‘Oversight’ takes on new meaning.
All last week it’s been it goes to his character from the government, when we ask why we should take an interest in the character assassination on Kevin Rudd and who he has dinner with.
Then came news of Ian Campbell and his meeting with Rudd’s dinner man. Then we heard of Santo Santoro’s shares in a biotechnology company.
Our PM had earlier this week sacked Campbell and defended Santoro over news he had failed to disclose a share deal which had a conflict of interest with his portfolio responsibilities for the aged.
“I do not believe that the failure to get rid of these shares was… and other matters relating to them was anything other than inadvertent. Once the failure to expose them entered his (Senator Santoro’s) consciousness and he became aware of it, he took immediate steps, and he was quite open. And he got rid of them and profit was made, but it was not retained and he donated the profit to a charity. And I think that was the right thing to do.” – John HoWARd.
“There is no excuse for somebody not complying with the rules. I can accept you can overlook one, but you can’t overlook a score or more, no-one is going to believe that and he (Senator Santoro) doesn’t claim that.” – John HoWARd.
So, as I understand it, and analysing HoWARd’s logic and behaviour, he does not actually value rules, or codes of conduct. He operates on a Can I/we get away with it’ mentality. If that falls over there exists an arbitrary, unknown number where the ‘no excuses’ rule has to kick in.
Your behaviour is fundamentally dishonest- honest John.
Well it’s either that or John HoWARd is a poor judge of character.
Either way, I have seen enough of John HoWARd’s character to say no thank you.
Update: 1,2,3 and 4 remain an oversight
Image from here
March 17th, 2007 at 7:17 am
Santoro’s matey-mates deal with the federal funding which begat the sweetheart biotech shares deal should be indictable all by itself.
This is but ONE of 60 stock transactions Santy failed to report per his Senate obligations.
The honourable thing to do when a senator is caught out politically manipulating federal funds is apologise profusely, resign and lay realllly low for a while and hope charges are not forthcoming.
However, when you think about what WorkChoices did for Howard’s fatcat mates, the Santoro ethical conflict is spit in the sea, isn’t it?
March 17th, 2007 at 8:04 am
The latest in this saga has the PM angry and annoyed at Santoro.
I find this astounding.
John HoWARd, and his senior ministers- Abbott, Downer and Costello act as a cultural incubator. The culture they espouse is definitely not transparent or open.
If HoWARd et al want to see better behaviour, then they should lead by example.
March 18th, 2007 at 11:59 am
Well said Soooooooooooooooooooooki !
He is totally dishonest. He claims economic success and fiscal prudence. The economic engine is driven by the States – all under Labour Governments. He advocates professionalism and plays dirty pool. He lies about fundamentally important issues, cleverly manipulating the English Language to his advantage.
The nation drives on the left. Howard drives on “what’s left” ! He drains every last drop out of the sponge, robbing the Australian people with his smart suit, nice tie striped to to the right, Reeboks and eloquence.
He feigns sanctity yet is selective about patronage.
The mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favoured few booted and spurred ready to ride them legitimately. He was not born to rule.
March 19th, 2007 at 6:53 am
Very, very eloquent Red Ink.
I agree and loved it.
Your bit
The mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favoured few booted and spurred ready to ride them legitimately.
Made me think of the Leunig quote:
“Man is born free, but everywhere he is in (Fast Food) chains”
My highlight of the dirty tricks mud throwing was the Brian Burke scandal – which actually cost the Liberals a senator, but had little effect on Labour.
March 20th, 2007 at 8:31 pm
Suki:
And I’ll bet no charges are laid or Royal Commissions instigated, none.
March 20th, 2007 at 9:21 pm
Dave C Says:… the Brian Burke scandal – which actually cost the Liberals a senator…
Didn’t HoWARd do a reshuffle a few weeks before Campbell ‘resigned’? I believe Campbell was part of that reshuffle, just executed a bit after the fact and with a very different justification proffered than for the others i.e. dropping Amounda (oh, and that was… why?)
March 21st, 2007 at 4:00 am
Weez.
It wouldn’t suprise me.
March 21st, 2007 at 6:28 am
Santoro wasn’t rueful at all and I believe this was his downfall. HoWARd would not be tolerating any of that sort of hubris.
When we compare his excuses and actions to that of the self flagellating Senator Campbell…
Then there’s Santoro’s exit speech-
“I also am most distressed that my failure to comply with reporting requirements has represented a distraction from the achievements of the Howard Government. Nonetheless it is part of the current political environment, where scrutiny is only applied in one direction and where we have reached an unprecedented double standard, that my continued presence here presents an excuse for that double standard to be played out in the nation’s papers on a daily basis.” – Source.
HoWARd himself will need to be squeaky clean!
This should be fun.
March 23rd, 2007 at 7:37 pm
Translation from Politicalese to English:
HoWARd of course will be squeaky- but not every Lieberal known to Don Santoro will be so angelic. Look for damning leaks on those folks ahead of the Federal elections.
March 24th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
Suki and All:
Up here in The Smart State, the ever-wise Liberal Party has just discovered the folly of not having a swag of contingency plans …. instead of putting up a prospective senator immediately to the Queensland Government they have to go through a full-blown pre-selection sqabble [ for a Santoro protege perhaps?] and in doing so have given the Queensland Government perfectly legitimate excuses to take their time over the process. Of course, if a crisis brings about an earlier-than-expected federal election, Queensland will be one Senator short.
They might be terrific at plotting ….. but contingency planning? Well, you can’t have everything 🙂 L-O-L