Ute Gate Political Scandal

Australian police yesterday said an email at the centre of a scandal that has rocked the country’s politics was a fake, blowing a hole in opposition calls for Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to resign.
The apparent forgery in the “Utegate” scandal was revealed after a police raid on the home of Godwin Grech, a senior treasury official whose testimony to a senate inquiry sparked the row.
“Preliminary results of those forensic examinations indicate that the email referred to at the centre of this investigation has been created by a person or persons other than the purported author of the email,” a police statement said.
The announcement capped a day of high political drama with Rudd, Treasurer Wayne Swan and opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull, whose jobs were all on the line, embroiled in furious exchanges in parliament.
Turnbull’s argument now appears seriously weakened after he spent days calling for Rudd’s job, basing claims that he misled parliament on the discredited email.
The note, supposedly sent by Rudd’s economic adviser and published by weekend newspapers here, had appeared to back up allegations that the prime minister helped a car-dealer friend seek government funds.
But Rudd dismissed the correspondence as “false, fictitious and a forgery” and turned the attack on the opposition, describing the events as the “sordid Turnbull email forgery affair.”
“This fraudulent email was the rock on which the leader of the opposition has constructed his case against me and the Treasurer,” Rudd said.
As the politicians argued in parliament, police searched Grech’s home with the help of IT experts, later announcing that the email in question appeared fake.
A “ute” or utility vehicle, is Australia’s ubiquitous two-seater car with a flat-bed back
The emails, sent in April and May, concern two unnamed car dealers and their need for assistance with finance under the OzCar scheme, and were circulated among a number of top treasury officials, Rudd’s office and the Motor Trades Association of Australia.

*Source Macau Daily Times

In the light of the carry-on in Canberra in what has become known as Ute-gate, it is clear, as David Crowe in the Financial Review wrote yesterday, that other car dealers did not receive the attention extended to Mr Grant by the Rudd Government.

Mention was made of a South Australian rural dealership faced with receivership, the dealer’s Liberal MP Rowan Ramsey raised the case with the office of the Treasurer, Wayne Swan.  There was no help from Canberra.  A Melbourne car dealer had his matter raised by his Liberal MP with Treasury, no one called back.

Unlike what happened to Mr Grant, neither the Melbourne car dealer nor the South Australian car dealer got any e-mails directly from Government, the Treasury or the Treasurer’s office.  Whether or not a particular e-mail is found or is a fake is almost irrelevant.  Other e-mails indicate the pattern of behaviour, and there is sufficient evidence to show that statements made to the Parliament about the affair by Mr Rudd and Mr Swan are untrue.  Put simply, Mr Grant was given special treatment.

As Piers Akerman wrote yesterday, all the rest is humbug.  But this has raised in the minds of many the infamous Heiner affair in Queensland.  This was about covering up child abuse, the pack rape of a 14 year old indigenous girl 20 years ago in 1989.  She was gang-raped by inmates at the John Oxley Youth Detention Centre while she was in the care of the Queensland Government.  Some of the rapists confessed, but no charges were pressed.  When Russell Cooper ran the National Party Government he directed a former magistrate, Noel Heiner, to inquire into the rape.  That was shut down when the Goss Government came to power.

The documents collected by Heiner in relation to the matter were destroyed on the orders of the Goss Cabinet on March 5, 1990.  Kevin Rudd was Wayne Goss’s chief of staff and subsequently became Director General of his Cabinet office.  The infamous Heiner affair is about the destruction of evidence relating to a police investigation into the rape.  Kevin Rudd and Peter Beattie both claimed that the shredding of the documents needed no further investigations.  But the shredding of the documents has never been investigated.  The girl was not only raped, but denied her legal rights by the Queensland Police.

