Saturday, July 11, 2015

What sayest thou, poodle, what speaketh thou, what motions remain to be passed?


The poodle makes a motion, and there's more fine speechifying at Hansard here, but this'll do pig, this'll do:

...In the last few minutes of this contribution, I would like to talk about a couple of the other aspects of the motion. The motion apologises to those people named by the member for Dobell on 21 May 2012. Michael Lawler, Kathy Jackson, Terry Nassios and Marco Bolano were all named in a very negative way by the former member for Dobell. In fact, they were defamed. The current Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, was also named and defamed by the former member for Dobell. We do extend our apologies to all those individuals, and I am glad that the opposition intends to extend its apology to all of those individuals, particularly to the now Prime Minister, who, of course, stood up for the Health Services Union throughout those last three years.
The person I particularly want to comment on is Kathy Jackson. Kathy Jackson is a revolutionary, and revolutionaries—
Opposition members interjecting—
Mr PYNE: See—they are already laughing. Come in spinner. Revolutionaries are not always perfect. Revolutionaries sometimes have to cut corners and do things in order to bring about a result. But she will be remembered as a transforming union leader. I note the opposition laughing and mocking Kathy Jackson. I wonder if they will laugh after they hear this quotation. In an interview on radio 2GB on 16 October last year, Kathy Jackson recalled a meeting in 2011 of the HSU council at Darling Harbour, after these matters were publicly aired. She is quoted as saying:
There would have been 900 delegates … I kid you not … This is after I went to the police … (Michael) Williamson got a standing ovation … they played the Rocky theme when he walked in … there were people heckling me and screaming at me and (fellow HSU whistleblower) Marco Bolano … that I was a traitor to the movement … people were calling out ‘Judas’ from the crowd … this went for four hours.
I do not hear you laughing now, Members of the opposition. What this points to is that in the HSU there was a cultural problem, where ripping off money from workers was regarded as the norm. The former leader of the Labor Party Mark Latham indicated that himself. Craig Thomson was not an embarrassment to the Labor Party; he was the gold standard in how to behave. And yet you are laughing today at Kathy Jackson. You should hang your heads in shame. Kathy Jackson is a revolutionary, and Kathy Jackson will be remembered as a lion of the union movement. As was written by Gary Johns, a former Labor member of this House, a former Labor minister, the royal commission:
… may change the nature of union-employer relations; it may change the ability of trade union leaders to remain in positions for years and hand power to a chosen candidate.
Jackson, Athena, toppled two union leaders … In her wisdom, and in deciding to wage war with the HSU, she may well have strangled the union-ALP umbilical (ac)cord.
More strength to her arm. I look forward to hearing the contribution of members of the opposition.

With such a fine pedigree on display, is it wrong for the pond to look forward to hearing more contributions and motions from the honourable poodle for Sturt, the pond's old stomping ground, aka Christopher Maurice Pyne, the Minister for Wrecking Education in Australia?

What speakest thou, poodle, what sayeth thou, what motion will you pass?

Perhaps you need some prompting, a little help.

Did you read the full story to be found in L'Agehere?

Especially this bit:

The HSU alleges she wrongfully spent $1.4 million, dipping into union funds for years to fund her own five-star lifestyle. Jackson's alleged misappropriation is on a magnitude rarely seen before. Craig Thomson's alleged $28,000 pales in comparison.

Here's a little bit more for your edification.

It's not the whole story, you can click to get that - you do know how to Greg Hunt, don't you? - but this'll do pig, this'll do:

