progressiveslol wrote on Apr 17^th, 2013 at 8:51am:


Nothing alike ... you haven't been able to show one iota of evidence despite always proclaiming to 'next week I'll show the evidence' for well over 6 months. The evidence against Tony is much more convincing.

John Smith wrote on Apr 17^th, 2013 at 8:54am:

gillard is being investigated because of the evidence, not because of the lack of it.

Dnarever

"No doubt Abbott did a hatchet job on One nation,

I think that is the point, Abbott financed Legal action solely for political gain, people went to prison and their careers were destroyed by Mr Abbotts malicious game. You can't do that, I would think there is a reasonable chance that he will either settle or if not end up on the wrong end of a decision."

And what is the act that was illegal ?

You should change your name to chicken little.

The Unions spent 28 Million attacking the Libs ..... are you going to take them to task on that ?
As far as I am concerned that looked perfectly legal to me and I don't have an issue with it.

wasnt she found guilty...





           
Home   >   National News   >   Article
Abbott set up slush fund to ruin Hanson
By Mike Seccombe
August 26, 2003
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One of the Howard Government's most senior ministers last night revealed he raised nearly $100,000 to lay the groundwork for Pauline Hanson's prosecution for electoral fraud.

The Minister for Workplace Relations, Tony Abbott, admitted setting up a trust, Australians for Honest Politics, from donations to pay for legal actions against Hanson and her party, One Nation.

He had also organised a separate "donor" to support a One Nation dissident, Terry Sharples, in seeking an injunction to block One Nation from receiving public electoral funds.

Mr Abbott said the money was promised to cover Mr Sharples if the case failed and costs were awarded against him.

The minister organised a team of lawyers who would represent Mr Sharples without charge, and then a second team after Mr Sharples sacked the first.

Mr Abbott also acknowledged that he had at one time instructed his lawyers to offer Mr Sharples $10,000 of his own money if he would stop pursuing him for money to cover his huge court costs.

He said he had set up Australians for Honest Politics in 1998 because he believed One Nation was fraudulently registered.

Last week, Hanson and her fellow One Nation founder, David Ettridge, were jailed after the party received nearly $500,000 in electoral funding to which it was not entitled because it had been falsely registered.

The Prime Minister, John Howard, said the sentence was excessive, but Mr Abbott denied that Mr Howard or anyone else in the Government had been involved in the attempt to fund actions against One Nation.

"There was myself and two other trustees. We raised . . . it may not have been $100,000 but it was certainly close to $100,000 and the job of Australians For Honest Politics was to fund court cases against One Nation." Mr Abbott did not say who contributed.

He said most of the money had been spent trying to get another One Nation defector, Hanson's former private secretary Barbara Hazelton, to take legal action to stop the payment of $470,000 in public election funding, following the failure of similar action by Mr Sharples.

Ms Hazelton had decided not to go ahead, Mr Abbott said. "By that stage we'd spent a lot of money and the balance . . . was distributed back to the donors in proportion to their original contribution."

He said his $10,000 offer to Mr Sharples was made in light of a disputed agreement between them that Mr Sharples would be covered by an open-ended indemnity for the costs of action against Hanson and One Nation.

Mr Abbott had given, in writing, "my personal guarantee to you that you will not be further out of pocket as a result of this action".

The minister said he believed that promise covered only the $10,000 guarantee he had arranged, but Mr Sharples thought it applied to any legal action.

"Yes, I did make a commitment to Sharples and yes the commitment was to back him to the tune of $10,000," he said last night, "that being the maximum downside that we could have expected."

But after Mr Sharples went on with other action, incurring big bills, and the original guarantor dropped out, Mr Abbott was facing possible personal liability.

"He claims that the letter that I gave to him at the time . . . constituted an open-ended indemnity to support any legal action Sharples wanted to implement anywhere involving One Nation."

So Mr Abbott offered the $10,000 to call it quits. It was not accepted, and he had personally paid Mr Sharples nothing, although he had been prepared to carry the cost.

"It couldn't come from Australians for Honest Politics because it had no money left in it. I mean, if Sharples had accepted that arrangement I suppose it would've come from me."

Mr Sharples could not be contacted yesterday.



yes it was overturned.... but what if it hadnt been?????

what if they had just been allowed to get away with half a million because no one gave a sot.

Whether legal or not, Abbott's activity was vicious and immoral. He went way too far and showed a lack of judgement.

Is such a man a suitable PM?

Peter Freedman wrote on Apr 17^th, 2013 at 9:05am:

Another "to be fair"

Johnny come lately attacked 'righties' and I am centre right, so gave him a counter, that the righties have not done what the left have done. So righties are in the clear thus far, the left are all over his accusation of the right.

Got it mr usual suspect of ignoring all things bad from left.

Peter Freedman wrote on Apr 17^th, 2013 at 9:09am:





so you dont think getting $500.000 of tax payers money illegally is immoral??

in fact its good on ya....

he says he thought they received the money fraudulently????

OK he was subsequently found to be wrong..


whats IMMORAL about that?


as I said if he was right but did nothing about it... would that be OK with you?

RightSadFred wrote on Apr 17^th, 2013 at 9:13am:




hear hear hear hear.........how soon they forget.its the same with One Nation... ????? now they support them.. LOL