The Prime Minister's judgement with our motor car

Wednesday, 09 January 2013

Like many Australians, Julia Gillard gets a private plated, fully maintained motor car as a part of her salary package.

There are guidelines for its use, but its well within the guidelines for her partner Tim Mathieson to drive the car, as long as he's licenced, sober and authorised by Ms Gillard. But Ms Gillard is our employee, she's the person on the payroll and she is personally accountable for the car we provide her.

The PM's office has plenty of government cars available for official government work. Ms Gillard's private car is not one of them, it's hers and hers alone, and she is responsible for it to you and me, her employers.

On Sunday, News Limited newspapers carried the story about Ms Gillard's personal car being pinged for 8 traffic offences in what turns out be just over 3 months. It was an interesting story - 8 times in just over 3 months is a pretty bad record and we were all curious to know who was driving. The other ministers fessed up, so why not Ms Gillard?

So several media organisations asked Ms Gillard's office a simple question. Who was driving?

No person in Australia is better able to answer that question than Ms Gillard. It's her car. She has to personally approve anyone driving it. In the absence of a nominated driver it's Ms Gillard who is responsible for her car.

So how is this for a convoluted answer to a simple question. Linda Silmalis of the Daily Telegraph was told:

While other MPs disclosed how the fines were incurred and by whom, Ms Gillard's office referred inquiries to Special Minister of State Gary Gray, whose office passed the matter to the Finance and Deregulation Department.

The department has requested an application under Freedom of Information laws before it will reveal the details.

What? This is a personal matter for Ms Gillard's personal car. Who was driving it Prime Minister? It's on your salary package, you are accountable for it. It's just not logical that bureaucrats several departments away would know more about your domestic relationship at home with your family than you do.

How much government time, bureaucrat time, correspondence and drama was being created because Julia Gillard would not answer a simple question. Who was driving your car when it was pinged?

So on Sunday night, I wrote a blog piece encouraging you, as taxpayers to write and ask Ms Gillard yourself. She works for you, after all.

Here's a sample of one of our readers' notes.

From:
Sent: Monday, 7 January 2013 7:39 AM
To: FOI
Subject: Prime Minister Julia Gillard's taxpayer-subsidised private car

Dear Sir / Madam

I am requesting information under the FOI Act in relation to traffic
infringements evidently incurred by the driver(s) of the Prime
Minister's private (government funded) car during 2012.

Please provide me the names of the driver(s).....

The fines have been paid. The work has been done. The PM's office knows who was driving, and they know that you are entitled to know too. It would take Ms Gillard all of 5 seconds with her PA to say - "let them know it was Tim, he was done 8 times on cameras", or whatever the truth is.

I'd do that. Come clean. Tell the truth early, get it out of the way. But is that even close to what happened?

Can you believe we are even talking about this? Here is the response, officially typed up, that our blog reader received from the Prime Minister's taxpayer funded legal team.

From: FOI [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, January 07, 2013 2:14 PM
To:
Cc: FOI
Subject: FOI/2013/007 - RE: Prime Minister Julia Gillard's
taxpayer-subsidised private car [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

Dear Mx xxxxxx,

Please see the attached correspondence in relation to your FOI request.

Regards

Jasminder Higgins
FOI Adviser
Legal Policy Branch
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

And accompanying the email was this high-falutin' letter.

Can you believe it? How could another government department have a better insight into who drives the Gillard car down the shops than the Gillard family?

Just like the questions I sent Ms Gillard about the AWU-WRA in September, 2011, questions she refused to answer. Just like the follow-up questions I've sent. Or Andrew Bolt has sent. Or Hedley Thomas has sent. There's a pattern here of something a lot less than the truth being served up.

This business with the car is embarrassingly simple, she should have told the reporter on the weekend and it would all be over. There would have been flack for a few days, then it's dealt with. Instead, another cover up that will stay in place for a while and will allow "media management" of when and how the "rubbish is taken out" to quote my favourite spin-doctor.

DATE	EVENT/DOCUMENT
1990	Julia Gillard becomes a Partner at Slater and Gordon and is in the Industrial Relations Department of law firm
20-08-91	Letter to Bruce Wilson from Julia Gillard concerning a vacancy at the AWU
1-05-91	Julia Gillard brought her property at 36 Phillip Street, Abbotsford Vic property settled in July and she borrowed $40,000 from Slater & Gordon for the deposit and the rest from Westpac bank
6-03-92	Advertisement appeared in the paper for Incorporating the Workplace Reform Association - Theiss may have used it for reference

