Friday 29th of March 2024

the blind leading the blind...

porterporter

The rules of Parliament's register of interests require MPs to declare footy tickets, flights, gifts, Chairman's Club memberships, assets, investments, and any other financial arrangement that "may conflict or may be seen to conflict with their public duty." When a politician is given "free stuff", voters at least deserve to know who's trying to curry favour.

Porter obviously received enough financial assistance that he felt the need to update his register three days ago. He revealed his legal fees were at least partly paid by "a blind trust known as the Legal Services Trust". But that's all he was giving away.

There was no information about who contributed to the trust or how much. Porter claimed to be ignorant of key details. "I have no access to information about the conduct and funding of the trust."

As many have pointed out, this is not a blind trust. That would involve Porter putting his own money into a trust that someone else manages to avoid any conflicts while he's in office. In this case, Porter knows precisely where the money is going. What he appears to be suggesting is that he has no idea who his generous benefactors are. Although his carefully worded denial of any knowledge on the "conduct and funding" of the trust doesn't make that entirely clear.

 

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-16/christian-porter-blind-trust-legal-bills/100464856

 

My only question: is such a gift taxable at the normal income rate?

a stinker...

Labor leader Anthony Albanese has demanded Christian Porter quit or be sacked as Industry Minister, as fallout over his “blind trust” pecuniary interests again threatens to derail the federal government.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he was “looking closely” at the situation, which has stunned public integrity experts and left former PM Malcolm Turnbull “astonished”.

Mr Morrison will not say what action he is considering, but noted he had taken “difficult decisions” in the past if members of his government had breached ministerial standards.

 

In his first public comments on the latest scandal to envelop his government, Mr Morrison said on Thursday he was “looking carefully” at the matter but would not confirm what action could be taken.

 

“I take the matter seriously and we are looking carefully at the arrangements and what the minister will be required to do in order to ensure he was acting consistent with the ministerial guidelines,” the PM said at a Canberra press conference.

He rebuffed a question about whether Mr Porter would remain a cabinet minister, but signalled he might take further action if he believed the ministerial code had been breached.

“I’ve taken decisions in the past, difficult decisions, when I believe they haven’t been adhered to and decisions that have been taken as a consequence of that,” Mr Morrison said.

“In the same way, on these issues, I will follow the same process. I will deal with it carefully and, as always, I will ensure that the ministerial guidelines are adhered to.”

Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie was forced to quit the ministry in 2020 in the wake of the ‘sports rorts’ scandal.

A Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet report found she’d breached ministerial standards by not declaring her membership of a gun club that received government money from a fund she oversaw as sports minister.

Mr Albanese was firmer, saying Mr Porter could not remain on the front bench.

 

“It is simply untenable for a minister of the Crown to receive up to $1 million from sources unknown in order to pursue a private legal matter and then say that he doesn’t know where the money came from,” he said on Thursday.

“Christian Porter should go and he should go today.”

Mr Porter, the former attorney-general, has come under intense criticism for declining to give further details of a “blind trust” that paid some of his legal fees in a defamation case against the ABC.

The case related to reporting that Mr Porter had been accused of raping a woman in the 1980s. It is an accusation he strongly denies.

It is unclear how much money he accepted from the blind trust, but his legal fees have been reported to potentially be as high as $1 million.

In May, Mr Porter said the legal action would be a “massive personal financial drain on me and my resources”.

On Wednesday, his office declined to tell The New Daily how much he had accepted from the trust.

Mr Turnbull has called the secrecy a “shocking affront to transparency”, while public integrity and legal experts have been left flabbergasted, and Mr Porter could even face a no-confidence motion when Parliament returns next month.

Mr Morrison’s office said late on Wednesday that he was examining the matter, and seeking advice from the DPM&C about whether Mr Porter’s actions breached the ministerial code of standards.

Mr Albanese demanded Mr Porter’s resignation.

“You can’t just take money, as a cabinet minister, from persons unknown and not declare it,” he said in Sydney.

“It is the Prime Minister who established prime ministerial guidelines. They’re his guidelines. He doesn’t need another inquiry … There is such a stench around this and around Christian Porter that all that is missing is a cloud of blowflies. This stinks.”

Independent MP Helen Haines, who has supported a federal integrity commission, said Mr Porter should return the money if he couldn’t specify where it came from.

“It raises so many questions around transparency and accountability, and what risks are created when accepting funds in this way,” she told TND.

“It is astonishing that a former attorney-general would assume there was no risk in accepting such a donation.

