This issue regarding the Qld car dealer and his mates Krudd and Swann is was looking like a very dangerous game for some people in high places in the government.  Regardless of the amounts involved, if an MP discusses specific recipients of government funding with their ministry especially when the specific recipient has a relationship with the MP, then this is dangerous territory.  And this applies regardless of the nature of the relationship – if an MP were to have a poor relationship with an applicant and wanted to disadvantage them, it would be the same as exerting influence to gain favor.  And this is regardless of whether the MP has received anything in the way of gifts or favors from the private citizen (or organization) in question.  If someone who is a minister or in a high position in the government attempts to exert this sort of influence, then it reflects poorly on the whole cabinet and is a clear sign that accountability is lax.  It is completely unacceptable.  Besides being the text book definition of corruption, pork barreling and nepotism, this sort of behavior actually runs fundamentally against how our system of government should work.  At all times parliament, the executive and the courts should operate independently of one another.  The example here is having a member of parliament trying to influence the decision making of the executive runs contrary to the fundamentals of how an accountable, fair and democratic government is to operate.  It is totally despicable.

Krudd and Swan must be thanking their lucky stars that the email has turned out to be an obvious fake, as they have not been performing particularly well in this fiasco.  Rudd’s response has been to challenge Turnbull to table the alleged email between Swann’s office in parliament or resign seemed like a ridiculous claim.  Even now saying the should resign is wrong, as Turnbull, not being an IT expert would have just taken the email on face value.  Also it was the media that had revealed the presence of the email and the Leader of the Opposition had asked the PM and Treasurer to be accountable regarding the email.  Yesterday’s attack was that Turnbull is inconsistent because he said that he heard about it in the media on Friday when it really came out on a Saturday. 

Is it just me or has Rudd lost the plot?  Getting your days mixed up (or even unintentionally letting slip that you may have had a tip off from the media a day earlier than publication) is a forgettable error of fact.  Next to the attempts of a government minister to influence a Department to advantage a supporter, it is a negligible issue.  If you and a close ally are on a knife edge when it comes to being proven to be corrupt, saying your main opponent is inconsistent is probably the most minor point you could make.  Rudd and Swann are at a point where they either need to deny or come clean.  Or if they can find a scape goat.

Today they are off the hook, but I am sure they are conscious of the fact that the allegations, even before the email had been produced, actually seemed to stick.  This is something we would easily believe KRudd and Turnbull capable of.

I am wondering at the timing of this as well.  I’m not sure if Grech, the fellow from the treasury tied up in all this – who was found to have the email on his home computer – is playing to suit some party in the government.  But I’m also wondering if perhaps it’s Rudd’s own team out to get him as much as the Opposition.  I know that the vacancy left by Fitzgibbon allowed for a raft of ministerial changes and I also understand that Rudd’s own faction was heavily favored in the reshuffle.  Again, correct me if I’m wrong, but I understand that Rudd’s faction does not have the numbers by it’s self to elect a member as PM – hence there may have been some toes stepped on in the latest reshuffle.  Given that there are also some very ambitious players in the ALP front bench, and given that they ALP did not have any chance of gaining government without Rudd at the helm.  I get the feeling that perhaps the knives are out for Rudd and Swann now that the ALP is where they want to be.  If there is one lesson that can be learned from Keating taking over from Hawke, is that a hostile take over of leadership does not equate to much damage at all in the polls.  But that is just idle speculation on my behalf.  I do watch with eager anticipation to see if the AFP will find out who produced the email and how they will be brought to task.