Thursday, December 01, 2005
How Much Trouble Is Birney In?
Liberal Leader Matt Birney has been ordered to appear before a Parliamentary Privileges Committee over his allegedly secretly adding details to his financial disclosure file in the Parliament. There has been intense media coverage of the issue with Labor and Liberal each accusing the other of grubby behaviour and dirty politics.
The matter seems fairly innocuous at first glance - Birney maintains he was ADDING material to clarify his true position and there is nothing in the matter. Labor claims he has altered a public record and possibly faces serious criminal charges.
What clouds the issue even more is the convenient timing of the addition. At the height of the Kucera share scandal the ALP queried the completeness of Birney's disclosure. Birney then added the material and claimed all his details were on file. The ALP knew they hadn't been there before.
The surprising thing from this writer's persective is that the Nationals who would normally form a coalition with the Liberals to form a government apparently sided with the ALP today to send Birney before the Committee and voted to include independent Liz Constable on the ommittee knowing that she and Birney were bitter opponents.
If the Nationals can't bring themselves to support Birney then perhaps he's in more trouble than he's letting on!
The matter seems fairly innocuous at first glance - Birney maintains he was ADDING material to clarify his true position and there is nothing in the matter. Labor claims he has altered a public record and possibly faces serious criminal charges.
What clouds the issue even more is the convenient timing of the addition. At the height of the Kucera share scandal the ALP queried the completeness of Birney's disclosure. Birney then added the material and claimed all his details were on file. The ALP knew they hadn't been there before.
The surprising thing from this writer's persective is that the Nationals who would normally form a coalition with the Liberals to form a government apparently sided with the ALP today to send Birney before the Committee and voted to include independent Liz Constable on the ommittee knowing that she and Birney were bitter opponents.
If the Nationals can't bring themselves to support Birney then perhaps he's in more trouble than he's letting on!