The Federal Court this week has heard damning evidence implicating Jackson in allegations of large-scale theft and misappropriation of HSU funds via cash cheques, a secret slush fund and three union-issued credit cards.
The HSU alleges she wrongfully spent $1.4 million, dipping into union funds for years to fund her own five-star lifestyle. Jackson's alleged misappropriation is on a magnitude rarely seen before. Craig Thomson's alleged $28,000 pales in comparison.
Her expenses, revealed in bank statements subpoenaed by the HSU, outline up to $660,000 spent on clothes at high-end department stores; dinners at Melbourne's top-rated restaurants; and flights and accommodation for multiple overseas holidays including to New York, Hong Kong and Europe.
Then came the reams of receipts for various other retail expenses, among them Apple-brand electronics, DVDs, jewellery and exercise machines. Jackson even used union funds for her home mortgage repayments and more than $50,000 in contributions towards a divorce settlement to ex-husband Jeff Jackson.
Perhaps the most blatant of Jackson's alleged misappropriation, says the HSU, is Jackson's regular withdrawals of "vast wads" of cash of up to $9000 a time – about $250,000 in total – from her Victorian branch's operating funds. Almost all of it was allegedly pocketed for her own personal use.
Jackson also controlled an off-the-books slush fund, known as the National Health Development Account, from which she took a further $250,000 for allegedly improper purposes.
The account, the existence of which was first revealed by Fairfax Media, was set up after a $250,000 payment from the Peter MacCallum cancer hospital in 2003 to Jackson's HSU No. 3 branch.
The payment was to settle a back-pay dispute for workers, but instead was used as seed money for the account. The workers never received their back-pay.
HSU barrister Mark Irving said evidence before the court clearly demonstrated that Jackson had even been "purchasing the family's shopping on the union credit card", with receipts showing she bought a $350 knife block, Disney-themed children's luggage and food products including 1.4 litres of Hershey's chocolate syrup and 1.3 kilograms of ravioli from discount supermarket Costco .
The three-day Federal Court hearing went ahead this week uncontested by Jackson, after she she suddenly declared bankruptcy on the eve of the trial's scheduled start-date last month.
In February last year, Labor and the Abbott government passed an unprecedented parliamentary motion last year apologising to Jackson and HSU members for the conduct of Craig Thomson. The Coalition called Jackson a "lion of the union movement".

What speakest thou, poodle, what sayeth thou, what motion will you pass?

Can we have a motion of condolence for the victims of the financial service sector?

Can we gave a motion for a royal commission into same?

Can we have a motion in support of those leonine whistleblowers who have blown the whistle on banks and other financial fraudsters?

Or can we just have more selective motions of a humbug kind ...

(Note: some forms of motion are specifically excluded from this genuine offer).


14 comments:

  1. More German expressionists for your delectation and delight. This time an homage to the films. That Metropolis poster by Heinz Schulz-Neudamm is magic.

    https://news.artnet.com/art-world/art-house-an-introduction-to-german-expressionist-films-32845

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  2. Hi Dorothy,
    I think Craig Thomson's final account was about $3,800. Mainly air fares for his wife and a couple of packets of cigs. All that crap about prostitutes was all bullshit. I noticed PVO mentioned it again the other day, like all Murdoch staff, can't help telling lies!

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  3. I think this deserves an honourable mention. Fits in (sorta) with the expressionist theme.

    http://www.red-magpie.com/?p=1638

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    Replies
    1. Especially as they have a copy of Maus on the bookshelf.

      Delete
  4. I don't like that cartoon by Nicholson.
    There are plenty of issues with which to ridicule the ridiculous Pyne but they don't need to be presented with that innuendo.
    fred

    fred

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    Replies
    1. Aw come on Fred, there have been rumours about Pyne for years. Where do you think he got his moniker of 'mincing poodle' from?

      https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2013/june/1370181600/erik-jensen/how-christopher-pyne-puts-himself

      Delete
    2. Yeah, I know that, but I disagree with introducing gossip about his sexuality which is extraneous to the topic.

      I think the cartoon is in the same league as this - from your article and referring to a sign in Pyne's office.

      "On a filing cabinet is a picture of Julia Gillard beside the phrase “Flying Start”. The first letter of each word has been crossed out."

      No need for Nicholson or us to descend to Pyne's level.

      fred

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    3. Kenneth would be proud.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7_IWWAlMJg

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    4. It's nothing to do with perceived sexuality, Fred. It's just the way he minces. That is universal.

      Delete
  5. The fact that The MSM deliberately ignored this scandal for years is amazing,and what is nearly as bad is the little reference and recognition of the work of Peter Wicks, for years, in trying to expose this low life Jackson and all the other scum around her.
    https://independentaustralia.net/business/business-display/how-the-mainstream-finally-discovered-the-truth-about-kath

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    Replies
    1. Pyne was involved with Ashby trying to bring down Slipper as well as Thomson, what sort of people are they???

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    2. The kind who enjoy a tipple?
      https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/wyatt-roys-ashbygate-revelations-send-christopher-into-a-world-of-pyne,6905

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  6. It's not Pyne's sexuality that is the issue, but his hypocrisy, and double-dealing. "I'm a fixer" he embarrassingly declared on national TV.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Abbott declares war on wind.

    Tony Abbott has been warned he is putting international investment at risk after ordering the $10 billion Clean Energy Finance Corporation not to finance new wind power projects.

    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/tony-abbott-has-escalated-his-war-on-wind-power-20150711-gia3xi.html#ixzz3fbTpI1rB

    King Canute comes to mind.

    ReplyDelete

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