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| Abbot and Brough |
Neil Mitchell Radio 3AW
The court has found that former minister Mal Brough was in the middle of setting up James Ashby the staffer to lay complaints of sexual harassment against Slipper for political mileage to help the liberal national coalition.
Now, I don't know if it is right. There is talk of an appeal but Tony Abbott needs to act regardless.
This doesn't save Peter Slipper.
He resigned because of some of the sleazy and disgusting comments he made about women in his text messages.
They still stand, he did that and was right to resign. But, he is not found to have sexually harassed Ashby and to an extent he is vindicated.
But he is also exposed as a grubby sort of bloke who should not be speaker.
But, Tony Abbott’s problem: Mal Brough is a key man.
Was he in it? Well, Abbott should find out. He should appoint party elders, whoever to investigate it and report whether Mal Brough acted improperly.
Whether he did set this up as a dirty political trick.
If he did, he should lose pre-selection. If he didn’t, get on with it.
This is a problem for Abbott and as I say I don’t know party rules allow it. But he should be seen leading strongly on this, he has gone after Julia Gillard for her credibility and integrity.
Now he faces a test himself. He must show that Brough has clean hands or dump him. Tony Abbott must lead here and lead strongly.
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ABC NewsPrime Minister Julia Gillard says Tony Abbott and the opposition are rolling "in filth'' and must come clean over their role in the Peter Slipper affair.
In her first public comments about the failed sexual harassment case against the former speaker, Ms Gillard also called on LNP figure Mal Brough to front the press gallery at Parliament House in Canberra.
She accused Mr Abbott of using "weasel'' and "fudge'' words to hide his prior knowledge of the case against Mr Slipper.
"Mr Abbott has to extract himself and his political party from the filth they're rolling in,'' she told ABC radio on Friday.
"And the only way of doing that will be by coming clean.''
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SBS NewsIn her first public comments since Justice Steven Rares rejected the case as abuse of process aimed at "pursuing a political attack against Mr Slipper" and named Mr Brough, Ms Gillard challenged Mr Abbott on Friday to explain himself.
Justic Rares said Mr Ashby had worked in "combination" with Mr Brough - a former Howard government minister - and another person when commencing the proceedings "in order to advance the interests of the LNP and Mr Brough".
Speaking in London, Mr Abbott insisted he had no "specific knowledge" of Mr Ashby's claims until the news broke on April 21.
"Mr Abbott is using weasel words to avoid answering very simple questions," Ms Gillard told ABC radio on Friday.
"Mr Abbott ... now needs to come clean about the mess his political party is mired in following this adverse judgement from the Federal Court."
Ms Gillard said Mr Brough and any other coalition member with knowledge of the matter also needed to come forward.
The Liberal leader is standing by Mr Brough, who worked alongside Mr Abbott in the last coalition government, saying he has been transparent about his role in the Ashby case.
Ms Gillard said Mr Brough had been "anything but transparent" and had used the case to try to change the balance of power in federal parliament.
But one senior Liberal figure believes Mr Brough has questions to answer.
Asked on Sky on Thursday night whether Mr Brough was "damaged politically", Liberal senator Arthur Sinodinos said, "He's got some questions to answer."
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Education Minister Peter Garrett told reporters in Sydney shadow attorney general George Brandis had "serious questions to answer" in relation to the matter.
"He was the one that made a call in this case when he shouldn't have. He's the one who needs to answer the questions now because it's clearly been an abuse of process and the court has found accordingly."
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