There were two interesting intersections of police and politics this week. The first was the Australian Federal Police obtaining text messages between Peter Slipper and James Ashby, which Ashby suggested proved Slipper had sexually harassed him. That complaint was dismissed, but the cops are now investigating whether former LNP member Mal Brough obtained Slipper’s diary illegally — and for that they’ll need Ashby’s text messages.
The second was of course the startling police raids on Stephen Conroy’s office and a staffer’s home last night. The raids were related to a December 2015 complaint from NBN concerning leaked documents that were damaging to the Coalition.
The Ashby decision, by contrast, has been years in the making — the allegations stretch back to 2012. Justice Geoffrey Flick, in the judgment giving the AFP access to the records, said: “The balance of the proceeding against Mr Slipper was not so easily or quickly resolved.”
But the AFP moved quickly when it came to the NBN leaks. Australian Federal Police Commissioner Andrew Colvin on raiding Labor offices and staffer homes two weeks into an election campaign just months after the leaks:
“The timing of these investigations is not determined by external factors, but by the progress of the investigation. Investigators follow the evidence and they take the steps necessary to conclude the investigation. We’ve always said leak investigations are difficult investigations, and no two investigations are the same.”
How fortuitous that the police were able to move so quickly on NBN’s allegations. A lucky matter of timing.
Conroy and this cohort are lucky none of them is Muhamed Haneef, or that he was going to Bali to pick up this ‘stash’?
…or what if Conroy & associates had been planning a fishing trip departing Cairns this weekend?
Extraordinary that the Coalition’s defensive comments about the AFP raids on ALP offices and homes seem pained by the ALP’s responses. Comments on the extraordinary spectacle of an all-night raid on a staffer’s home have been dismissed as abusive attacks on the “independent ” AFP.
Best tread softly; I have a clear recollection of one Godwin Grech, then an officer of a Treasury Department bound by high standards of impartial governance, fearlessly exercising his independence of constraint by helping out Eric Abetz and then leader Malcolm Turnbull by discovering allegedly incriminating material against Kevin Rudd. Who would be so naive as to believe that independent agencies, including the AFP and security agencies, do not harbour some partisan zealots anxious to strike a blow for the advancement of political cronies. Why should it be unthinkable that the AFP might have its own counterpart of Godwin Grech whose self-proclaimed motivation,it is said, was to place himself where he thought he could be of most value to Turnbull and the Liberal Party. Dangerous territory for pollies to be playing holier than thou games!
Who in their right mind would believe that Talcum had nothing to do with the decision by the AFP to raid ALP offices and homes of staffers in the middle of an election campaign?
Don’t take us for mugs, LNP…this has Brandis’ paws stamped all over it!!!!
And at least we have a clearer picture now of why Turnbull (8 years after his ‘shrewd’ dealings with Australian Rain Corporation – as Howard’s “Minister for Buying the Harbour Bridge and Environment”) challenged Abbott when he did, to lead the rabble? He had to change “responsible portfolios” or risk drowning in his own NBN bullshit, lapping his chin?
The AFPPR wouldn’t have their own Godwin Grech would they – tipping off selected media – when and where to be?
The AFP would be “investigating” that sort of leak too, wouldn’t they?