Hi Godwin, the PM has asked if the car dealer financing vehicle is available to assist a Queensland dealership, John Grant Motors, who seems to be having trouble getting finance.Email allegedly sent from PM's office
Emails alleging the Prime Minister's office tried to help Ipswich car dealer John Grant secure a taxpayer-funded loan from the $2 billion OzCar vehicle financing scheme have been published in a Sydney newspaper.
Senior Treasury official Godwin Grech, who is in charge of the OzCar scheme, told a Senate inquiry on Friday he had been approached by the Prime Minister's office about Mr Grant's needs.
He said he thought there had been an email which confirmed the request, but then told the committee it was possible his memory was faulty.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has repeatedly denied he or his office tried to help Mr Grant secure a government-backed loan.
Today's edition of The Daily Telegraph published emails it says were sent by Andrew Charlton, Mr Rudd's senior adviser, to Mr Grech.
A February 19 email from Mr Charlton to Mr Grant reads:
"Hi Godwin, the PM has asked if the car dealer financing vehicle is available to assist a Queensland dealership, John Grant Motors, who seems to be having trouble getting finance.
"If you can follow up on this asap that would be very useful. Happy to discuss. A."
In an alleged reply sent by Mr Grech on February 23 to Treasurer Wayne Swan and Department Liaison Officer (Economic) Andrew Thomas, Mr Grech reports on his progress.
"Andrew, as promised, I raised the case of John Grant with the CEO of Ford Credit, Greg Cohen, during my meeting with Ford Credit in Melbourne today.
"Cohen gave me an undertaking that Ford Credit will actively look at taking Grant on.
"John Grant called me earlier this afternoon (from Auckland) to say that Ford Credit had been in contact with him after my meeting."
An undated email, also allegedly sent by Mr Grech to Mr Swan and Mr Thomas, expresses concerns.
"Andrew, I told Grant to keep in touch and to let me know if Ford show concerns or resistance (I will not speak with Ford again on this unless it is absolutely necessary to push it through)," Mr Grech reportedly wrote.
"He also said that he wants to come to Canberra to meet me (and I assume you). Although I said nothing, I don't think that would be a good idea until this is settled. Godwin."
Mr Thomas thanked Mr Grech in a responding email.
"Great work," the email read.
"Just so you are aware, these emails are also going to the Treasurer's home fax. Cheers, Andrew.
Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull has called on Mr Rudd and Mr Swan to justify their actions over links to Mr Grant or resign.
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Tanner urges Turnbull to show evidence
Any email purporting to be from the Prime Minister's office to Treasury concerning the OzCar affair...... - that didn't work well for the ALP or Tanner. - ed.
Rudd says Utegate email a fraud
PM says email at centre of OzCar preferential treatment allegations is an "elaborate fraud". - yet it is completely in line with what we know about Rudd, and how he operates. - ed.
California finds pot smoke causes cancer
Marijuana smoke has joined tobacco smoke and hundreds of other chemicals on a list of substances California regulators say cause cancer. - good. now thieves can sue each other for giving each other cancer. - ed.
Smoking to be banned in cars with kids
Places where smoking is prohibited in NSW will soon include cars, if any of their passengers are......
Pumpkin's dad guilty of wife's murder
A New Zealand jury has found Nai Yin Xue guilty of the murder of his wife An An Liu, whose body was found in the boot of his car in Auckland in September 2007.
Drunken Fittler in latest NRL drama
Sydney Roosters coach Brad Fittler is the latest member of the NRL to be embroiled in an alcohol-related drama after being found half-naked outside a woman's hotel room at 3am.
Little support for Senate baby rulebreaker
MUMS have condemned a senator on forums for taking her toddler into Parliament. - maybe if she had named the child 'A Little Green' in memory of that song? - ed.
=== Comments ===
TAILMAIL
Tim Blair
Tailgate becomes Emailgate:
The auditor-general’s inquiry will focus on the existence of an email allegedly sent on Mr Rudd’s behalf to Godwin Grech, the head of the Government’s $2 billion OZ Car scheme, seeking financial help for his friend, used-car salesman John Grant.
The email was purportedly sent from the computer of Mr Rudd’s senior economic adviser Andrew Charlton to Mr Grech. But Mr Rudd insisted no such email existed, with his office declaring it an elaborate fraud.
This disputed email may yet influence matters, for either Rudd or Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull, depending on evidence produced. But there are many other elements in this case that clearly hurt the government:
Ford Credit also confirmed reports in The Daily Telegraph it had been told of Mr Grant’s financial troubles when it was trying to access a $550 million government loan under the OZ Car scheme.
Greg Cohen, the managing director of Ford Credit, said Treasury had made it clear Mr Grant was an “acquaintance” of Mr Rudd.
There are other emails, too:
Emails tendered to the Senate inquiry also suggested that Wayne Swan may have misled parliament when he told MPs on June 4 that, after receiving and passing on representations about Mr Grant’s case, he had “no idea what the outcome was”.
