You might wonder why people may be skeptical of news pushed by Channel 9 and other commercial stations.

[youtube]fUryKmSZwuQ[/youtube]

Depends where you draw the line between a media circus and the media doing their job in keeping the government honest.
Let be frank here for a second. If this story broke at any other time in any other parliament, the PM would have told the guy to step down and we'd have had a by-election in Dobell. The only reason it's been allowed to drag on is the hung parliament. Gillard needs his vote so he stays.
And for anyone who wants to complain about due process, that's already been corrupted by the inordinate amount of time it took Fair Work Australia to investigate. Let's see, a body created by the Labor government sent to investigate a Labor minister, all of a sudden forgets how to do it's job properly, waiting for the statue of limitations to run out before it bothers doing anything.
And there is nothing here for the media to persue?

f1wc, I'd like to hear from you what your view of what laws Thompson has broken if all allegations are proven true?

the thing here is......you can act unethically and immorally and not break any laws.....

Pretty sure if they are all true then he could be done for fraud.

The media should pursue the truth but thats not happening. They are buying stories of people instead of investigating. How about they find video footage of the incident? Instead of investigating the media is commentating. There is a big difference.

That's pretty much the standard definition of a politician, isn't it?

AEC only found a very small amount was unaccounted for/unreported.

don't you think it's a bit bodgey to be using $270,000 worth of union members fee's to further his personal political aspirations???

I think there are plenty of things that are a bit 'bodgey' about this. That's never been in question.

Then again, there are plenty of 'bodgey' things in our political system that are ignored because it doesn't suit the agenda of the day.

RJL, is it OK with you if I make fun of batfink for using made up words like 'bodgey'?

+1. It doesn't matter what Thompson says. The media has already made up its mind.

is bodgey a made up word??????

arent all words originally made up?????

aww now im confused

i have made my mind up as well....he is a grub.....

Was it grubby of Chris Pyne to coerce Ashby into making up things about Slipper?

well that is an assumption.........

i think there is a little more substance behind the thomson and slipper affairs......

and even if Pyne did help him with his decision doesn't make the harrassment any less does it?????

im pretty sure labor would have persuaded him to take action as well......

I still think the ~$16,000 is a little suspicious - but I find it quite ironic that we keep hearing the media who are pushing for the truth in this matter to continue to raise the entire amount.

pretty sure if it was me and i had been setup i would have gone to the authorities well before a drawn out 4 year investigation and report, and his story about being framed has never surfaced during these 4 years until now?????

anyway.....who cares...

Oh I think it stinks like a dodgy fish market, but then about the only politicians I don't think that about is the one I went to school with (he is a state Liberal btw) and a select few others.

I'm still looking for a fault in Adam Bandt. I wish I could vote for him in my new electorate.

yeah....sad really.......

You do, clearly, because you're advocating destroying the tenant of our justice system that allows for all accused to be presumed innocent until proven guilty of a crime.

not at all...just don't think the shitbags should be protected by parlimentry privledge and the parties they represent.....

you do realise that the only reason that no charges have been laid is because the HSU hasnt asked for any to be laid........and that is unlikely because they are a union and support Labor.....

Peter Costello has argued that the current Parliament would be remembered as the ''sleaze Parliament'' rather than the ''sunshine Parliament'', and that "a minority government protects conduct that should not be tolerated".

These statements are provocative, and wrong. This power-sharing government has simply exposed conduct that has been tolerated, and shielded, by past governments – including those that included Mr Costello.

While it is politically uncomfortable, and perhaps even ugly, it is now at least being dealt with. This is something previous Parliaments should have done, could have done, but didn't.

Much of the sleaze that this 43rd Parliament is exposing happened in the 40th Parliament, when Mr Costello was deputy Liberal leader in government.

Mr Costello supported the pre-selection of Peter Slipper on several occasions. Throughout his opinion piece, Mr Costello makes mention of historical allegations of travel rorts, yet makes no mention of what was known to him at the time.

What sunshine did he shine on issues during successive majority Parliaments at that time or since?

It was some 10 years ago that allegations about video evidence concerning Mr Slipper were reportedly brought to the attention of senior Liberal advisers. What did Mr Costello know and what did he do about it? Was this alleged behaviour "tolerated" by Mr Costello and his parliamentary colleagues?

These issues are not personal. Mr Costello, as treasurer, did contribute to Australia's current economic success. But this power-sharing government hasn't stopped further success, having secured AAA ratings from the three big ratings agencies and, for the first time in 40 years, having unemployment, inflation and the cash rate all below 5 per cent.

Like the economy, these issues of integrity are not partisan either. The Health Services Union activities concerning Craig Thomson, now in question before this Parliament, occurred between 2003 and 2006. They remained largely hidden from view during the time of the Rudd government.

But what did the Liberal Party know before 2007? The former Liberal MP for Dobell, beaten at the 2007 ballot, is now taking the extraordinary step of claiming ''loss of earnings'' on the grounds that he was shown a ''dirt file'' on Craig Thomson by his own Liberal colleagues.

Collating dirt files for election campaigns is party politics at its worst – and certainly not ''sunshine''.
Clearly, the issues the 43rd Parliament is dealing with today could have, and should have, been dealt with by former governments, including Mr Costello's.

It's politically convenient for some to lay the blame on this Parliament. But all this Parliament has done is expose the sins of the past, and hold them up for all to see.

Mr Costello's article is not commentary about current affairs – it is selective memory about political matters that he should have helped to resolve when he had the chance.

Professional commentators have seen this week's events very differently to Mr Costello.

On the same day as Mr Costello's argument, The Australian Financial Review's Geoff Kitney wrote: "For an all too brief moment, some clear light shone in Federal Parliament yesterday on the murky, smelly mess that is the Thomson affair."

The very same day, The Australian's Gabrielle Chan wrote that "Oakeshott moved a matter of public importance yesterday, calling for a censure of Thomson ... And with that debate, for almost two hours, a shaft of light shone through the crack in the edifice of parliament."

For all the power that Mr Costello had as Australian treasurer and deputy leader of the Liberal Party, what did he do to combat what he refers to as the "sleaze, travel rorts and sexual harassment" of those Parliaments he sat in? It is only since he has left Parliament that these matters have been exposed.

Sure, sunlight can be damaging – but it sure beats the darkness of Parliaments past.

Rob Oakeshott is the independent federal MP for Lyne.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/the-murky-legacy-of-past-parliaments-20120524-1z6xh.html#ixzz1vldf0Uub

id would crawl through 1000 metres of broken glass to have costello in charge of australia.........top class man

I'm shocked

If Costello had been leader of the Libs last election 'The Real Julia Gillard' would never have been given the chance to form Government.

I always thought the real Julia gillard was a backstabbing bitch.