Iguanagate resignations tipped for this week
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Political pressure is building in Canberra and Sydney for the scalps of Labor’s “golden pair” — John Della Bosca and Belinda Neal. Some senior ALP sources are suggesting that one or both of them will be forced to resign in the next few days to stem the damage from Iguanagate. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and NSW Premier Morris Iemma are furious that the June 6 incident is still making front page headlines. Meanwhile as Crikey goes to press reports are trickling out about a confrontation between Neal and A Current Affair reporter Ben Fordham. The SMH is reporting that police have been called to an “angry confrontation” between beleaguered Neal and a current affairs television crew. Fordham, said he confronted the MP this morning in the car park outside her Gosford electoral office on the NSW Central Coast. Della Bosca and Neal assured their respective parliaments last month that they would “fully cooperate” with the police investigation into the fracas with staff at the Iguana waterfront restaurant at Gosford. These brief statements were designed to bring a curtain down on the notorious incident but as one NSW backbencher said today: “Things have just got worser and worser.” Neal is alleged to have assisted some of her staff in compiling their sworn statements which are now part of the police investigation — but she doesn’t appear to be willing to follow the same course herself. It smacks of double standards in which she is virtually saying: “You give statements to the police and be interviewed by them — but I won’t.” Yesterday, Della Bosca said he would supply the police with a written statement and Iemma appeared ready to accept that amounted to “full cooperation”. But after a media outcry, the premier changed his mind and “ordered” his former education minister and old friend to be interviewed by the police. The result? Della Bosca looks a reluctant, sad and sorry party to this affair, and Iemma appears a dreadful ditherer… again. As Opposition Leader Barry O’Farrell told a press conference at 11.30am today: “Mr Della Bosca said full co-operation. Full co-operation means fronting up and fully answering all the police questions. He resisted that until ordered to.” The police dossier on Iguanagate will be sent to the commonwealth and NSW directors of public prosecutions at the end of this week or early next week. A decision on whether any criminal charges should be laid will be taken within two to three weeks. Della Bosca has been stood down from the Cabinet and he will face indefinite exclusion from the ministry if the DPP finds that he has breached the law. His wife has been dropped as parliamentary secretary and she will face the loss of ALP membership and pre-selection for the seat of Robertson if charges are brought against her. To bring the nightmare to an end, she or Della Bosca (or both) might fall on their swords “for the sake of the party”. Senior Rudd and Iemma advisers are working on that solution. |
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15 Comments
You missed one report in the Media today which says that Belinda has been “given” an additional Press Secretary - one appointed by NSW Labor HQ.
Sussex Street is sticking with their gal - as the last thing anyone there wants is a by-election.
Resignation is not on the minds of Sussex Street.
Geez, maybe I’ve judged Belinda Neal too harshly. If Ben Fordham is serving it up to her, statistically that would suggest she’s totally innocent.
Geez, maybe I’ve judged Belinda Neal too harshly. If Ben Fordham is serving it up to her, statistically that would suggest she’s totally innocent.
“Don’t you f…..ing know who I am” is getting a lot of airplay. Hve we forgottten Mal Brough’s effort, which he has boasted about ad nauseum, where he claims to have threatened to cut off benefits to young street fighting aborigines in the NT. Is such a threat not a crime? Can a Federal minister really cut off (or grant)benefits in such an arbitrary way? Well, I guess we know the answer, if we’re talking about threats to aborigines. Hard to imagine a Veterans Affairs minister threatening brawling RSL patrons that he’d cut off their “f…ing benefits.” How to win brownie points in Howard’s Liberal Party!!!!
From the SMH:
“In a carefully-worded statement issued by Ms Neal’s office last night, the MP appeared to blame police for her level of co-operation, claiming investigators had never asked her for an interview.
The statement said Ms Neal had provided police with a 15-page statement and “police had not subsequently sought new information or to interview her”.”
The use of the word “subsequently” is interesting here as it implies that prior to lodging the statement police had been seeking to interview her. If her statement (and/or verbal statements) made it clear that she was not going to allow a police interview then it is not surprising that the police would not continue to request one, especially when they need to tread carefully dealing with an MP.
This statement thus appears to be intentionally misleading. She knew that the police wanted to interview her but is trying to give the impression that they did not request an interview.
As I stated earlier, every step of the way they only make their troubles worse. This statement has only served to dig their political graves a few inches deeper.
David Hicks is irrelevant to this story but I do find the persistent desire to romanticise him very unappealing. He may now have matured into a reasonably decent person but when he was an Islamist extremist he was a narrow, nasty human being who was willing to use religion as an excuse for gross oppression, persecution and killing.
