One of the most scandalous demands ever made by a political party (as the below video shows) is that the Labor Party want the Australian public to give their new Senate appointment Kimberley Kitching “the presumption of innocence” before she has even started in the Senate. This is because criminal charges have been recommended against her by the Trade Union Royal Commission which are still to be addressed and finalised.
It is worth noting that federal MP Brendan O’Connor who says Kitching “deserves the presumption of innocence” did not defend Kitching by saying she was innocent which I take as admission by him that he concedes that she is guilty. Anyone who has seen the evidence against Kitching knows she is guilty and the key computer data evidence that proves her crime came from the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) so it is a bit rich for the Labor Party to dispute it.
The whole situation is even more scandalous given the current environment where numerous federal politicians have been investigated or charged by various law enforcement agencies over the last few years which shows the systemic corruption in Australian politics.
It doesn’t matter whether or not you are aware of the crimes that Kimberley Kitching is accused of committing. It is the fact that the Australian voters are being told that we should give someone “the presumption of innocence” before they enter parliament. That could have and should have been resolved well before they were even considered for the position of a federal politician.
I wrote last week that Kitching’s appointment takes the federal parliament to a new low and I think I have been proven right already.
Below is the infamous video of the interview (17/10/16) with federal MP Brendan O’Connor telling Australians we should give Kitching “the presumption of innocence“.
The cover picture is Kathy Jackson with her good friend Kimberley Kitching.
A lawyer or not a lawyer
It was reported that Kimberley Kitching was a lawyer and worked at the law firm Cornwall Stodart but their website makes no mention of Kitching even on the page where they list all their lawyers. I wonder why?
Royal Commission charges against Kimberley Kitching
It is worth looking at some of the evidence against Kimberley Kitching because Ms Kitching and the Labor Party claim the allegations of criminal conduct against Ms Kitching is politically motivated. The biggest problem with that argument is that the key evidence against Ms Kitching came from the Union movement itself.
The HSU scam
Kimberley Kitching spent about 2 years at the HSU Victorian Number 1 Branch from December 2012 as general manager which was a made up role for her. There was no real role for a general manager and she did nothing more than collect a wage and use the Union’s resources to try to get elected to parliament.
During that period, she also did the right-of-entry permit exams for numerous Union officials who needed the permits to enter work sites. They were open book exams that were done online and people could have done the exams themselves but for whatever reason Kitching did the exams for them.
Someone blew the whistle on the scam and both the Fair Work Commission and Trade Union Royal Commission investigated.
There was a lot of evidence that pointed to Kimberley Kitching. For example:
- The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) supplied the Royal Commission and FWC computer data that showed that some of the exams were done only a few minutes apart on the same computer and only took a couple of minutes when they should have taken about half an hour. The reason the ACTU had the data is because the people had to log into their system to do the exams. Phone records also showed the people who were meant to be doing the exams were miles away from the HSU offices when the exams were being done.
- An affidavit by Craig McGregor who is the Secretary of the HSU Victoria Number 3 Branch said that Kimberley Kitching in effect admitted to him that she did the tests. (Click here to read the affidavit – see paragraph 9 and 10)
- The Fair Work Commission who are run by Labor Party cronies also investigated the same issue and in a judgement in 2015 said: “Evidence Kitching gave at the Fair Work Commission was found to be “unreliable and untruthful”. Someone who gives “untruthful” evidence in the witness stand under oath is committing perjury.“ (Click here to read more)
So Kimberley Kitching wants everyone to believe that the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) and Craig McGregor who is the Secretary of the HSU Victoria Number 3 Branch conspired with the Royal Commission and the FWC to make up allegations of criminal conduct against Kimberley Kitching.
The fraud and theft at the HSU Victoria Number 1 Branch
I have written about the multi-million-dollar fraud under the leadership of Diana Asmar and Kimberley Kitching a number of times. This week Kitching had the latest financial results released by blogger and Craig Thomson puppet Peter Wicks in an attempt to talk up her financial management credentials.
The 2016 results shows a $451,866 profit (Click here to read the 2015/2016 results) which Peter Wicks said showed what a great financial manager Kimberley Kitching was. Funnily Wicks didn’t mention the losses of over $3 million for the previous 2 years which I wrote about here and here.
The $451,866 profit was clearly motivated by the solvency warning letter from the FWC in February this year.
For anyone who wants them: 2014 Financial Report (Click here to read) versus the 2015 Financial Report (Click here to read)
The latest results also suggest there is likely massive branch stacking going on the HSU Victoria Number 1 Branch. It says that revenue from Membership Contributions / Subscriptions is $5,137,242 and they recently put out a press release saying they now had 13,000 members and lying about the true state of the finances.
The annual membership fees that I have been told are:
Part – Time Employees. 0 – 25 hours per week: $460.36 Annually. $115.09 Quarterly. $17.71 Fortnightly.
