Petards ready …

There will be no principles in a government I lead …

PROSTITUTES in Asia! PM on Monday:

LET me remind you who Mr Blewitt is … Mr Blewitt admits to using the services of prostitutes in Asia.


Prostitutes in Australia. ABC News, August 23, 2011:

JULIA Gillard has been again forced to defend Labor backbencher Craig Thomson, amid new allegations which appear to cast doubt on his denial that he used his union credit card to pay for prostitutes.


Stand by your man. Neil Mitchell, October 20, 2011:

HOST: Do you stand by Craig Thomson as a member of your team?

PM: I certainly do…


Company they keep! PM yesterday:

THE Deputy Leader of the Opposition has confessed during those interviews to being in the company of Ralph Blewitt on Friday – I’m now dealing with the lack of standards of the opposition and the company they keep.


Company they keep. Channel 10’s Meet the Press, Sunday:

NICOLA Roxon: I think the most substantive allegation is maybe she didn’t choose that wildly – wisely, her boyfriend. Now, all of us, I reckon, have chosen boyfriends and girlfriends in the past.

Hugh Riminton: Oh, I’ve had some terrible boyfriends. I’ve had some terrible boyfriends over the years.

Roxon: We may not always be, you know, on reflection, think we’re wise choices. But that is, I think, the only real issue here.


Lewd comments! PM on Monday:

MR Blewitt has published lewd and degrading comments and accompanying photographs of young women on his Facebook page.


Lewd comments. PM on October 9:

ON the conduct of Mr Slipper and on the text messages which are in the public domain – I have seen the press reports of those text messages and I am offended by their content … but I also believe that, in making a decision about the speakership, this parliament should recognise that there is a court case in progress and that the judge has reserved his decision. Having waited for a number of months for the legal matters surrounding Mr Slipper to come to a conclusion, this parliament should see that conclusion.

Double standards! PM on October 9:

WHAT I will not stand for – what I will never stand for – is the Leader of the Opposition … peddling a double standard.


Double standards? Leigh Sales on ABC 7.30 on Monday:

MR Blewitt, you just heard what the Prime Minister had to say about you in the parliament today. Why should anybody believe what you say?

Blewitt: Well, in response, I would say this: Julia Gillard has been labelling this a smear campaign. I think it’s a bit hypocritical of her to now come out and try and smear me to detract people from the main event here.


Gerald Moses writes to the Sydney Morning Herald, November 26:

WHEN I began my professional life in 1958, the senior partner of the firm I worked for used to say: “You lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas.”

Rescued (filched) from behind the Australian’s paywall.

B & D …

Which, of course is short for bimbos and douchebags.

Misogyny is such a difficult concept …

“Libs are led by a gutless douchebag and a narcissistic bimbo who aren’t fit to be MPs let alone PM and Deputy. Both should be sacked.” Steve Gibbons, Labor MP.

Not fit to be MPs, mmm …

It says a lot about …

Ms Bishop has confirmed she met Mr Blewitt for about 10 minutes in Melbourne last Friday.

She said she was seeking documents relating to Ms Gillard’s involvement in setting up the association.

“The documents would be documents of Slater & Gordon. He didn’t produce any documents, so I didn’t use documents from Mr Blewitt,” Ms Bishop said.

Asked if he seemed like a trustworthy character, Ms Bishop replied: “No, he’s a self-confessed fraudster”.

Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese told Sky News …

“She’s meeting, as the deputy leader of the Opposition, with this bloke at a private, secret meeting to discuss strategy… to try and bring down a Prime Minister,”

“This says a lot about Julie Bishop’s values, it says a lot about the Liberal party.”

A presenter for the 730 Report met Mr Blewitt for 7 minutes and 58 seconds … what does that say about the ABC? You can watch it for yourself. Is he an imbecile as Julia suggests? Compare his responses to Julia’s in regard to this matter. Who sounds more truthful?

Ten minutes here, 7 minutes 58 there, back in the good old days Ralph recalls when Bruce Wilson and Julia would yarn the night away …

… as the three of them would walk the short distance across the road to The Fitz cafe, which still plies a healthy trade…

The 67-year-old says he is not bitter about the past and recalls fondly the long late breakfasts discussing union factionalism and politics over strong coffee…

Blewitt’s memory of those heady times is hazy at times. But he remembers fondly visiting the Fitzroy property and the three of them having robust yarns about the big issues of the day.

Now what does that say about Julia and the Labor Party?

Slags …

This morning Slater & Gordon released a statement saying: “Slater & Gordon has consistently maintained, and still maintains, that at all times it has acted in accordance with its legal and ethical obligations in relation to all aspects of the AWU matter.”

It said it had obtained independent advice confirming that it: “was (and is) not permitted to divulge confidential and privileged information of one client to another client or any other party.”

The firm said it “acted for both a union and a union official (personally)” in the “AWU matter.”

“In acting for the official, Slater & Gordon obtained information: i). that was confidential to the official; and ii) the disclosure of which to the union would have represented a conflict between the interests of the union and the interests of the official,” the statement said.

“Slater & Gordon ceased acting for both clients after it became aware of this conflict situation.”

On the face of it this is a plea of not guilty, your honour, made by the entity Slater & Gordon, (commonly known as Slags, and it’s less typing). Implicit within it is that Slags as a whole at no stage did anything wrong. It might feel a little peeved that one of the Slags did some of the work in question without raising a file … it makes it hard for an entity to know what it was actually up to.

Within the not guilty plea is an admission. Whatever it was that the entity was up to led to a conflict of interest between two of its clients Bruce Wilson, Ms Gillard’s then boyfriend, and the AWU. A conflict so severe that dealings with both clients had to stop. Not guilty your honour but boy did we screw up.

Being in a relationship can interfere with the normal lawyer-client relationship. It can lead to the lawyer losing his or her objectivity, resulting in inaccurate advice and even a breach of duty to the court.”