A tale of credibility over the S&G mortgage. You be the judge.
Thursday, 05 November 2015
Ralph Blewitt's credibility and reliability as a witness was marked down by the Commissioner who cited 3 examples/reasons for his conclusions:
A good instance is his evidence about the execution of the Power of Attorney.496 Another is his evidence about the presence of Bernard Murphy at a meeting.497 Another example involves his evidence that he had no or very limited knowledge of, or involvement in, the mortgage of the Kerr Street property.
The Commissioner was a little kinder to Julia Gillard, particularly on the issue of the Mortgage from her mentor Johnathon Rothfield for the purchase of the Kerr Street property.
On 11 September 1995 Ms Gillard was quizzed about the mortgage in her exit interview.
Peter Gordon: “Were you aware at any time that the balance of the funds to make up the capital was to be provided by contributory mortgage of which Jonathan Rothfield (a Slater & Gordon partner) was trustee?”
Julia Gillard: “I don’t, I don’t think I knew that at the time, where the source of funds was. It’s subsequently been raised with me that that was done through the Slater & Gordon mortgage register but I didn’t have any recollection of that.”
The partners at Slater and Gordon must have been materially concerned about the matter. Two days after her denial of 11 September, the partners at Slater and Gordon had a series of searches conducted, as Seeker of Truth comments:
seeker of truth said:
On 10 September 2014 Ms Gillard adopted the position she'd taken on 11 September 1995 regarding the Mortgage, i.e. by 1995 she had no recollection. Of this:
10 March 1993 - an offer document is prepared by Slater and Gordon;
Note that Bruce Wilson signs the document on the same day, accepting the offer of a mortgage.
There is no evidence that the document has been transmitted to Ralph Blewitt.
On that same day Julia Gillard's PA Leisha writes this memo:
Two days later Olivia responds:
Offer made - 10 March 1993. Accepted that same day by Bruce Wilson. Handwriting analysis would be useful here
Here
and in the Leisha note above.
Ms Gillard admits to asking about the interest penalty rates. She told the Royal Commission this:
It can't have escaped her attention either that she was one of the partners making the offer on letterhead.
But off she went, credibility intact while Ralph's was marked down on the same issue.
What now of you little man indeed.