A branch stacking scandal involving Scott Morrison’s key ally, right-hand man in the federal parliament and Hillsong Church member Alex Hawke MP is finally going to be investigated after the Liberal Party have spent the last 2 years trying to sweep it under the carpet.
It was reported last Sunday (5/7/20) that a former NSW ICAC investigator has been appointed to lead an inquiry into allegations that Alex Hawke altered minutes of a branch meeting which should have shown that 10 new members, who were in a competing faction to Alex Hawke, were refused voting rights.
Mr Hawke is said to deny the allegations, but the inquiry was only set up after some of the 10 people who were denied their voting rights threatened legal action which is not a good look for the Liberal Party and Alex Hawke. (Click here to read more)
Branch stacking usually refers to adding false members to a political party but in this case, it was an attempt to block members joining the Liberal Party because they were in an opposing faction to Alex Hawke.
Scott Morrison and Alex Hawke
What is also disturbing about the inquiry is that Rupert Murdoch’s The Sydney Telegraph and Sky News reported it has an “EXCLUSIVE” last Sunday the day after the by-election in Eden Monaro which was a close election with less than 1000 votes in it. How long had Murdoch’s media been sitting on the story?
One of the key issues that the Liberal Party pushed in Eden Monaro was Labor Party corruption which they referenced the recent branch stacking scandal in Victoria as an example of Labor’s corruption. While Scott Morrison and the Liberal’s were promoting Labor Party branch stacking as a reason that Eden-Monaro voters should not vote for the Labor Party at the same time Scott Morrison and the Liberals, with the help of Murdoch’s media, were concealing from voters their own branch stacking scandal.
Also last Sunday, the day after the election, the SMH published a story extremely damaging to Scott Morrison and the Liberal Party titled “Morrison ditched Turnbull-era plans for greater transparency in political lobbying” which starts off:
“One of the Morrison government’s first acts was to quietly kill off Malcolm Turnbull’s plan for greater transparency about how lobbyists interact with the federal government, leaving in place a system widely regarded as ineffective and described as “light touch” by auditors.” (Click here to read more)
The SMH is owned by Nine Entertainment whose chairman is former federal treasurer and Liberal Party member Peter Costello who also happens to be a close political advisor to Scott Morrison which might explain why they held the story until the day after the election.
It’s also interesting that Nine Entertainment’s Sixty Minutes and the SMH were happy to run a story two weeks before the Eden Monaro by-election on the Labor Party’s branch stacking scandal in Victoria. Whenever a public interest story is ready to be published it should be, but Nine and the SMH received criticism from Labor Party supporters for publishing it 2 weeks before the election and then Nine clearly holds up the “Morrison ditched Turnbull-era plans for greater transparency in political lobbying” story until a day after the election.
Nine Entertainment is starting to look more and more like the Murdoch media.
The article I published last week titled “Rupert Murdoch and David McBride etc. What Australian media fail to report” dealt with public interest stories the old media were failing to report and as part of the article I raised two stories that should have been published before the Eden Monaro election. But the media manipulation was worse than I thought as the day after the election the above Liberal Party / Alex Hawke branch stacking storey appeared in the Murdoch media and the above Scott Morrison – lobbyist – lack of transparency article appeared in the SMH.
If both the Murdoch media and Nine Entertainment had of run the above stories before the Eden Monaro by-election like they should have it would have cost the Liberal Party a lot of votes and that is why they held the stories up until the day after the election. And the old media and their journalists wonder why they get bagged and ridiculed on social media. Next time you see an old media journalist having a whinge about how they don’t get the respect they believe they deserve to get send them the link to this article.
The good news is the old media companies are all on the back foot in a major way and they won’t survive because they no longer keep governments to account like they are meant to.
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Categories: Prime Minister Scott Morrison
Nothing at all to not believe about a happy clapping scam man con artist fraud and thief and his actions and these scum are supposed to be the best to run the country, they couldn’t run a long drop without a scam working,they have the hide to call them selves Honourable ,nothing honourable about any of the swine at all
You have to wonder if there’s not a similar reason (I.e., the Libs are into it as deeply as Labor) behind these Libs’ unwillingness to pursue the issue of multiple voting, which could be minimised easily with the introduction of photo ID being required for both at the booth and postal voting.
Maybe, in certain seats, the Liberal dead walk, just as most believe the Labor dead do in large numbers on election day.
