cods wrote on Apr 25^th, 2012 at 11:50am:


Where did I say they shouldn't be accountable? In fact i SAID to examine them ALL. My point is consistency. If you examine 1 you should examine them all. The travel expenses are a perk of their positions. They get them with the job. One would expect that "travel expenses" would include the fare from  the airport to your residence. Dont you think?

SOB

This is SLOP......Standard Liberal Operating Procedure.....

Full article here.....
http://sgp1.paddington.ninemsn.com.au/sunday/cover_stories/transcript_1103.asp

The Plot to Destroy Michael Kirby

REPORTER, JOHN LYONS: It's the evening of March 12 this year, Bill Heffernan, the tough-talking farmer and the Prime Minister's enforcer gets to his feet in an almost-abandoned Senate to make one of the most extraordinary speeches in the nation's history.

HEFFERNAN: I have also in my possession Comcar driver records which document and record the same judge using this taxpayer-funded service on a regular basis to pick up from an address known to the police in Clapton Place adjacent to Kings Cross, a young male and accompany him to the judge's home address.

The docket also notes the judge did not travel. The young male was returned unaccompanied.

REPORTER: For 15 minutes Heffernan details the most serious possible allegations against an unnamed judge, knowing that Senate rules mean that he would be forced to sit down if he names any current member of the judiciary.

HEFFERNAN: Mr Acting Deputy President, earlier in this speech I referred to a judge who's come to the attention of the New South Wales police who indiscreetly, improperly and illegally used Comcar, who regularly trawled for rough trade at the Darlinghurst Wall, who according to police statements and interviews regularly played out his fantasies in a fee-for-service arrangement.

REPORTER: It is not until the last five words of the speech that he names the judge.

HEFFERNAN: ... by the Honourable Justice Michael Kirby.

REPORTER: But there was much more to this speech than what happened that night. The attempt to get Michael Kirby had been going for years and Bill Heffernan was not acting alone.

WAYNE PATTERSON, FORMER COMCAR DRIVER: He mentioned to me that he had a lot of very, very high people, you know, all backing him.

REPORTER: Today, Wayne Patterson, the Commonwealth car driver who became embroiled in the three year campaign to bring down Michael Kirby, breaks his silence for the first time, claiming that Bill Heffernan confided in him that John Howard and Attorney-General Daryl Williams had seen the now infamous Comcar document before Heffernan made his speech.

PATTERSON: Senator Heffernan related to me, yes, that he had shown the Prime Minister and Mr Williams the document, which I was quite surprised at.

REPORTER: And he reveals that in an attempt to fend off Bill Heffernan, he destroyed crucial documents.

PATTERSON: I put them away and then I destroyed them and I just couldn't have it any more. I just said, you know, these dockets have got to go so I had to discretely, you know, rip up the evidence and so I did.

MICHAEL KIRBY, HIGH COURT JUDGE: Chief Justice, I have the honour to announce that I have received the commission from His Excellency the Governor-General appointing me a justice of the High Court of Australia. I present my commission.
[End of excerpt]

REPORTER: Michael Kirby was always going to be a lightning rod for the conservatives inside the Howard government. For a start, he'd been appointed by the Keating government, he was a small "l" Liberal and the thing that weighed heavily on Bill Heffernan's mind was that Michael Kirby was openly homosexual.

Kirby angered some conservatives when in his Who's Who entry, he listed a man as his life-long partner. Bill Heffernan was outraged when Michael Kirby spoke at a private boys' school in Sydney two years ago and talked about being gay.

IS THIS MICHAEL KIRBY SPEAKING?: It was at high school that I discovered I was gay. It was a lonely time of denial and secrecy, even from my family. As you grow up, you will meet people who are homosexual. They may be footballers, musicians, truck drivers, judges. You should refuse to go along with the herd mentality that calls them poofters, queers, faggots, or other words of hate. In my experience, few, if any, gay and lesbian people choose their sexuality and if that is how you are, that is how God meant you to be.

REPORTER: Farmer Bill Heffernan had had Michael Kirby in the crosshairs of his gun for years. He'd made no secret of his views of Kirby and had made it his mission to gather any material or rumours he could about the judge.

What [was?] the first that you became aware Bill Heffernan was interested in Michael Kirby?

PATTERSON: Oh, about three years ago, when I was driving the Prime Minister, I'd met Mr Heffernan and, and you know, he'd asked me various questions about particular people and the use of Commonwealth cars and so that was about it, yeah, I knew then.

REPORTER: Patterson says other Comcar drivers came to dread Bill Heffernan.

PATTERSON: Well, yeah, that's a good point. They knew that he would have a grudge to bear in there and would bring up the conversation on these relevant matters. And I think what he kept saying too, that he had evidence against Justice Kirby which I suppose that he, you know, tried to get that to maybe ... to break you down a little bit more, to be easy with him and to go along with the flow [laughs] more than anything.

REPORTER: It was in March 1999 that Bill Heffernan loaded the first bullet into his gun. He made an extraordinary phone call to Michael Kirby's immediate boss, the Chief Justice of Australia, Murray Gleeson. Heffernan told Gleeson he wanted senior New South Wales police officer Mike Woodhouse to brief Gleeson on an investigation being conducted into Michael Kirby.



Mr Howard was censured by the Senate in March 2002 over his failure to stop Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan's attack on High Court Justice Michael Kirby.

You can be fairly certain that when a non-story hits the headlines, there's a big issue lerking in the background somewhere. The same old diversion tactics. It could have been the $7 billion to the IMF or maybe something more sinister.

adelcrow wrote on Apr 25^th, 2012 at 9:59am:


it is certainly excessive when you were in QLD at the same time as filling in a cabcharge in Canberra.

longweekend58 wrote on Apr 25^th, 2012 at 2:47pm:

APPARENTLY HAPPENED,according to the MUD och press. I prefer to see the facts, the MUD och press are renowned liars, like you longwinded liar.

longweekend58 wrote on Apr 25^th, 2012 at 2:47pm:


Just out of curiosity longmoron ...  have you ever claimed something as a deduction for work when you in fact bought it for personal use? eg, those sunnies, mobile phone or laptop? or maybe $300 laundry allowance (if you say you never have your a liar because everybody does it .. your accountant will automatically claim things that you may be entitled to, but not actually spent)..... Is rorting the tax payer through claimed tax deductions any different than rorting through cabcharge ?

Johnsmith wrote on Apr 25^th, 2012 at 2:59pm:


no i havent. but in any case, he is an MP who knows what the rules are and he has blatantly broken them. And you shoudl be aware that he is under investigation for travel rorts over some years back as well. But you certianly have a funny way of looking at things. You make the same excuse for Thomson and his $100,000 worth of rorts including hookers. If this is the prevailing level of integrioty for which Labor is famous then their long line thru the courts on criminal cahrges is hardly surprising, is it?

Johnsmith wrote on Apr 25^th, 2012 at 3:48pm:


the moral high card might be a bit bent in Liberal circles but at least we still have one. the ALP sold theirs in exchange for a hooker who may or may not have been consenting or of legal age.