The day after Gillard’s (now famous) 'misogyny' speech I woke up
thinking I was in the twilight zone. Everyone I knew was
amazed or affected in some way, yet, the morning news and papers
barely referred to it, instead focussing on Slipper
resigning? I was seriously, WTF? Thankfully over the
next few days the so-called ‘serious’ media commentators were
basically shamed into at least acknowledging it (even if in some
terribly conservative white male stances) by social media and
overseas media. This whole #Ashbygate (as it is referred to
on twitter) episode is a major déjà vu, the only difference is,
not only am I am in the twilight zone, I am outraged!
Yes, Slipper had some repulsively juvenile texts, though of
course without the “abuse of the process of the Court” (Justice
Rares words, not mine, see “full judgement here” we, the public,
would not even have been aware of the sexists texts, BUT, in
reality the texts have now not been found to be illegal, just
‘vulgar’. To be perfectly honest, the texts reek more of a
man suffering a mid-life crisis trying to impress the perceived
cool kid on the block, not so much aggressive sexism.
Regardless, it is not a good look, though am sure there are worse
out there in MP land if we grabbed all their texts for the last 5
years? What outrages me is the fact that a few people
through their actions decided they would try to change the face
of our democratically elected landscape.
Peter Slipper may be useless as an MP, hell, he may even just be
clueless, who cares. He is the democratically elected
member for Fisher, the party he bats for is irrelevant, our
voting system is such that we vote for people, regardless of
their political flavour. Therefore, how dare the likes of
Ashby, Brough, Doane (and others named in the judgment) misuse
our legal system for “purpose of causing significant public,
reputational and political damage to Mr Slipper... and advancing
the interests of the Liberal National Party.” (again see full
Judgment above). Yes we have an unusual set-up in
Parliament, which many in the media thought would have crashed
& burned by now, and every single member voting with the
Government matters, so I can only assume that the Libs who
assisted Mr Ashby seriously did hope that not only would they
make the Government look silly, ditching Slipper for Brough, but
the bonus could have been the toppling of the Government as well
due to lack of numbers? Sort of the like the civilised 1st
world version of a Government coup?
The fact that the mainstream media are not reporting this is
shocking. The mastheads should be screaming “Conspiracy to
sink Government” or other such hyped up sensational headlines,
you know, the ones that we saw in their hundreds while they were
hounding Slipper, nit picking and analysing every tiny twist
& turn in the saga which brought us to the judgement
yesterday. Instead, the silence has been deafening, very
little has been said or written, and a lot of what is written is
in a seriously bizairre context, some have even had the gall to
say “Mal Brough the real victim of Peter
Slipper judgment”, I kid you not! There are others
along a similar vein.
My only hope is that all the good Journos are not on holidays yet
and a few will see reason (as they belatedly did with the Gillard
smackdown) and get onto reporting this, putting the whole cast of
characters that brought us to this point under the
microscope. Asking some hard questions of the LNP?
Finding out exactly who paid for what in this fiasco? Who in
Government was aware of this? Who had spoken with
Ashby? Basically anyone in sniffing distance of this stink
should be questioned. I want to know the ducks nuts of the
whole sorry saga. You have all had a field day dissecting
the decades old AWU drama, well, show some balanced reporting and
get down to the molecules of #Ashbygate! You never know,
you might actually remind some that we live in a democracy and
with knowledge comes power. I am begging you, it is your
job to give us punters that knowledge, please do it in a balanced
way and restore some faith in the main stream media.
Slipper may or may not be a slimy ineffective dill, but like the
others in Parliament we don’t like, WE the public voted these
ineffective dills in and WE will vote the ineffective dills
out. That is our democratic right which should never be
allowed to be subverted by the Machiavellian manoeuvrings of a
few individuals to advance their own political
aspirations.
Keeping an Eye on the Mainstream
media
Very good questions: 15 December, 2012 When did Watergate come off the front
page?
First decent Mainstream Media article: 14 December, 2012 Ashby case a shocking
spectacle
One site that is not backwards: 14 December, 2012 Abbott implicated in Ashby conspiracy by
(10 hours of bullsh)IT
Astute: 13 December, Slipper Conspiracy A Coalition
Win
December 2012 - Graham Perrett MP, the
Federal Member for Moreton has now referred this to the
Australian Federal Police, hopefully further action will be taken
though not holding my breathe as even this letter was not really
reported by the media :(
See full letter here "Re Conspiracy against Peter Slipper and
Potential Commission of Criminal Offences"
10 Jan 2012 - @margokingston1 and her research into the dodgy
dealings finally gets a mention in
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1725870 (unfortunately removed
now) PLUS in Sky News "Questions over Slipper car refund
offer"
18 Jan 2012 - FINALLY A mainstream paper actually has
an article questioning the lack of attention. Kudos to Mr
Richard Ackland with this "Surely the Coalition smell hasn't
evaporated" we can only hope he has shamed a few more journos
into actually doing their jobs?
Excellent example of lack of balance below:
PS. There is a petition that has been set up, please sign it if
like me, you are a pissed off punter who does not want to live in
a banana republic and wants to get to the bottom of this
issue:
Attorney General, Parliament House,
Canberra.: Inquiry into people involved with James Ashby acting
against Peter Slipper
Cheers,
Noely
@YaThinkN
