I
don't know the details of this case, but the tactics on the part of
the right-wing party are very familiar.
Press TV
Australia
ex-speaker's scandal "elaborate plot"
Press TV
Only
a few months have passed since a tearful Peter Slipper bid the
parliament goodbye, handing in his resignation as parliamentary
speaker in October 2012. The resignation came as no surprise. By
then, Slipper's reputation and credibility had been dragged through
the courts and in turn through the mud. His former employee, James
Ashby, had accused him of sexual harassment due to text messages he
claimed were "unwelcome." Ashby also accused Slipper of
fraud, claiming that the former speaker misused tax payers' money to
pay for cabs that were not of a working nature.
While
the courts dismissed the sexual harassment case in December, citing
that the accusations were a clear political attack against the former
speaker, it did little to save his reputation. This, according to the
managing editor of the Independent, David Donovan, made him all too
easy a target. Donovan, along with several researchers, spent
hundreds of hours following the trail that lead to Slipper's demise.
They claim that the events leading to his resignation are an attempt
by the opposition, or the Liberal-lead coalition, to destabilize the
labor-lead government.
By
using Ashby as bait, who was in constant contact with the coalition,
the opposition easily tarnished the former speaker's reputation. The
Independent also believes that the current scandals that are
threatening the future of the Labor government, such as the case of
Craig Thompson; a former Labor minister accused of 154 counts of
fraud, could also be the work of the coalition. Slipper is presently
defending himself in the courts after officially being charged with
three counts of fraud. While many researchers are striving to uncover
the truth in regards to the demise of the former speaker it is yet to
be seen, after yet another court case, whether Slipper's reputation
is at all salvageable.
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