A sad feature of the Gillard slush fund affair is the extraordinary length the love media, the ABC and Fairfax, have gone to not to cover it. What they did cover was their eyes and ears whilst humming “La, la, la, la, la … “.
And when the prime minister did take questions on the matter it wasn’t from those with the questions prepared. She chose her battleground cleverly and let ill-prepared troops fight themselves to exhaustion. Smart.
The apologists loved it.
The Age
JULIA Gillard lashed out at ‘’misogynists and the nut jobs on the internet’’ and ‘’false and defamatory’’ reports in the Murdoch pressas she delivered a 50-minute blow-by-blow rebuttal of allegations that she behaved improperly during her time as an industrial lawyer.
As well, The Age found a tangent to go off on
WHEN Julia Gillard lashed out at the ‘’misogynist nut jobs on the internet’’ yesterday, she had in mind one man above all others, the famed former political cartoonist Larry Pickering.
Michelle Grattan found
Her explanations were credible … This affair has been raked over sufficiently.
The chorus line at the ABC were singing from the same sheet, “Nothing to see here, folks, move along.”
But there is something to see here. Labor is owned and operated by the Unions for the Unions. The Thomson, Williamson scandal has shown that the internal affairs of Unions can be corrupt. The leader of the Labor party has had this to say
“It’s, it’s common practice, indeed every union has what it refers to as a re-election fund, slush fund, whatever, which is the funds that the leadership team, into which the leadership team puts money so that they can finance their next election campaign… “
and not “in the context of a casual and jovial conversation”, it was said in a formal interview with her seniors that concluded with her resignation from the law firm Slater and Gordon. Said after setting up a slush fund that was not used for its stated purpose or for a re-election campaign but as a means of diverting money extorted from building firms into the pockets of Union heavies.
So, refreshing to find a Fairfax piece having a better look at the Slush Puppy’s past deeds. But remember casual and jovial the conversation was not.