Full – Time Employees – $577.16 Annually. $144.29 Quarterly. $22.20 Fortnightly.
I have crunched the numbers and there is no way they can have 13,000 members unless they signed most of them up in the last few weeks of the financial year paying fortnightly. But given that HSU Secretary Diana Asmar’s husband David and Kimberly Kitching’s husband Andrew Landeryou are legendary branch stackers in the Labor Party it is not hard to work out how they grew to 13000 members.
It is also worth noting that the legal fees have dropped from $1,132,102 in 2015 to $165,064 in 2016. The reason the legal fees were so high in 2015 is that Diana Asmar and Kimberley Kitching spent the member’s money in court at the Royal Commission, FWC and Federal Court trying to conceal their crimes. Asmar and Kitching should be made to pay the money back to the members.
Under section 44 of the Australian Constitution you cannot be a federal politician you have been:
(ii.) convicted and is under sentence, or subject to be sentenced, for any offence punishable under the law of the Commonwealth or of a State by imprisonment for one year or longer. (Click here to read more)
Obviously the constitution needs to be amended to cover Kimberley Kitching’s situation where she is still facing possible criminal charges. The political system in this country has really hit rock bottom if we have to give prospective politicians “the presumption of innocence“. Fortunately times are changing and all the Labor Party have done by appointing Kimberley Kitching is cost themselves votes and even many in the Labor Party know. That is why the likes of senior federal Labor MP Anthony Albanese refuse to endorse Kimberley Kitching.
Please use the Twitter, Facebook and email etc. buttons below and help promote this post.
Kangaroo Court of Australia is an independent website and is reliant on donations to keep publishing. If you would like to support the continuance of this site, please click on the button below to donate via PayPal or go to the donations page for other donation options. (Click here to go to the Donations page)
If you would like to follow this website, you can by email notification at the top right of this page and about twice a week you will be notified when there is a new article.
Thank you for your support.
Categories: Bill Shorten, Brendan O'Connor, Senator Kimberley Kitching
I agree that Brendan O’Connor’s statement that Kimberley Kitching deserved the presumption of innocence was really an admission from him that Kitching is guilty. It’s obvious that the labor party caucus don’t want to be anywhere near Kitching at all. If Kitching gets charged, it will be another Craig Thomson saga. The Craig Thomson saga basically destroyed Gillard as the Prime Minister, and I think Shorten will be destroyed too as the labor leader if Kitching gets charged. It may be the opportunity that Anthony Albanese needs to topple Shorten as the labor leader. Albanese & others know about Kitching’s true nature and know that the clock is ticking against Kitching. As for Peter Wicks, he’s a lying labor party troll pest who can’t help himself defending labor party/union criminals. Wicks has aided & abetted Craig Thomson, Kimberley Kitching, and other labor party/union criminals to further himself in the labor party. Wicks should be charged himself.
“Presumption of innocence” isn’t the same as “She is innocent” is it. We are at a low political point when Parties have to call for the “presumption of innocence” for their new appointments.
Well 5 a half years later after I made that comment Kimberley Kitching is dead. The so called bullying against Kimberley Kitching in the Labor Party was largely a campaign to weed her out of the Labor Party I think because the other female senators in the Labor Party & other Labor Party members of Federal Parliament knew about Kitching’s corrupt, crooked behaviour. Because they were horrified at the length of Kitching’s grubby, disgusting history & that she was a captain’s/corrupt pick by then Labor leader Bill Shorten. With Anthony Albanese being leader of the Labor Party over the last few years, obviously he & many other Labor Party people wanted Kitching out. Now we hear of Diana Asmar saying Kitching was bullied to death. Well I think that’s basically a lie because Asmar, Kitching & others were known to lie, bully, cheat & steal for years. When the tables turn against someone like Kitching, well they play the victim. The media’s glorifying Kimberley Kitching in her death has been disgusting, especially by the Murdoch media. Apart from the idiot Andrew Bolt & a few other journalists, many other journalists & opposition politicians I think do not know about Kimberley Kitching’s disgraceful history. Anyway good riddance to Kimberley Kitching.
Kimberly Kitching is a most peculiar choice for replacement senator unless they are all a little bit tainted. So far The Labor Party seem to have got away with it. Due to the government’s shot gun wedding. Perhaps it’s Muggin’s Turn and old habits die hard in the old A.L.P.
How deep does the Labor party and ACTU thugs have their tentacles into the police force? Will this filthy corruption, criminality, grasping nest feathering ever end. Bring on independent ascension to rid this country of the filth and allow the citizens to be represented honestly and fairly as it should. We need more like Abbot and rid us of the Shortens and Turnbulls who run this country for theirs and their mates own ends.
Hmmm…Not smelling roses is she?
And this is the country that I put my life, and that of others, on the line to defend and protect! May these rotten to the core people rot in hell! And I am disgusted at the weak kneed response from our present PM!!!
No surprise there, he & Lucy are only about them!