Alex Mitchel is so desparate he can only give it away for free and even then no one wants to read his drivel. Is anyone silly enough to think that the Pm would share his opinions with mouldy old Alex.
Belinda Neal may be a charmless bogan bully but so far no one has accused her of killing anyone. Alexander Downer on the other hand, may have perfect overbearing manners but he also has responsibility for ignoring all the advice which pointed to the subsequent violence killing thousands of people in Timor Leste post - election. Maybe we should get agrip on who is the major transgressor here.
While it is possible to pity Della Bosca a little for being dragged into this mess by his repellent wife it is not so easy to forgive the lack of political nous he has displayed. Did this ‘master tactician’ realy think that he could return to the Ministry without fronting up to the police and answering all their questions? The statements that they both put out saying that they were avoiding speaking to the police at the behest of their lawyers is yet another example of the awful blame-shifting they have engaged in every step of the way and which has only gotten them further and further into trouble.
The original incident was relatively minor but it touched a nerve because it is deeply unacceptable in this country to use poliical office to publicly bully and intimidate”“working Australians”. The only proper response afterwards was to apologise and apologise profusely. Having failed to do so, and compounding their original error with further bullying and intimidation, they have no alternative but to resign from their respective parliaments - and this must happen regardless of whether or not they are charged.
The additional press secretary is merely an attempt to stop her making more foolish mistakes. It does not indicate that the party will stand by her. I think Labor would win Robertson in a by-election. Labor is still 10 points ahead and any likely candidate will be much more electable than Ms Neal ever was.
I looked at that pair tonight on television and wondered who was more subversive to national governance. MPs like Neal and Della Bosca or David Hicks? When state and federal parliaments can be so easily accessed and compromised by aggressive, purposeful and destructive individuals like the Della Bella’s, Hicks looks like a harmless dreamer. A side-bar - Neal demonstrated tonight that she’s really unable to handle public life. If ‘just out of trainers’ Fordham can rattle a supposedly mature professional Neal’s better off at home and not in the House.
The sorry saga rolls on with today’s stupid (on both sides) confrontation with an ACA crew. Neal’s refusal to talk to the police, despite Rudd making it very clear that she will be kicked out if she doesn’t, can only mean that she is scared about what a police interview might force her to reveal. Time is up and for once Nelson is right - she must be kicked out now.
Miranda (defender-in-chief): it’s time they both resigned and they only have themselves to blame.
Mitchell should know more than anyone that if these 2 are forced to resign it demonstrates the power of a destructive media on Australian politcal life. This whole sorry episisode has been one giant lynching party with the biased reporting from day one that Neal & Della Bosca are guilty of something-anything.
The only pluses out of this is it also spells the end of Iemma and Brendan Nelson. But why hasn’t anyone in the media-including Alan Mitchell investigated the Liberal party’s involvement in the drawing of the wimpish waiter’s statutory declarations ?. We’ve had both Opposition leaders thundering on endlessly and accusing Iemma & Rudd’s offices of being involved on the other side-without a shred of proof, yet not a word is mentioned on Chris Hartcher’s and his staffer’s involvement.
What is the point of crikey if it’s contributors cannot produce anything except re-hashing what the daily gutter rags and tabloid TV shows produce ?. Has any journalist ever bothered to ask the voters in Neal’s electorate what they think of the episode ?. As the majority of them voted for Neal it would seem their views count for something-instead we are treated to the daily rubbish like Fordham’s childish “do you know who I am” antics. It’s a sad day in our political life-not because of any great love for Neal or Della Bosca but their treatment in the media over a pathetic and insignificant incidence has been diabolical and more so as the atrocious Daily Telegraph has allowed a continual sordid on-line rants about Neal’s physical features to be displayed daily.
Miranda, while none of what you’ve written is particularly factually wrong, it is pretty naive. Politicians are and should be subject to the same laws as all of us, so legally speaking there’s nothing wrong with not giving an interview to the police. However, politically, politicians of all sides claim to be people of higher virtues than their opponents. This is fine if you’re not caught up in allegations of illegality, but problematic when you are. The problem Neal has is not, as you allude, that the Libs may have played a role in prolonging the hype over these allegations, it’s that she hasn’t been able to make them go away herself. Even if your suggestion of political involvement in the allegations against Neal is correct, so what? Neal promoted herself as being the best person to represent her electorate in Federal Parliament at the last election. She has to live up to the standard at which she promoted herself, and similarly the ALP will endeavour to protect its brand in this matter too. Politicians (and anyone else in public life) who promote themselves as being virtuous and then show themselves to struggle to live up to this only have themselves to blame.