17-03-92	Locals concerned the Accident and Death Fund was being used to buy property and office equipment with the funds they paid into the fund.
18-03-92	Boulder fund suspended
15-05-92	Bruce Wilson and Julia Gillard go to a meeting with the miners in Kalgoorlie
18-05-92	AWU announce it is taking over the fund at Boulder paper article
13-02-93	Contract of sale signed by Bruce Wilson
13-02-93	Purchase of 85 Kerr Street Fitzroy by Julia Gillard and B Wilson who attended the Auction
13-02-93	blewitt-getting-his-addres.html Purchase of 85 Kerr Street Fitzroy by Julia Gillard and Bruce Wilson who attended the Auction
15-02-93	Letter to Slater & Gordon about the 1/85 Kerr Street sale
15-02-93	Ralph Blewitt is appointed Western Australian Branch Secretary in the week 15 to 19 February
16-02-93	Olive Brosnan and Heidi chasing up the Power of Attorney - notes
17-02-93	Olive Brosnan makes this further note regarding Heidi, a sales person with the Real Estate firm GA Thomson. Note that Heidi returns the call and says that she will let Olive Brosnan have the original Power of Attorney (when she gets it?) and will need a certified copy in return
22-02-93	Slater and Gordon acknowledges that it has received the Contract of Sale, Section 32 Statement and the Power of Attorney from GA Thomson.
23-02-93	Olive Brosnan certifies Power of Attorney
3-03-93	A memo from Sylvia to Olive Brosnan about the application for the loan for Ralph Blewitt and the Kerr Street property
4-03-93	Letter/fax from Hewitt & Company stating Ralph Blewitt Wages Ref VB/CS
9-03-93	Memo to Olive Brosnan from Sylvia about the loan approval and the return of the chq for $500 from Ralph Blewitt’s personal account
10-03-93	Letter from Slater & Gordon addressed to Ralph Blewitt explaining mortgage details Page 1, Page 2, Page 3
10-03-93	Memo Julia Gillard wants details of penalty interest rates
12-03-93	Memo to Julia Gillard from Olive Brosnan about penalty interest rates
17-03-93	Memo of fees for house - Bill of costs
18-03-93	Letter to Ralph Blewitt requesting Cheque for $67,772.30
18-03-93	The cheque for $67,772.30
22-03-93	Settlement date for Kerr Street purchase
23-03-93	Land Transfer document
31-03-94	Dawesville project costs
Aug-Sept 94	Julia Gillard went on holidays while Bruce Wilson organised house renovations
Aug-Sept 94	Interview with Slater & Gordon about the Renovations
6-02-95	New bank accounts for Construction Fund
17-02-95	AWU-FIME amalgamate (2 Victorian Branches)
12-04-95	Cheque from AWU WRAI account $46,550
27-04-95	Cheque for $15000 - $10 000 for K Spyridis and $5000 cash
30-06-95	AWU went back to central funding arrangements
25-07-95	Letter from Robert Smith (AWU) to Ian Cambridge and Steve Harrison about the unknown AWU bank accounts
27-07-95	Letter to the National Executives about the freezing of the accounts
2-08-95	Union National Finance committee meet to discuss what was going on start of investigations into the frozen accounts
4-08-95	Bob Smith wrote to Ian Cambridge to say the AWU was going to charge Bruce Wilson
10-08-95	Ian Cambridge visits QC Richard Kenzie from Maurice Blackburn for discussions to fix it (get union money back)
14-08-95	Internal Review into Julia Gillard’s involvement of the AWU -WRA and she is put on restricted duties
14/15 Aug 95	Other Joint secretaries of the Unions paid out the signatories of the accounts - hand writing on the cheques Link 1 Link 2
16-08-95	Bruce Wilson redundancy cheque $55,204
17-08-95	Letter to stop the cheques Ian Cambridge
17/18 Aug 95	All accounts were closed bar 2 general and grants accounts and redundancies given out
18-08-95	Affidavit - Bill Ludwig - Bruce Wilson get sprung
11-09-95	Julia Gillard interviewed by Geoff Shaw, Peter Gordon and Nick Styant-Browne at Slater and Gordon - It’s recorded and she goes on leave of Absence until May 96 (WA AWU-WRA not yet discovered by AWU yet)
31-01-96	Ian Cambridge addresses AWU Qld Branch meeting
3-04-96	Ian Cambridge talked with Commonwealth Bank - Diary entry - Discovery of Workplace Reform Association INC. WA branch
6-05-96	Discovery of Accounts in AWU name by Ian Cambridge letter from Commonwealth Bank
7-05-96	Fax from Com bank listing the accounts in the AWU name - for Ian Cambridge
1-06-96	Newspaper article about Joe Trio and the AWU fraud article from sometime in 1996
3-06-96	Ian Cambridge received bank records after the discussions with the bank back in April Ian Cambridge spoke to AWU Officials in Perth and they never heard of the Workplace Reform Association Inc.
5-07-96	Diary entry Ian Cambridge - spoke to Branch Official Russell Frearson about the $400,000 going through the account
31-07-96	Geoff Shaw Slater & Gordon General Manager gets Subpoena to supply all documents relating to purchase of 1/85 Kerr Street
13-08-96	Court proceeding where Geoff Shaw is to produce the documents from the Subpeona Link 1, Link 2
6-01-97	Memo from Investigating Detective Dave McAlpine about the AWU fraud
6-02-97	Memo to fraud squad from Theiss stating they hadn’t been defrauded Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4
17-02-98	Memo fraud squad about Theiss - Ralph Blewitt said Theiss auditors required that the WRA needed to be Inc.

The Prime Minister's judgement with our motor car

Wednesday, 09 January 2013

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