Aussie wrote on Nov 19^th, 2015 at 1:50pm:


Ah. But we are talking about the appointments diary of a public official. This is hardly state secrets, no matter how much George Brandis is currently pretending that it is to avoid giving up the contents of his own diary. .

isn't this also a case of the abuse of the justice system - which surely is a crime itself?

This was supposed to be a criminal matter of Slipper sexually harassing his COS. However we now know that instead of simply going to the police and having them investigate, Ashby firstly went to key liberal party figures Brough and Pyne (and apparently Wyatt Roy), and conspired to get their hands on Slipper's diary. There is little serious dispute now that this was done for the purpose of finding something they can use against Slipper in a pre-planned sexual harassment allegation.

The first judge to hear this "case" saw it for what it was and promptly threw it out - even saying that it was an abuse of the system. I wondered at the time why this itself didn't prompt fresh investigations against Ashby and his liberal party friends for what surely is the crime of attempting to manipulate the justice system to bring down your political opponent.

So in short, if the police find evidence that Asby and Brough and co conspired to concoct a bogus sexual harassment case against Slipper - isn't that itself a crime?

Just on this point:

Quote:


If it becomes as clear cut as that, you can bet there would be some quite serious charges available, particularly given the Constitutional position of the intended target, and the delicate political balance at the time.

polite_gandalf wrote on Nov 19^th, 2015 at 2:52pm:


I doubt it. Slipper never denied that he said what he did. Sexual harassment wasn't found, but there's nothing illegal about advising someone to sue for sexual harassment.

The first judge was right. Of course this was an abuse of the system. But without anything criminal being uncovered, there ends the story.

It needs to be said, however, that this is one of the most serious abuses of the system in recent history. It goes beyond the political dark arts into another place. The Liberal Party conspired to smear and finger the Speaker. Anything and everything was thrown at Slipper - sexual harassment, the taxi fares, a private text message about seafood.

And remember, it was this message, along with the gay slur, that did him in. How dare he crack a joke about vaginas?

polite_gandalf wrote on Nov 19^th, 2015 at 2:52pm:

Is it perverting the course of justice?

Bam wrote on Nov 19^th, 2015 at 3:48pm:


No. Ashby sued in the civil courts. It wasn’t a criminal case, and there’s no evidence that he lied to police.

Calm ya tits, we all should know by now when you're a politician a different set of standards apply, should something happen , yes, will anything happen , no.

Aussie wrote on Nov 23^rd, 2015 at 9:17pm:



I didn't 'bung it here' because it wasn't actually about the Ashby case, but rather Turncoats handling of it and how it might affect his term as PM.