Senator Joyce writes for the Canberra Times:
Simia quam similis, turpissimus bestia, nobis. So said Cicero; how like us, the ugly beast, the monkey. How much can we say about the monkey on someone else’s back, but really, holy guacamole, someone has had some big nights out thanks to the good members of the Health Services Union.
I was sitting on a mates’ couch and her boyfriend and I both instantaneously looked at each other when we heard it on the tele and asked what on earth does one get for $2475? If I was that way inclined, I do not think I would be slapping it on the plastic for the secretary and the missus to read!
Well I think it is fair enough to say that union members would be exceptionally angry about someone spending their union dues to frequent a brothel and no one, not even Craig (Thomson), is denying that someone did. However “It wasn’t me” is, to say the least, a defence bordering on pathos. Did someone break into his house, steal his phone, credit card and licence? This same someone apparently passed a photo ID test, looked exceedingly like Craig and had the calligrapher’s gift to replicate an identical signature. This said person then apparently paid for a certain, highly-intriguing transaction before driving back to Craig’s house, obviously breaking in again, and putting the phone, licence and credit card back where he stole it from.
How on earth did the Prime Minister get stuck in this rat trap? She has “full confidence in the member for Dobell”. Does this statement mean that she believes Craig Thomson’s story? On what basis does she hold that belief? It is not the transaction that gets him and Labor into the most trouble, it is the bizarre litany of fantastic explanations that follow. I have now come to a well reasoned view that Julia Gillard is being advised by a thirteen and a half year old truant.
The polls do not lie but I am afraid that this implausible rubbish has the capacity to put a stain on all politicians. Bringing the game into disrepute is what they charge you with in Rugby League if you go out on a bender and get caught. What the bigger problem is here is not what happened in a brothel. That is something for the union membership, as it was their money, to pursue or the police if it was fraud or theft. The immediate problem is the apparent cover up and the number of people not willing to demand a better explanation. The public does not need any more encouragement to have an over active sense of scepticism about what senior politicians say especially after the “there will be no carbon tax under the government I lead” statement.
Earnest monotones of feigned statesmanship and podium speeches delivered with gravitas and footnotes are all lost because the question remains; did you assert something was true by reason of giving the person who said it your “full confidence” when you had no sold basis for such a strong conclusion? Can I therefore take your earnest recommendations seriously on any other product you wish to sell?
I am watching Greg Combet at this moment speak at the Press Club on the carbon tax. Yes, he is telling me it is a good policy outcome. Prima facie he presents as a plausible character but he supports a Prime Minister who states she has “full confidence” in the member for Dobell. If someone asks him now whether he too has “full confidence” then snap, his whole metaphor of “believe me” is lost. Whoops, they just asked him and he has stated that it has now become a police matter.
Labor has said that the voters who drove thousands of miles on a convoy of no confidence were of “no consequence.” The Prime Minister has “full confidence” in the member for Dobell, they are introducing a carbon tax that will have zero effect on the climate but it is a market mechanism which means it will make things less affordable so you do not buy them because you can not afford them. They are $197 billion in gross debt and, oh yes, they are polling at 27 per cent.
Barnaby.
Barnaby Is Right 
Comments