Charged or not...it is just another nail in her coffin
Prime Minister Julia Gillard as fairytale character Pinocchio. Illustration by Valdman. Source: The Advertiser
JULIA Gillard has proved she's a devious politician who couldn't lie straight in bed, writes Andrew Bolt.
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JULIA Gillard's disastrous performance on Four Corners on Monday is part of a disturbing pattern.
The question we now face: Is the Prime Minister of Australia a liar?
Julia Gillard deceives and, I believe, lies.
Here are the seven deadliest examples, starting with the one that first warned me Ms Gillard could not be trusted to tell the truth, even over something trivial.
The first: Just a part-time typist.
The Socialist Forum was a radical group that helped to bring former members of the Communist Party into the Labor Party.
In 2007, asked to explain her involvement, Ms Gillard said "many a long year ago" - and mostly when "I was a university student" - she'd merely done "part-time clerical and administrative work" for this "debating society".
In fact, she'd been on the forum's management committee, organising events and giving speeches.
The parliamentary register of interests states she remained a member of Socialist Forum from 1998 to 2002.
The second: I did not say that.
On July 6, 2010, Ms Gillard announced she'd talked to East Timor's president about her plan for a detention centre for boat people.
Her then immigration minister explained our "unauthorised boat arrivals will be returned to East Timor".
On July 8, after East Timor's prime minister said "what plan?", Ms Gillard rewrote history: "I did not say that ... I'm not going to leave undisturbed the impression that I made an announcement about a specific location."
On July 9, mocked for flip-flopping, Ms Gillard conceded: "I said in my speech that one possibility was a centre in East Timor."
The third: There will be no carbon tax.
Days before the 2010 election, Prime Minister Gillard promised: "There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead."
A year later, Ms Gillard had Parliament pass her carbon tax.
The fourth: Fooling Andrew Wilkie.
In 2010, independent MP Andrew Wilkie agreed to make Ms Gillard Prime Minister after she promised to make all poker machines have mandatory pre-commitment. Last month, Ms Gillard refused to put a Bill to Parliament.
The fifth: A bit of a lark.
In 2010, ABC journalist Annabel Crabb told a story of what appeared to be calculated deception that must have come from Ms Gillard.
In 1994, Ms Gillard was Labor's health spokesman, and "one night ... fired off a despairing text message to a friend, confessing exasperatedly that health was too confusing for her".
To her horror, she accidently sent the message to Tony Abbott, then the health minister.
Fearing he might embarrass her, she arranged to talk to a regional radio station.
"During the interview she laughingly confessed to having sent a tongue-in-cheek text message to her opponent feigning frustration with the minefield of health reform ...
"Had (it) been raised in Parliament, she would musically have read aloud from the transcript, demonstrating that the whole thing was a bit of a lark."
The sixth: The Marriage Act will stay unchanged.
Ms Gillard before the 2010 election promised that Labor, if re-elected, would not change the Marriage Act to allow same-sex marriage.
"We have determined as a Labor Party the Marriage Act will stay unchanged," she said.
A Labor MP this week introduced a private member's Bill to allow same-sex marriage, which Labor now supports.
Says Ms Gillard now: "The undertakings I gave to the churches are undertakings that I'm abiding by. There won't be a Government Bill."
The seventh: I did not plot.
Ms Gillard yesterday said she never plotted to remove Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister. "I made a decision to run for prime minister on the day I walked into Kevin Rudd's office and asked him for a ballot," she said.
But on Monday came the following exchange with Four Corners reporter Andrew Fowler.
Fowler: Did you know that people in your office, two weeks before Kevin Rudd was removed as Prime Minister, were preparing a (victory) speech that you subsequently delivered?
Gillard: Uh well, I did not ask for a speech to be prepared ...
Fowler: My question was simply whether or not you knew ...
Gillard: I heard your question and I've answered it.
So, is your Prime Minister a liar?
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[youtube]
www.youtube.com/watch?nomobile=1&v=Wl2JIDJNcxA[/youtube]
Do you really think there was only ONE reporter asking Brandis questions? Brandis called several by name! Did you read ALL the transcript or just bits?
