Pickering vs Gillard

[Neferti]

"A well-told tale - with some new twists - is returning to haunt Julia Gillard.

It is a lurid tale involving an old political cartoonist, a retired lawyer, the Prime Minister and her former boyfriend, an alleged fraudster.

If you believe the cartoonist, Larry Pickering, whose dislike for Julia Gillard is palpable in his sometimes obscene cartoons, the scandalous details could finally bring down the Prime Minister.

But if you don't buy the claims Pickering is peddling about Ms Gillard when she was a Slater & Gordon lawyer acting for her then lover, Bruce Wilson - an alleged embezzler of Australian Workers Union funds - why hasn't she done anything to stop his vitriolic missives?

The case became even more intriguing yesterday when a former Slater & Gordon equity lawyer, Nick Styant-Browne, told The Australian that Ms Gillard had lost her job after an internal investigation by the law firm into work she had done for Mr Wilson. He said that, in a recorded interview, Ms Gillard said she could not categorically rule out she had personally benefited from union funds in the renovation of her home - although she believed she had paid for all the work and produced receipts. Mr Styant-Browne said the partners took a very serious view about the matter ''and accepted her resignation''.



Read full article here:

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/nationa ... 24f3m.html

[Rorschach]

http://www.news.com.au/national/pm-juli ... 6453434111" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Rorschach]

Slush fund claims raise fresh leadership tension for Prime Minister Julia Gillard
* by: SIMON BENSON
* From: The Daily Telegraph
* August 20, 2012 12:00AM

Julia Gillard has refused to answer allegations she resigned from a law firm after a union scandal involving her then boyfriend.

PRIME Minister Julia Gillard is facing new leadership concerns among key cabinet and caucus supporters over the revival of an alleged 17-year-old union slush fund scandal involving her former boyfriend.
"I did nothing wrong. Have you got an allegation to put to me? If you do not, why are we discussing this?"

Senior government sources have confirmed that over the past two weeks a growing "unease" had crept into the Gillard camp about the scandal "blowing up" and crippling her leadership.

Those fears were compounded yesterday during a fiery interview on Sky's Australian Agenda, when Ms Gillard refused to address allegations raised against her.

"I did nothing wrong. Have you got an allegation to put to me? If you do not, why are we discussing this?" she said.

A SET of serious allegations have been made about the Prime Minister that, if true, would raise questions about her conduct as a union lawyer almost 20 years ago.

Ms Gillard has previously denied any knowledge that her then-boyfriend, Australian Workers Union State secretary Bruce Wilson, had allegedly ripped off a union fund that Ms Gillard had set up for him when she was a lawyer with Slater & Gordon in the early '90s.

She refused to answer claims yesterday that she was forced to resign from the firm following an internal investigation in August, 1995.

Instead she hit out at what she claimed was a "malicious and motivated" campaign against her.

Slater & Gordon late yesterday released a short statement, claiming to have been given permission by Ms Gillard, confirming it conducted a review into the AWU/Wilson affair.

"Ms Gillard co-operated fully with the review and denied any wrongdoing," the firm's managing director Andrew Grech said.

"The review found nothing which contradicted the information provided by Ms Gillard at the time in relation to the AWU/Bruce Wilson allegations and which she has stated consistently since the allegations were first raised."

It claimed that Ms Gillard took leave of absence following the review to campaign for the senate, before her employment officially ended on May 3, 1996 when she joined the office of Victorian Opposition Leader John Brumby.

Allegations were raised at the weekend by a former partner at the firm, Nick Styant-Browne, suggesting Ms Gillard may have acted improperly in helping set up a slush fund for Mr Wilson.

Mr Styant Browne claimed that Ms Gillard said in an interview as part of a formal review of the matter conducted by the firm in 1995, that she could not categorically rule out that she had personally benefited from union funds in the renovation of her Melbourne house.

Mr Styant-Browne said yesterday that he stood by the article and the claims made.

"I think what I have said speaks for itself.

"And I am not aware of any denial by the PM or her spokesperson of any specific allegation about what she said in the Slater & Gordon internal interview," he told The Daily Telegraph.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said Ms Gillard had "questions to answer" to the parliament. "I think there are real issues that the PM needs to address," he said.

[Rorschach]

Pretty simple really, if she is innocent of any wrong doing she just needs to make a full and frank disclosure.
Then it will be, end of story.

Other wise she's just fanning the fires of curiosity, and you know what they say, where there's smoke there is fire.