The Xenophon apology. Left-wingers don't lie, so how did this happen?
Friday, 27 February 2015
We know from the Royal Commission's findings that left-wingers don't engage in fraud, here's Royal Commissioner John Dyson Heydon AC QC commenting on Julia Gillard's non-propensity for dishonesty:
But Julia Gillard did not know it was fraudulent. Had she known the truth, she probably would have been shocked. She would have terminated the retainer – and not only the retainer. In 1992 she was a young woman. She had ability. She had honourable ambitions. One ambition was professional – to become a leading light in Slater & Gordon, in which she had already risen fast, and which had been growing fast. Another was political – to enter Parliament. It is notorious that she had had a long and successful career in student politics. As early as 1993 she stood for pre-selection for the seat of Melbourne – then a safe Labor seat. Only two years later she stood for the Senate. Both her professional ambitions and her political ambitions would have suffered a severe setback if she became involved in fraud. She had every reason, professional and political, to avoid being involved in fraud. Further, her counsel urged that her reputation be taken into account.123 She had the reputation, merited or not, of being very left-wing. Robert Kernohan claims that William Shorten said on numerous occasions that he despised her ‘because of her links to the Communist Party’.124 People with a left-wing reputation are usually keen to preserve it by avoiding involvement in fraudulent conduct. If she had known of Bruce Wilson’s and Ralph Blewitt’s frauds, it would have been an act of insensate folly to have gone along with them. It is quite improbable that she committed that act of folly.