I share your sentiments, Bill. But I must say that the so-called ‘leadership’ of this country when I wore the uniform four decades ago didn’t exactly inspire me then.
If the old truism that a nation gets the politicians it deserves is even halfway true, to borrow from our Buddhist brothers, we must have done something quite collectively terrible in some previous life.
I can’t help but feel that Australia today compared with the Australia of yesteryear is exemplified by comparing two men who held the same position almost 100 years apart – John Monash and David Morrison.
Need I say more?
How appropriate is the saying “When you sup with the devil use a very long spoon.” Unfortunately Bill Shorten never took heed of this. And now he is confronted with the disaster of his previous close alliance with Ms Kitching and her dubious partner. This scandal is simply waiting to explode. I predict he if manages to dodge the main blast then the lethal collateral damage will be sufficient to wound him beyond repair. Scene 2: Enter Albo.
We are indeed in a sorry state if the Shorten-led Labor Party is the alternative government. The troglodytes of Ming’s Liberalism fail as badly in every sense as well. The solution is in our hands. Support a third way; vote for an alternative alternative government next time we all go to the ballot box. But cast is carefully. The Peril of Pauline lurks.
Hopefully, with the demise of Bob Day’s Family Firsters, the light will start to shine through.
The solution is regrettably not in our hands, it is determined by the mass media ( and public paid for media) and party political misinformation lying anti-democratic, unaustralian fifth columnists.
Well, that may change.
That’s just the point Ned; we have to out-spruik the mass media. We need to start talking politics. After all, we’re all washed by political decisions – the policies set by our democratically elected leaders. So let’s get vocal at a local level. Let’s get angry. Let them know. And let the people disadvantaged by the policies set – or not set – know that they rate not alone. That there is a way to create change.
It rather confirms my view that The Labor Party know in their hearts that opposition is their birthright and therefore a cash cow for all their Chums.
The tide may be turning. This will be a bottom-up change. Check out the municipal election results from the weekend. The Green vote surged.
Green vote where? Shudder!
The options are limited Lousie. It’s breaking the nexus that’s important. Surely you don’t want more of Tony Turnbull and Wild Bill Shorten. Or even – double shudder – Pauline & Co?
Nothing wrong with Pauline. ALP ~ shudder / Greens ~ double shudder.
I believe Pauline is opportunistic in seizing on firstly Asians and now Moslems. I agree Moslem infiltration into our country is dangerous and in urgent need of naming the enemy and definitive measures to stop this danger in its tracks. I disagree strongly with her stance against Asians, in the main they are not running around trying to kill us, they are law abiding, hard working, family orientated and have made enormous contributions to building our beautiful country. Questions have been asked about missing money from ON coffers to which Pauline refuses to answer. That casts doubt on her integrity the same as the other crooks. Other than that, good on her. Its not all about uni degrees, merchant bankers and gold digging mates and nepotism. Yes I agree, all these parasitic greens and mainstream towing the party liners should all disappear. Bring in the independents who truly should stand for their electorates not just to line their own pockets.
This is really unbelievable that she is now a Senator.
The way The Senate has been behaving I doubt this was the manner our forefathers thought of when they instituted this objectionable Chamber.
Really we should agitate to get rid of this Senate altogether, just think of the cost to us and what it has been doling to this country! I do hope that at least it will sink Shorten, however the way Gillard has stacked all the Institutions with their people, I doubt this will happen.
It is scandalous though.
“Please meet out new candidate for the Seat of $$$$. He is entitled to the presumption of innocence…we have every faith he will be exonerated…he is a strong local candi……working for the commu……etc etc.”.
oh so true our old statesman from bygone eras would turn in their graves, (or most of em) seems it doesn’t take long till they all start tickling the till! Pauline included it would seem.
What a bloody FARCE!
So many people have not been able to get jobs because of criminal convictions no matter how old no matter how small.
What I am saying is that some people change (for the better).
The so called presumption of innocence exists in theory only. It is nothing more than a (convenient) term, void of meaning and we are now seeing the expression of this convenient term as it is being used to defend their own.
If it was you or me we would be refused jobs and even condemned as guilty before we got to trial.
Aussies are no longer blinded by deception. We are now more informed than ever before thanks to the work of a few honest and gutsy others.
There should be NO QUESTION -she should not even be remotely considered for a seat in government. Anyone with any type of criminal action should not be considered for government, kicked out and lose their pensions (yes, retrospectively).
I am fed up to the hilt of theses scammers living off and thriving on TAXPAYER’S money.
We should not be supporting them. WE should have the final say. It is our money. They are there to serve us and they don’t do anything but serve themselves. It’s fraudulent. Interpreting policy and the law to suit themselves.
We the PAYER want her OUT.
Albo is a shoe-in now.
Just think: out of all the possible choices, someone thought she was a good option.
Perhaps, for her, it’s not a case of who you know, but what you know