On the 23rd of August, 2007 former Premier Beattie had delivered to him a statement of concern about the Heiner affair signed by five eminent judges.  Those judges were the former Chief Justice of Western Australia, David Malcolm, two retired New South Wales Chief Judges, Jack Lee, now deceased and Dr Frank McGrath, and two retired New South Wales Supreme Court judges, Roddy Meagher and Barry O’Keefe.  The legal academic and barrister Alistair Macadam also signed the statement of concern.  And the statement of concern urged Peter Beattie to appoint a special prosecutor to examine the Heiner Affair.

The prominent Sydney QC David Rofe conducted a two year audit of the matter which ran to 3,000 pages and nine volumes.  And he concluded that there were 67 unaddressed alleged prima facie criminal charges against the Goss Cabinet and civil servants that needed to be urgently addressed.  But the simple question that everyone’s been asking is, why wouldn’t Kevin Rudd seek an inquiry into the attacks on the girl and offer an explanation as to why the documents were destroyed.  What happened at the John Oxley Youth Detention Centre has never been properly investigated.  Now there are expensive inquiries being set up in Canberra, obviously designed to protect Mr Rudd’s proclaimed innocence.

People are now asking as Prime Minister, what inquiry is he prepared to set up to protect the right to justice of a now 34 year old indigenous woman who was pack raped 20 years ago in Queensland.  The Ute-gate issue is about whether or not the Rudd Government is prepared to use its offices to do special favours for its mates.  A 34 year old indigenous woman in Queensland is not seeking special favours.  She’s seeking justice.  After 20 years it remains elusive.  That is what is now known as the Heiner affair.

*Source Macquarie National News

Its all about a ute an email and allegations of political abuse Now the Federal Police are involved it has started investigating the alleged faked email at the heart of the furore over the Ozcar fund.  The Government says the Opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull must quit if he cant produce this socalled email that allegedly shows the Prime Minister’s office contacted Treasury on behalf of a Queensland car dealer John Grant.  But the Opposition wants the treasurer Wayne Swan to resign saying he has misled parliament.

There was no love lost between Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull over the OzCar email debate in parliament.

We thought that we would break the monotony of the political juggernaut to bring you this story about Miranda Kerr posing nude.  I mean, seriously, uh.. we had to do it.

JUST weeks after model Miranda Kerr stripped bare to ameliorate the plight of koalas, she has again appeared nude.

And this time there’s no native fauna nearby.

The 26-year-old proved she can definitely leave her hat on, with a series of photographs from next year’s Pirelli Calendar becoming an instant Internet sensation.

The photographs were lifted from the latest edition of Italian Vanity Fair magazine.

They document the making of the provocative 2010 calendar. There is also an accompanying video.

Pictures: Miranda goes star-Kerrs, along with Pirelli calendar girls

Pictures: Sexy Miranda

Pictures: Miranda goes bare for koalas

Kerr stars alongside fellow Australian models Abbey Lee Kershaw and Catherine McNeil in the shoot.

While much was made of Kerr’s nude Rolling Stone cover a fortnight ago, most of her modesty was strategically covered.

Pictures: Catherine McNeil

But not here.

While bare breasts are a staple of the sought-after calendar, the picture of McNeil is highly suggestive. The 20-year-old is photographed pouring milk over her breasts and body.

Shock: Miranda Kerr, Catherine McNeil nude pic row

The 2010 calendar’s photographer, American Terry Richardson, has a dubious reputation for his overtly sexual work, often with teenagers.

Kathy Ward, of Chic Management – the trio’s Australian agency – said the shoot took place in Brazil two months ago. Ward said she was surprised the behind-the-scenes photographs had become such a sensation.

She said she had not spoken to the girls since they did the shoot.

“They’ve all been so busy overseas we haven’t really chatted but, from what I’ve heard, I believe the shoot went well,” she said.

“It’s interesting that the photos have come out.

“Usually there’s such tight security surrounding Pirelli that no images are revealed before the launch of the calendar.”

More photos from the shoot are expected to be released in November, prior to the calendar’s release.

The Pirelli Calendar is not for sale but is given as a corporate gift.

*Source news.com.au