Those of us puzzled by the Heydon Gang’s decision to clear Bill Shorten of all criminal hypotheses months ahead of schedule need only look at the timing.
He had given, that day, his most momentous speech, declaring Labor’s unchanged revulsion at the GST (shared by most voters) and its coming war on rich tax dodgers like Turnbull. The headlines had to be averted somehow. And so, on a Friday evening, months before the official finding came down, Bill was generously pardoned and his nation-changing speech that same day went unreported, and was not the headline.
And the Heydon Gang (cost, thus far, $60 million) then accused Bill’s successor, Cesar Melhem, of criminality – of course they did – but made no mention of Kathy Jackson, a Liberal voter, stealing $1.4 million from her union and spending part of it on her several stays in a plush psychiatric institutution, nor of her lover, Michael Lawler, spending $300,000 of the taxpayers’ money on "sick leave" looking after her and her various court appeals and buying real estate with a sea view.
What the 'Shorten Bounds Free' headline did was abolish from human memory Bill’s policies and remind the public of the false charges of which he was guiltless, which no other headline would have done, in a familiar, slimy, Murdoch way.
And there is a reason for this.
It is clear now Turnbull has erred mightily. His economic salesman Morrison is a goose and he himself is in the crosshairs of history as a tax avoider, in the Caymans, like many others, of tens of millions owed Australia while prating of "tax fairness" for other, lesser, poorer punters.
And the subject had to be changed to Shorten’s past iniquities – not that he was guilty of them – and his policies airbrushed from public discussion lest it be seen how good they were.
Or perhaps you disagree.
Bill Shorten's office rejects royal commission apology for 'unacceptable' late-night clearing https://t.co/vCDp1DMhF9 via @abcnews
— BigAl (@banas51) November 9, 2015
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
Monthly Donation
Single Donation
#TURC declares @billshortenmp cleared in middle of the night when everyone's asleep https://t.co/oUDNzlQAxv #auspol pic.twitter.com/q6N2Sy41GG
— David Feeney (@Feeney4Batman) November 7, 2015
