Author: Alex Mitchell
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Abbott and Spectator at war over the ABC
A gaping wound has emerged in the Liberal Party over the ABC’s reporting of the bugging of the Indonesian president, his wife and various ministers. The Abbott-Howard clique, which represents the right wing of the Liberals, is furious that Australia’s spy agencies have been caught out – redhanded. But more importantly they are incandescent that…
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Phoney war against organised crime
Australia’s spooks and cops can bug the Indonesian president, his wife and Cabinet ministers but not the phones of criminal gangs in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. Why? Liberal and Labor Governments will bend over backwards to supply Washington with intelligence. But protecting metropolitan neighbourhoods from drug trafficking, street shoot-outs, money-laundering and major tax evasion –…
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Behind the Nathan Rees “scandal”
Former Premier Nathan Rees’s private life has been aired in Sydney’s Tank Stream media, The Daily Telegraph and The Sydney Morning Herald, to devastating effect. Reporters Andrew Clennell and Sean Nicholls have climbed into Rees over an affair with a 40-year-old mother of two which occurred a year ago. Two consenting adults have brief affair…
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Labor ministers decline to testify against Obeid
During the latest Eddie Obeid hearings at the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) four former Labor ministers testified they had no idea Obeid had financial interests in Circular Quay restaurants, lucrative water leases and a health service firm. The Four Wise Men – two former Treasurers Michael Costa and Eric Roozendaal, Police Minister Carl Scully…
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Abbott’s “boats” general is embarrassing failure
When Tony Abbott’s election team needed a three-star general to bolster their cruel and absurd “stop the boats” election slogan they turned to Angus Campbell. He is now dragging the political impartiality of the ADF through the mud and his media performances are so hopeless he has made a laughing stock of the top brass.…
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High time for Eddie Obeid to come clean
Does former NSW ALP powerbroker Eddie Obeid have a breaking point? During the year-long anti-corruption investigations Obeid has studiously protected his former colleagues. But will his protective silence last? Obeid has the dirt to take down his ALP accomplices in the Carr to Keneally Governments which ruled NSW between 1995 and 2011. Obeid has already…
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Albo and Billy Boy: Pygmies go to war
Anthony Albanese says: “What you see is what you get.” And what do you get? A gold-plated dill. Forget all the spin, Albo is an authentic machine politician, a product of Sussex Street, the notorious address that has come to symbolise the bureaucratic dysfunctionality of the NSW branch of the ALP. After five general secretaries…
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The case against Roger Corbett
Complaints have been made to the Reserve Bank of Australia over bipartisan political remarks made by board member Roger Corbett supporting Tony Abbott in Saturday’s federal election and rubbishing Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. An RBA official said all complaints would be investigated and the findings made public. Senator Doug Cameron, a Labor frontbencher, called on…
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Roger Corbett puts foot in mouth and breaches Reserve Bank protocol
Fairfax Media chairman Roger Corbett has breached Reserve Bank Board protocol by publicly commenting on party politics, attacking Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and supporting Opposition Leader Tony Abbott. His widely-reported comments created a storm of comment in today’s mainstream media with Mr Rudd saying: “It’s a free country, anyone can what they like.” Up to…
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Murdoch: serial ballot box thief
The question is asked frequently: how much influence does the Murdoch press have on public opinion? Because no accurate statistical research exists, there is no clear answer. The question usually arises in elections whether in Australia, Britain or the US. The Murdoch media goes into over-drive in support of one particular leader and starts to…