Abbott must be 'open' on slush fund: PM
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has called for Opposition Leader Tony Abbott to provide a "complete, open and transparent" account of his role in establishing a political slush fund 14 years ago.Ms Gillard has accused Mr Abbott of "stonewalling" in the face of repeated questioning over the fund.
"I think all of us would be happy to give the opposition leader the benefit of the doubt, but in order to do that he has to give us a full explanation and what we've had from the opposition leader over the last few weeks is just a lot of stone walling," Ms Gillard told the Nine Network.
"What I'll be suggesting to the opposition leader is, give us a full, complete, open and transparent account of these dealings and of your professional integrity as an member of parliament."
This story is the first four paras of an AAP story published on November 23 in Fairfax, called 'PM must be 'open' on slush fund: Abbott', in which we have merely swapped the names of the leaders and the funds.
Of course, we're still waiting for the mainstream media to ask Tony Abbott the pertinent questions – and for him to provide some answers – about his alleged criminal conduct in the Australians for Honest Politics Slush Fund Scandal.
Is there a double standard going on here? You decide.
(Credit to Margo Kingston for suggesting the above concept. All the relevant material in the ‘Abbott fund’ archive of Margo's Sydney Morning Herald’s Webdiary may be found by clicking here. A detailed timeline of the Abbott fund and subsequent communications between Tony Abbott and Margo Kingston are in Chapters 15 and 16 of her book ‘Not Happy, John’ (Penguin 2004, 2007), along with a summarised version online here. See also http://australiansforhonestpolitics.wordpress.com and http://otiose94.wordpress.com/. Read Margo Kingston's recent piece for IA 'Tony Abbott and his slushy character question' here.)
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