During the Gillard government, and the second Rudd government there was one particular electorate that was arguably talked about more than any other in the country.
That electorate was Dobell on the NSW Central Coast.
Tony Abbott and other parrots from his front and back bench were always talking about the good people of Dobell and how they deserved to have a member looking after their interests that they could be proud of.
The former member for Dobell was of course Craig Thomson who is now awaiting another chapter in his media trial as he appeals being found guilty of charges he was not charged with.
As Tony Abbott sang the praises of Thomson’s accuser Kathy Jackson, he piled on the sympathy for those living in the Dobell electorate.
Kathy Jackson as we all know is herself alleged to have rorted hundreds of thousands of dollars from union members and is also alleged to have been in charge of the union while it set up and administered a slush fund.
Kathy Jackson – Coming unravelled
Despite Thomson delivering many achievements for his electorate Abbott was keen to point out that Thomson must have been spending too much time on legal matters rather than his electorates interests.
Tony Abbott was so concerned for the good people of Dobell and adamant that they have a voice that he effectively tried to mute them. There was the talk of Thomson being a “tainted vote” and then the childish and comical episode where Tony Abbott and Christopher Pyne bolted for the door in parliament like a couple of tourists dashing for the loo after a dodgy curry just so they wouldn’t have to vote the same as Thomson. How mature.
Tony Abbott promised the people of Dobell he would deliver integrity to the electorate and put up a candidate that was honourable and trustworthy.
Last September it seems Tony Abbott broke another promise to the people of Dobell as his Party delivered Karen McNamara.
Since being elected Liberal member for Dobell can hold her head high and tell of the many things her government has delivered for the area such as:
- A new debt tax
- A charge to visit the GP
- Attacks on pensioner living standards
- Plans to endorse racial vilification
- Unaffordable university fees for most families
So honourable and trustworthy is Abbott’s colleague Karen McNamara that she is the second of the Liberal Party Federal MP’s hauled in before ICAC to explain themselves.
McNamara stands accused of electoral fraud for her efforts in the 2011 NSW State election.
McNamara allegedly boasted that she had raised approximately $300K for campaigns in the region. This included one campaign it is alleged she claimed to have raised $80K for despite that seat only declaring $11,082.04 in donations.
Karen McNamara -Allegations way to big to ignore
An excuse that has been offered up is that often candidates often inflate their fund-raising results to make themselves look better.
This effectively tells the people of Dobell that they have a Federal Member that is either corrupt or full of shit. Not being one to discriminate I suspect both.
ICAC heard evidence that one donation was banked by an unregistered company called Eightbyfive.
ICAC has also hear allegations that Eightbyfive was set up by Tim Koelma.
Koelma was a staffer of Chris Hartcher, the now disgraced former NSW Minister who was forced out after ICAC revelations and a police raid of his office.
Eightbyfive was used as a means of funneling illegal political donations to the Liberal party, or another way of putting it would be it was set up to launder money.
With all of these allegations surrounding McNamara one would think that if Abbott was interested in consistency and not seeking to appear hypocritical that he would be declaring McNamara’s votes tainted and suspending or expelling her from the Party. This is after all what he expected Gillard to do with Thomson.
However just like his views on governments promising no new taxes before an election and then delivering one after being elected, Tony’s views on tainted votes and what makes an honourable member seem to have undergone a transformation since taking office.
In Sydney the ICAC circus rolls on taking down Liberal member after Liberal member. Whilst this is going on the jobs for the boys and dodgy undeclared donations saga also continues with new NSW Premier Mike Baird refusing to answer question on serious allegations raised about his role in undeclared political donation in his campaign and one of his donors being given some lucrative positions on a silver plate.
Latest revelations in ICAC heard involve Eightbyfive, huge donations and a luxury yacht ride in the Whitsundays.
This latest revelations have dragged even more NSW Liberal MP’s into the scandal.
Anthony Roberts, factional power player and religious extremist David Clarke, and even the former Attorney General Greg Smith and his political hopeful son Nathaniel. Also invited for a cruise was now disgraced former Police Minister Michael Gallacher.
The righteous and the wicked, all on one boat.
David Clarke – looking less righteous by the minute
The allegations involving Michael Gallacher are so immense that ICAC had to be suspended last week to allow more time to fully investigate.
What is truly alarming is that the two highest authorities on law and order in NSW have both been implicated in the corruption scandal that dominates politics in NSW currently. Those figures are of course the Former Police Minister Michael Gallacher and now the Former Attorney General Greg Smith, who also gained notoriety for abusing constituents at a public forum on the broken promises related to the North West Rail Link which has turned into an $8 Billion substandard shuttle service.
With all of this going on the silence from Tony Abbott on the plague that is ravishing his Party has been deafening.
Don’t ask about the Warringah Club
This may be related to the sudden declaration by the Liberal Party of donations from four years ago that are associated with Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey.
Originally declaring $50K in donations from the Warringah Club from 2010-2011 the club has suddenly developed a need to drastically top up that figure to $75K.
Also interesting, back in 2007, which of course saw the election of Kevin ‘07, the Warringah Club was singled out by the NSW Election Funding Authority for not complying with state disclosure requirements. Only after being exposed did It then lodge a return that stated donations of $63,000 to the Liberal Party, however details on where the money came from were lacking so it is unclear if any donations were in breach of the donation cap or who in fact made the donations.