“Just because a donation is declared on the register of interests doesn’t mean it is ethical or beyond scrutiny.”

Stephen Charles QC, a retired judge and a board member with the Centre for Public Integrity and the Accountability Round Table, said he was shocked by Mr Porter’s disclosure.

“The problem is the secrecy. We have political donation rules,” he told TND.

“You can’t give a large bag of money to a politician without expecting to be in trouble. If the people made their names public, there’d be no complaint.”

 

Read more:

https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2021/09/16/christian-porter-blind-trust/

 

ScoMo looks seriously into the blind trust....

 

clownclown

 

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

porter has to go...

Scott Morrison has asked the head of his department Phil Gaetjens to investigate whether Mr Porter breached the Ministerial Standards after declaring this week that a blind trust paid for part of his defamation case against the ABC.

"These are not ordinary arrangements and that's why we're seeking to have a full understanding of them," Mr Morrison told AM.  

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-17/christian-porter-future-as-minister-increasingly-uncertain/100467230

 

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Okay, Morrison is trying to find a crummy loophole to keep Christian Porter in his entourage. What Porter his done with the blind trust is a million times worse of what better and ethical politicians have done before — and resigned for the deed. But with the wind in his nuking (nuke-fucking) submarines, Scomo is riding the wave of more deceit — not only he has deceived the French, he is trying to find ways to deceive all AUSTRALIANS, while being supported by the hypocritical Murdoch media, to the hilt. 

 

Should Morrison ask Porter to refund the blind trust fund to make it all sweet would be FUCKING TOO LATE. The deal has been done —"the custom fees on Mick Young's Paddington bear" cannot be accepted — it's too late, mate. WE DON'T EVEN NEED TO KNOW WHO PAID PORTER AND HOW MUCH. TOO LATE! TOO LATE !!!!!! Morrison only has one thing to do: SACK PORTER OR GET HIM TO GO. FULL STOP. NO IFS AND BUTS. PORTER HAS TO GO. Go!...

watery standards...

On Sunday, Mr Morrison said Mr Porter was unable to provide the necessary information and to "avoid any perception of conflicts of interest" had chosen to resign.

"He has this afternoon taken the appropriate course of action to uphold those standards by tendering his resignation as a minister this afternoon, and I have accepted his resignation," Mr Morrison said.

"His actions have been about upholding the standards."

 

What standards?

Porter should be barred from being a member of parliament. He should resign and force a by-election in his "electorate" with another Liberal candidate. Geez... Don't they know what standards are?

 

Read from top.

 

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the social media?...

 ‘Come clean’ on cash, Labor demands

 

Labor leader Anthony Albanese and shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus said Mr Porter should still be compelled to reveal how much money he received, and who it came from.

“It’s absurd for Mr Morrison to claim that Mr Porter has upheld the standards – he has breached the Ministerial Standards. As of now, Mr Porter is still in receipt of up to $1 million in secret donations, and Mr Morrison is apparently comfortable with this,” Mr Dreyfus said.

“But Mr Porter’s resignation from cabinet does not draw a line under this matter. Mr Morrison now needs to come clean about how much he knew about this secret fund, and demand Mr Porter either come clean about the source of these donations or give the money back.”

Mr Albanese said Mr Porter needed to give more information on where the money came from, arguing that his resignation from the ministry made no difference.

“Members of Parliament, as well as ministers, can’t just accept money from anonymous donors for a private legal matter,” he said.

The New Daily understands Labor and other federal politicians are considering options to further dispute Mr Porter’s disclosure, including a referral to Parliament’s Standing Committee of Privileges and Members’ Interests, which can hear “complaints about registering or declaring interests”.

Independent senator Rex Patrick tweeted that Mr Porter’s resignation “does nothing to discharge his duty as an MP to place on the public record interests which may conflict, or may be seen to conflict, with his public duty as an MP”.

Mr Porter said he planned to contest the next election as Member for Pearce, and had “no intention of standing aside from my responsibilities to the people of Pearce”.

 

Read more: https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2021/09/19/christian-porter-blind-trust-resignation/

 

HEARD AROUND THE TRAPS;

 

The blind trust does not pass the sniff test...

 

Britney Spears' dad should manage Porter's affairs as Porter seems incapable...

 

The pub test says we must be all blind-pissed to accept Porter's meat and sausage tray.

 

The electorate of Pearce will vote Porter back in — with a large increased majority — because people love TAX-FREE blind trust for obvious reasons...

 

READ FROM TOP.

 

 

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