In the matter of Ashby versus the Commonwealth, there is now a staggering $4,537,000 at stake and a piper still waiting to be paid, writes investigations editor and Ashbygate author Ross Jones. IN OUR LAST episode of the Ashbygate conspiracy, we reported James Ashby and his lawyers had initiated legal action against the Commonwealth, arguing it should pay Ashby’s legal bill which then stood at close to $4 million.
Paying the piper with One Nation’s James Ashby
Why would Murdoch’s leading loss making masthead want to put the boot into Pyne and Roy over Ashbygate when it didn’t have to?
Source: Brough, Pyne and Roy — and News Corp’s newfound interest in Ashbygate
Ashbygate Trust members respond, in no uncertain terms, to James Ashby’s scurrilous attacks on their independence.
Source: Ashbygate Trust members respond to James Ashby’s smears and slurs
In a speech at the official launch of his new book last week (10/12/15), Ashbygate: The Plot to Destroy Australia’s Speaker author Ross Jones explains why this scandal won’t go away any time soon.
Source: Why should we be concerned by the destruction of Peter Slipper?
It is hard to believe now, but there was a time when Mal Brough was considered prime-ministerial material. It never came to anything, but in the dying days of the government of John Howard, while Peter Costello was clearly the front runner, there were those who thought that the tough-minded minister who had delivered the intervention into indigenous affairs might have the energy and commitment to hold the conservative cause together.
Source: Brough and ready | The Monthly
Clive Palmer revives allegations against Mal Brough as Labor pursues the Special Minister for State over James Ashby affair.
Source: Clive Palmer revives explosive claims against Mal Brough over James Ashby affair
“Sinking the slipper”
He misused $954 of taxpayer’s funds claiming expenses that were private, not parliamentary.
Other politicians, including the prime minister, were allowed to repay expenses under the Minchin Protocol, which allows for the repayment of wrongly claimed entitlements, while others get off scott free
Mr Slipper has on a number of occasions said that he tried to repay the money under the Minchin Protocol, but the avenue has been denied him;
It can only be put down to LNP payback for his taking the Speakers job.
George Brandis has never adequately explained why the Commonwealth pursued him over such a paltry amount and who it was who took the complaint to the AFP.
That’s over $84,000 in work-related travel entitlements Abbott claimed while “volunteering”, running, swimming, cycling and attending major sporting events. There are of course many others from both sides who have repaid wrongly paid expenses:
• Attorney-General George Brandis repaid nearly $1,700 he had claimed from the taxpayer to attend the wedding of radio announcer Michael Smith in 2011.
• Former Attorney General Mark Dreyfus was forced to repay $466 claimed while he was away from Canberra on a skiing trip in August 2011, which his spokeswoman said was “an administrative error.”
• Former Trade Minister Richard Marles claimed flights to Labor MP Michael Danby’s 2008 Parliament House wedding but said he had meetings in Canberra the next day.
• Wayne Swan, when acting PM in 2010, took his two children to both the AFL grand final replay and NRL grand final by VIP aircraft, costing taxpayers more than $17,000 in one weekend.
• In August 2012 Mr Abbott went to Coffs Harbour for its cycle challenge, claiming $1,002.
• Julia Gillard repaid $4243 in 2007 when she was deputy opposition leader, in relation to her partner Tim Mathieson’s private use of a taxpayer-funded car.
• As a minister Mr Reith racked up a $50,000 phone bill at taxpayers’ expense, which he repaid.
If Peter Slipper gets a gaol sentence it will be a gross miscarriage of justice. Not of the court’s making, but that of a government more intent on punishing people than exercising leadership. Thus far it has been punishment of pensioners, the sick, the young, the unemployed, the opposition, and anyone who disagrees.
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