In NSW Parliament House has started to bear a resemblance to the Big Brother house with a Liberal member being seemingly evicted for corruption every week.
Michael Gallacher, you have been evicted so please leave the house…
ICAC have shown the current NSW Coalition government to be the most corrupt government in this nations history, not even the Obeid scandal or the Joh Bjelke-Peterson scandal come remotely close in scale.
Something is broken deep within the Liberal Party of Australia.
Tony Abbott needs to decide whether he is complicit, or whether he will address it.
We are currently witnessing democracy at its worst.
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To that list of extras you can add a petrol tax. The tax that was frozen when Abbott part of the Howard govt delivered the GST. The GST that would end all taxes. The fuel tax that was frozen because GST would be a tax on a tax.
I suspect where some of that money went… funding independents so they would give their preferences to Liberals ….wondering why this hasn’t been brought up?…and looked into? I don’t know if this happened, but intuition tells me, this well could have happened…
great article- Tony Abbott leads a corrupt secretive incompetent Partywhen is he going to face the people & own the Mess?
McNamara should stand down…I’m in the Electorate of Dobell and am sick to death of all these corrupt ‘trust me’ politicians!
Don’t forget to add to the list means-testing the family home to qualify for a pension!
the fuel tax isn’t actually “frozen” at all, as it is a percentage of the sale price. As the price of fuel goes up… the tax rake grows.
As for Abbott and his transparent government – and no new taxes… well..bring on a double dissolution little man!!!
Abbott and vomit, words synonymous with each other
They had their roots in the squatters and criminals brought on the first fleets and beyond and nothing has changed since the Rum Corpse. And I added the e deliberately before the pedants chime in.
The abuses of power and sheer depravity of the liberal party in NSW is shocking so Morrison comes out with another plan to torture and maim refugees.
Things appear a bit dodgy, it doesn’t take four years to find the money.
Perhaps i should pay 100 cents in the dollar tax on my age pension and get it back at the end of the year as a Tax Rebate like the health insurance rebate or superannuation rebate thus taking all the pressure off the expenditure side of the budget. did you hear this MSM statistical wonder today “As many as 85 per cent of single-parent families contribute no tax, once welfare benefits are deducted. Of single person households — mostly pensioners — 55 per cent pay no tax. About half of couples with no children pay no tax. For couples with children — with adults more likely to be working — one in four families pay no tax” What a hate fest and they probably believe their own stupid babbling. I am 70 and get $45.30 age pension a day and I shamefully admit to not paying any tax since I stopped working. Amanda Vanstone retired from parliament aged 55 with pension of about $750.00 a day and a gold pass and a plum ambassador posting with full pay and luxury accommodation in Rome and 5 servants and now she is grizzling about maybe losing her gold pass and maybe having to pay a debt levy. We pensioners are so lucky to have another pensioner like her standing up for us.
Oh and Paul Keating stuffed up the whole Phony Budget Crisis last night with a very simple suggestion “just have an aging levy paid by every one like the Medicare levy or compulsory super as insurance to cover their needs if they reach their eighties or nineties” Oh i forgot thats got nothing to do with why they are rorting and destroying Australia with their unashamed corrupt politics of greed and meanness. It’s not the cold hard hand of charity its the cold hard jackboot of charity. The propaganda is going well we will be handing out white feathers to the unemployed out side centrelink next now national patriotism has changed to financial patriotism. Just another way to kill the young.
bet those country folk who voted LNP are now regretting it. They’ll be hit for six with a fuel levy.
Maybe someone should look into the dealings of JeffJackson,Charlie Nader,Fran Wlliams and Jan Armstrong.The scams and sellouts were not confined to Federal members.
it might be worth enquiring about McNamara’s payout from WorkCover, and whether she was still employed as a crown employee when standing for public office.
I PAID MY PENSION AND MEDICARE IN ADVANCE PLUS MAINTAIN A GOLD PRIVATE COVER ! AND NEVER WENT ON THE DOLE ! NOW I CANNOT GET A PENSION BECOZ I OWN A 2 ACRE BLOCK OF LAND ! AND THIS IS B4 THEY TALK ABOUT A MEANS TEST ! ONE PROBLEM I DON’T HAVE ANY MONEY IN THE BANK JUST DEBT ! I SUGGEST WE INVENT A RUGINA TAX FOR ALL THE POOR PEOPLE OVER 70 ! CALL ME SELFISH IF YOU WILL !!!
It’s time for Peter Wicks to step up and announce whether he accepts or denies claims made on the website he contributes to : Independent Australia : which says a leading Labor Party figure and former Whitlam Minister who died in 2007was the leader of an organised Nazi pedophile ring that bred children to murder and rape during Satanic worship.
And he needs to tell the website to stop being childish and spitting the dummy and censoring people that question these extraordinary claims.
Over to you Wixxy : were your Labor colleagues involved in child murder?
I wouldn’t have a clue
But I do know that attempting to shine the light in the other direction does not change facts or excuse bad behavior, all it does is show a side in turmoil desperate to distract attention away from its own wrongdoing .
An act of pure desperation in other words.
And yes, this goes for both sides of politics.
In case you hadn’t notice I’ve had many shots at Labor also, but I guess acknowledging that wouldn’t suit the point you are desperately trying to make.
Also I don’t put child abuse and dodgy donations in quite the same class, but that’s just me….