Many here will recall the male who phoned in to a talkback radio show (I think it was after the 2013election) BOASTING that he’d voted 50 times in that election for the Greens, as far as I know, no one made any attempt to follow up that claim.
I worked in electoral booths for many years since first starting in about 1963. Never have I seen an instance of multiple voting getting through the process of scrutiny.
When you say ‘many people will recall’ this spurious claim you are being Trumpian and that means you are talking garbage.
Even in the days of pencil and paper checking. Now with computerised voting, it is even more unlikely to succeed. The claim that you have made would be impossible unless the person concerned identified as a different person at multiple booths. With computerised records the voters name is removed once a vote has been cast.
I’d like to see anyone provide proof that they have succeed in voting multiplied times and getting it through initial checking or final scrutiny.
BTW was it a caller to the now, thankfully retired, Parrot, aka whatsisname? Ah yes Alan Jones. How quickly people become irrelevant.
Huw, which electorate has your utopian computerised system?
@grumpyoldman22 Mine did in Queanbeyan. No old paper roll books with pencil and ruler, All checking in to vote was done on a tablet which means once you get your ballot, your name is removed (or checked off as having voted) from the roll in real time.
These days it shouild be universal. Computer voting would take away a lot of the medis hype and excitement as well.
The American experience has shown that computer-based voting systems are eminently corruptible. There are in fact more layers in which the corrupting can occur, not less. It just depends on the motivation and the organisation.
We are dropping our 40 year subscription to the Sydney Morning Herald this week.Our friends call it “The Daily Berejiklian ”. It’s not just the failure to print public interest stories (we complained about the SMH not reporting on the Ruby Princess Inquiry until it finally buckled under our repeated complaints) the news is distorted in such a manner that its propaganda not news.One recent example a few days ago –
‘Powerhouse backflip as Ultimo site saved by Berejiklian government . Five years after the move was first announced by her predecessor, Gladys Berejiklian’s government will abandon plans to sell the Ultimo property and will now use the Parramatta site as a second Powerhouse location.’
As many commentators noted-this was an election promise from Berejiklian herself – she staunchly resisted public opposition up to the announcement .Her backflip was reported even in the Australian to be part of a political deal to secure the reinstatement of Don Harwin, and it was announced several days after a green ban on the site by the CFMEU.The site was saved from the Berejiklian government not by it.There are daily issues with its reporting.
News Limited is offering only pamphleteering for the Coalition .One example
The Tele was forced to change its online headline declaring a Coalition victory for the Eden Monaro bi-election .Embarrassingly in the early hours of Saturday morning -commentators were noting
‘ABC has called it a Labor Victory, CM maybe change your headline‘
Finally the Terror itself reported-‘Respected election analyst Antony Green early Sunday morning declared Labor “looks to have won” the Eden-Monaro by-election, although late last night some senior Coalition figures claimed victory in the bellwether seat.’The Tele referencing the ABC election commentator-says it all really-need to get your facts somewhere I guess.
There are daily examples and we are watching the extinction of the traditional media
Yes that is exactly what we are watching right now. It is a case of extinction via stealth. Now it is clear for many to see just what a propaganda machine the mainstream media is. Along the lines of America we have scripted newsreaders and puppet editors. Censorship is at its highest level ever and the few journalists that do wish to report the truth are hounded to the ends of the earth. There is much to be said for alternative media especially in these times we are living in with our rights and freedoms at stake. Good on you for cancelling your 40 years subscription to that propaganda rag!
How to create a dictatorship as is happening in Australia.
Silently, stealthily, subversively punish the mainstream news reporters and publishers who try to operate in a democratic manner, or, as is happening, offer them great rewards.
The relative media facts in America are the same in Australia.
Branch stacking in Labor and Liberals is nothing new. Yes it happens right down to Greens and every other minor party. I would rather the system we currently have than what is happening in Russia, China, Europe. We at least can cast our vote and make it count. If we use a donkey vote then those who do not vote or use the donkey vote have NO RIGHT TO COMMENT ON THE STATE OF OUR NATION. Yep I used capitals so the point was not lost.
Remember when Malcolm Turnbull claimed that there were no factions in the Liberal Party? Oh, those heady, fun days…
Who is Alex Hawke? He looks like Bob. Is he as shifty?