One email sent by the Treasurer’s departmental liaison officer, Andrew Thomas, to Mr Grech, and tendered to the inquiry, said: “Just so you are aware, these emails are also going to the Treasurer’s home fax.”
It ain’t looking good for Rudd’s friend Swanny:
Under parliamentary questioning in recent weeks, Mr Swan has said repeatedly that Mr Grant received the same assistance as other car dealer seeking assistance from OzCar.
But emails between Mr Swan’s office and the department, which was charged with assisting dealers, show Mr Swan and his senior staff, as well as the Treasury secretary, Ken Henry, were kept apprised of the developments.
Swan might be a dead duck. The Treasurer sure is acting like a misleading mallard, according to Michelle Grattan:
The motives of Treasurer Wayne Swan were absolutely clear at his bizarre performance yesterday morning before the Senate hearing. Swan’s claim that Malcolm Turnbull had threatened a Rudd staffer was absolute nonsense from anything that we know. He only further discredited himself by his refusal to give details of the threat. He explained the lack of detail by saying that he had to catch a plane and that the staffer would put out a statement.
The transcript issued by Charlton immediately after read more like a homily from the Opposition Leader to the economist than a threat. “Andrew, integrity is the most important thing in a man’s career,” Turnbull is noted as saying, telling Charlton to be truthful.
The Age‘s Katharine Murphy reports that Kevin Rudd played a role in covering that alleged “threat” – which, at the time, was seen as nothing serious:
At the same function, as Wayne Swan told reporters earlier yesterday, in some kind of effort to muddy the waters, or to pre-empt any bombshell, that an adviser to the Prime Minister had been “threatened” by Malcolm Turnbull.
A blurry photograph taken from Kevin Rudd’s own BlackBerry — and a file note of the conversation between Turnbull and Andrew Charlton — was supplied to prove the contact.
Rudd had been showing the photo to ball guests on the night — the ones not being harassed or groped by that inebriated staffer.
Rudd joked that it would be great fodder to tease his young adviser, making nice with the enemy.
By Friday morning, events had moved on and it was evidence of a threat.
The government’s attempts to portray this conversation as something sinister indicates how desperate are Rudd and Swan to swing discussion away from Tailgate. On Friday’s Lateline, Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner accused Turnbull of “threatening and bullying” Charlton:
That to me calls into doubt Malcolm Turnbull’s character and judgment, and those are fundamental things for somebody who’s standing here saying he should be the Prime Minister of this country.
If threatening and bullying disqualifies one from leadership, Kevin Rudd should quit immediately. The auditor-general’s findings will be handed down on July 31. Meanwhile, here are this saga’s main players – including The Ute, a 1996 Mazda Bravo.
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QUEEN BEA
Tim Blair
Communist, lesbian, atheist and anti-royalist Beatrix Campbell is offered an OBE. Naturally, because an OBE is bestowed by a hierarchical, heterosexual Christian authority that oppresses the lower orders, Campbell refuses.
Or does she? As David Thompson warns: “Caution: rationalisation in progress.” Further on this royal fraud from Norm Geras.
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FIRE IN THE HOLE
Tim Blair
An eco-warrior has been evicted from the cave he lives in because it doesn’t have a fire exit.
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EUROPE GOES RETRO
Tim Blair
Sophisticated Europeans looked on in alarm as George W. Bush dragged the US towards fascism. They should have paid more attention at home, as Mark Steyn notes:
To promote a greater sense of Euro-harmony, the European Parliament—actually, make that the European “Parliament"—is organized into ideological blocs, ensuring that French liberals sit with Slovene liberals, and Belgian greens sit with Latvian greens, rather than hunkering down in their ethnic ghettoes. The largest bloc is the “centre-right,” the second-largest are the socialists, and the third is now the “non-inscrits,” the bloc for people who don’t want to belong to blocs. As a result of this month’s election, this Groucho Marxist grouping of “Others” tripled in size to just under a hundred seats. So, if they’re not liberals, socialists, greens, “European democrats” or the “Nordic Green Left,” what the hell are they?
Historians who specialise in the 1930s and ‘40s will be quick to answer. Further from Steyn:
Woody Guthrie used to have a label on his guitar: “This Machine Kills Fascists.” Not true, of course. Just the usual self-flattery to which singing Commies are prone. But, in the room where they cook up European conventional wisdom, they could easily pin a sign on the door saying: “This Political Machine Creates Fascists.”
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FARFUR LIVES
Tim Blair
Two years ago, Hamas TV broadcast shocking footage proving that Farfur – the world’s favourite helium-voiced terror rodent – had been murdered by a furious Israeli:
Work the body, Jewboy! Anyway, we all grieved over this Mickey Mouse/Edward Said hybrid for a few seconds then gradually rebuilt our lives and moved on. But now:
Look at the colourful folk greeting those freedom-sack ladies. That’s Farfur right there, apparently upright and undamaged. Date of the shot: June 18, 2009. This is either an authentic miracle, or the so-called “death of Farfur” is the greatest conspiracy since 9/11.
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