Kevin Rudd has rejected Coalition allegations of impropriety and repeated that there has been no representations from him or his office regarding donor John Grant, in a press conference in Canberra this evening.
Rudd told Parliament two weeks ago that no representations had been made by him or his office. Malcolm Turnbull today demanded Rudd and Treasurer Wayne Swan resign for misleading the Parliament.
It follows a remarkable Senate inquiry this afternoon. In scenes that could have been lifted from a courtroom drama, Treasury official Godwin Grech, who has worked on the OzCar proposal since its inception, stated that he had known Grant was no “normal constituent” when he was asked by Wayne Swan’s office to contact him, and that he had put more effort into dealing with Grant than he had with a car dealer referred by Swan’s office from Nationals MP Kay Hull, although their circumstances were different.
Grech also said he thought, but couldn’t be sure, that the first referral of the matter had been from the Prime Minister’s Office. However, when chief Opposition inquisitor Eric Abetz, surprisingly patient and polite, tried to ask Grech whether it was Prime Ministerial staff member Andrew Charlton (economist and Ozonomics author, who says he was confronted by Malcolm Turnbull about the matter on Wednesday night) who made the representation, he was stymied both by Grech’s manager, David Martine, who insisted on answering the question and saying no contact had been received from Charlton, and Labor senators.
A visibly highly-stressed Grech was eventually asked to answer the question, but deferred to his manager.
Subsequently, News Ltd’s Steve Lewis contacted the Prime Minister’s Office at 4.30 this afternoon to advise News Ltd would tomorrow be publishing an email from Charlton to Grech on 19 February which asked Grech to assist Grant. Rudd has advised that neither PM&C nor Treasury can find any trace of the dispatch or receipt of the email. Grech, too, said he didn’t have any email.
The Prime Minister has also requested that the Auditor-General conduct a full investigation by the end of July.
The John Grant issue has now developed into a mini-crisis for Rudd, who if in the clear himself faces criticism that the Treasurer was over-zealous in looking after Grant.
Subsequently, News Ltd’s Steve Lewis contacted the Prime Minister’s Office at 4.30 this afternoon to advise News Ltd would tomorrow be publishing an email from Charlton to Grech on 19 February which asked Grech to assist Grant. Rudd has advised that neither PM&C nor Treasury can find any trace of the dispatch or receipt of the email. Grech, too, said he didn’t have any email.
The Prime Minister has also requested that the Auditor-General had been requested to conduct a full investigation by the end of July.
The John Grant issue has now developed into a mini-crisis for Rudd, who if in the clear himself faces criticism that the Treasurer was over-zealous in looking after Grant.
The broader context for such criticism is, of course, that all ministers in all governments favour government-linked constituents over those linked to the Opposition and always have. If Swan has encouraged his Department to act vigorously in Grant’s favour, he has done no more than what most ministers have done in the past for favoured constituents.
However, the misleading of Parliament is a different and altogether more serious matter, and, at least in regard to Swan, has some way to play out yet. And Godwin Grech, a diligent and experienced public servant, appears to have been caught up in a scandal simply for doing his job. The Prime Minister tonight guaranteed Grech’s job position was safe, despite making it clear he thought he was very wrong. Not a good position for any public servant to be in.
Try a bit of “Statement Validity Analysis” on Grech and you’ll find that he does believe there was an email.
Rudd’s gone.
Grech does “believe”, but the email is not on his computer. If this is so after the server has been checked, it never was on his computers, as servers keep copies for a very long time. As the supposed email “exists” in print form, that might be what he saw.
No one with brains uses fake emails, because they are almost impossible to erase, are easily traced, so confirmation of their existence (or lack of it) & source is easy. Once the Auditor Gen gets authority in writing, finding out if it originated from a computer using Parliamentary servers – and if so from whose to whose – is a fairly simple matter. If it’s not on those servers, it’s certainly fake. That’s where the real fun starts.
Guess which political party has a track record of idiots sending fake emails, fake flyers etc? Remember the couple of Victorian Libs who did it not so long ago? SA Liberal Martin Hamilton-Smith who faked emails re Mike Rann? Jackie Kelly’s ever so clever husband and his fake flyers?
Nor has the MSM been innocent of faking to create a story. Which “current affairs” anchor got the boot for doing it?
PS: The car dealer’s story “Canberra chat no longer safe: John Grant” is at http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25662824-5013871,00.html
“Mr Grant said he would have been happy to attend yesterday’s Senate committee inquiry into his access to the Rudd Government’s $2 billion car dealer assistance fund, but had not been invited.
“I wish they had invited me so I could have sorted things out but they didn’t,” he said. ”
Reading more of today’s coverage, it may be the case that the fake email was created to set in train precisely the chain of events it did to embarrass the government.
It depends!
The questions we need are:-
How is Charlton’s email setup to send and receive emails?
How is Grech email setup to send and receive emails?
If Charlton had direct access to the internet and used Microsoft Outlook to send the disputed email to Grech then there will be no server record and emails are easily erased from a computer using Outlook.
All you have to do is follow 3 simple steps:-
1) delete the email from you Sent box;
2) empty your Deleted Email box; and
3) Run Compact Now.
Anyone with malicious intent to hide/dispute an email can do this in seconds if they use Outlook as their email program.
So, if the above is the case and the PM is only looking at Charlton’s computer then, his statement that there is noting there would be correct even though the email was sent.
On Grech’s side – I suspect that he is more likely to be accessing email through a server and there would be backups but if he also has direct access to the internet then his received copy can be erased as simply as I have explained above.
Lets all keep an open mind until we get the details of how Charlton’s and Grech’s computers were setup to send and receive emails then we can have some fact worth speculating on.
A surreal synthesis of ocker matesucking and the Austro-Hungarian empire. Franz Kafka has metamorphed into a contorted, suffering Treasury official. Godwin Grech, dwarfed by his Keeper, opens his mouth to answer questions only to be cut off by his minder. In the next Hollowman series let’s have Woody Allen as Godwin and Stuart Littlemore as Keeper.