Andrew Landeryou · @landeryou
8th Sep 2014 from TwitLonger
.@MichaelDanbyMP refers James Ashby's perjury to Federal DPP #auspol #Ashbygate
THE HON MICHAEL DANBY MP
SHADOW PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY TO THE LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION,
SHADOW PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY FOR THE ARTS
MEMBER FOR MELBOURNE PORTS
MEDIA RELEASE
SLIPPER WAS THE VICTIM
Last night’s 60 Minutes TV program simply dredges up James Ashby's seedy allegations against Peter Slipper. These allegations remain untested in court after he (Ashby) withdrew his claim. The only judge who heard all of the evidence judged Ashby’s claims as “an abuse of process.”
'Ashby was apparently paid $100,000 for his interview, for an account of events that's probably as reliable as a $3 note', Mr Danby, the Member for Melbourne Ports said today.
'Taking him at his word, James Ashby claims to have been induced by Liberal MPs into making his sordid claims against Peter Slipper. What he told 60 Minutes last night about these alleged inducements directly contradicts what Mr Ashby put on oath in a sworn affidavit (See attached copy of the false account in Ashby’s affidavit). Accordingly, I will be writing to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions today, inviting him to immediately investigate whether perjury has occurred. At the very least this claim of inducements should have been available to the appeal judges when they reviewed Justice Rare’s judgement on these matters (http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/FCA/2012/1411.html).
‘I am reluctant to believe anything James Ashby says’, Michael Danby said, even if it is politically convenient to believe it’. ‘If he's telling the truth this time, there's a powerful message to all MPs from this: the politics of personal destruction waged by Tony Abbott in Opposition, and carried through to his obscenely expensive Royal Commissions into Prime Ministers Rudd and Gillard, have no proper place in Australian public life, Danby said. The admission from Mal Brough, Mr Slipper’s successor in the Federal Seat of Fisher, that he directed a G. Gordon-Liddy-style black-ops misappropriation of the then Speaker Slipper’s confidential diary is one that Prime Minister Abbott should very carefully consider'.
The old warning "Be careful what you become in pursuit of what you want," should be ringing in the Liberals' ears after this disturbing broadcast.
I will be speaking on this issue when Federal Parliament resumes. I witnessed, sometimes on a daily basis in February, March and April 2012, what appeared to me an entirely professional relationship between Speaker Slipper and his constituent advisor James Ashby.
Please see Extra Minutes, what you did not see last night on 60 Minutes about Ashby’s desire to accompany Speaker Slipper on an official program to Hungary. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHLR7G5A208