!
I believe, that when Mr Abbott made those statements about the ABC etc. he had no idea that the deficit was $ 48 Billion instead of the $18 Billion, they had been advised of.
I will also not support a change of Prime minister.
I think the spill should take place and it should be by a show of hands, so that we can see, who votes for what.
I just heard that Sinodinos will back the spill, this after the Prime Minister stood by him, when her had to appear before the ICAC. What a creep!.
Just the thought of Turnbull becoming PM makes me ill.
Turnbull is a slimy piece of work, not to be trusted, Sinodinas falls into the same category.
l also will not support Tony Abbott getting the flick, and would want to know who voted against him.
If he survives, he has got to get rid of all the Judas goats.
The spill is on Monday now, l see on the ABC, & it will be a secret ballot, so the traitors will never be identified, gutless & undemocratic!
Spot on there !!!
Will he or won’t he? Can he or can he not? Yes or No or Maybe? Geeeez, enough already. Simply put… some are born to be leaders and some are not.
The whole spill motion was a cleverly orchestrated plan set in motion with the assistance of the MSM and his friends the ABC with the conductor being the one who had the most to gain from Abbott losing the spill motion – Turnbull. I just don’t want to think that Julie Bishop was involved as I have a high opinion of her but I have a really sickly feeling that she may have had a hand in this at the behest of Turnbull on the promise that nothing would change for her. This is far the end of this as Their ABC and the MSM will continue to push for the Communications Minister who appears to be the luvie of the left. I just hope that Abbott can get some clear air for awhile and start implementing the changes necessary for Australia and our future, long and short term.
(Moderator: rest deleted. Please keep on topic)
Regarding Turnbulls dodgy donation to his friend Handbury, Julia got away with her crime, so like a lot of other politicians I am sure Turnbull will also get away with it.
Turnbull and Gillard are two sides of the same treasonous coin. They both represent external interests that are not the same as ours.
To update: Turnbull and Shorten are two sides of the same treasonous coin. They both represent external interests that are not the same as ours.
Australia, NWO/ Agenda 21 here we come. Very disappointed. ALA here I come.
Last year in Australia Lord Monckton warned us:
“So that means you all have to guard Tony Abbott’s back. Because the Turnbull faction, in conjunction with the UN, will be doing their absolute level best to remove your elected Prime Minister from office before the end of his term and , in particular, before the end of 2015, so that they can get 100% wall-to-wall Marxist agreement. They do not want any stand-outs. And the most likely stand-out at the moment is Australia. So look after him.”
http://theclimatescepticsparty.blogspot.com.au/2015/02/lord-monckton-and-push-to-get-rid-of-pm.html
Thanks Maryanne. I remember Lord Monckton saying this when he was in Oz a while ago. He’s also on youtube saying the same thing.
$2 billion dollars. The price Turnbull paid of our money to get the Nationals to support him on the floor. Personally I would rather have seen the Nationals refuse to support him and let the people decide at an election if they wanted Turnbull or not. I reckon if they had and stood a candidate in every seat there would be a good chance they would be the majority partner in the coalition afterwards, if not the outright majority party.
The only winner is the media. The loser is the Australian public. The hysterical comments are just the usual false flag noise that the established media constructs, directs and implements….it’s called “the long con” . Out goes Abbott with all his foolhardy actions like bombing Syria and in comes Turnbull the billionaire politician with north American ties. We’ll done Murdoch, well done CIA. How I wish Whitlam could have told us more before he died!! At least Fraser says so in his book, but the Media suffocates it all…now they attack Turnbull…..Really trying to keep the Brady bunch mentality alive in household Australia…..remember, no responsible media = no democracy; ever!
I predicted this a while ago on this site..The UN have done (and been doing) everything they can to get rid of Tony Abbott as they are also trying to do to Canadian Prime Minister Harper…all before the December, Paris Climate Change meeting. Abbott and Harper both stood in the way of the outcome that the UN want at this meeting and they set out to do exactly what we have now. Replaced by a Socialist thinking/acting leader under the guise of being the leader of a Conservative Government……. Turnbull has followed in the footsteps of his good friend K Rudd with his leaking and white anting and would not surprise if old Rudd is not involved in secret meetings between Turnbull and the UN as Rudd has made no secret of his desire to get into the UN. Perhaps that will be his reward..keep your eyes open for this in the future. Word is that Turnbull is already heading overseas for a meeting with the UN…we will see..perhaps he will send his lackey the once respected but now hated Julie Bishop who has shown that she is at the level of Julia Gillard when it comes to loyalty to either the PM Abbott or the Party faithful. We now have Labor lite instead of a strong Conservative government