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.
15 thoughts on “Iguanagate resignations tipped for this week”
Dave Liberts
July 3, 2008 at 11:36 amMiranda, 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.
Denis Wilson
July 2, 2008 at 4:54 pmYou 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.
Dave Liberts
July 2, 2008 at 1:55 pmGeez, 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.
Dave Liberts
July 2, 2008 at 1:55 pmGeez, 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.
Clive Newton
July 5, 2008 at 11:51 am“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!!!!
David Sanderson
July 3, 2008 at 11:36 amFrom 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 Sanderson
July 2, 2008 at 11:20 pmDavid 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.
Comment on hipocracy
July 26, 2008 at 7:27 pmAlex 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.
pamela
July 2, 2008 at 2:12 pmBelinda 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.
David Sanderson
July 2, 2008 at 2:17 pmWhile 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.