8.52pm: That’s a wrap. What a day. That was possibly one of the best episodes of the 7.30 Report ever tonight - Rudd’s line about a “garden variety making-things-up” was a classic.
Thanks to all of you who contributed during the day, particularly to the live coverage of a brutal couple of hours in Parliament. There were well over 1000 comments from readers - you can replay it below. A couple of closing comments:
- Confirmation the email was a fake casts last Friday’s Senate hearing in a different light. Liberal Senator Eric Abetz appeared to be quoting the email when he questioned Godwin Grech. It now seems possible one or both of them knew, or suspected, it was a forgery. And we should ask again why Grech’s superior, David Martine, interfered with the questioning of Senators on certain details.
- Wayne Swan shouldn’t be off the hook. There remains a straightforward question over whether he misled Parliament when answering questions about a mate of the Prime Minister. After the extraordinary theatre in Canberra today it’s easy to lose sight of this. I suppose the question is whether the crippling blow landed on the Opposition today will hobble it for the rest of the fight.
Looking forward to the papers in the morning.
7.08pm Evening news roundup, and Kochie in Canberra. On the Nine Network, Laurie Oakes says Malcolm Turnbull has egg on his face. Rudd joined Peter Overton outside Parliament House for a stand-up interview. He said he had “absolute confidence in the Treasurer”, adding that he had helped “many many many” car dealers. At the end he said Liberal Party elders should tell Turnbull to go.
I would call upon the senior people of the Liberal Party, the experienced hands of the Liberal Party - Mr Costello, Brendan Nelson, Senator Minchin - to tap Mr Turnbull on the shoulder and say it is time to go.
Seven’s news was headed “Turnbull in Turmoil” and had some of the great grabs from today, to wit:
Albanese: “Bring it on”.
Turnbull: “He has lied to this House.”
Hockey: “Have you got something to say Prime Minister? Have you got something to say?”
Rudd: “Be man enough to apologise and resign.”
Seven’s verdict: Swan has explaining to do, but Turnbull’s fighting hardest for his political life.
Something to look forward to tomorrow is Kochie with the utegate latest from Parliament House. As Anthony Albanese might say, bring it on.
5.11pm: Turnbull’s former adviser speaks to the Herald Sun. Excerpts:
A FORMER adviser to Malcolm Turnbull has denied involvement with the email at the centre of the Ute-gate affair…
... There is no suggestion that Mr Lindwall - a former staffer to both Peter Costello and Mr Turnbull -has engaged in any wrongdoing, but it is understood the Australian Federal Police want to speak with him to determine his involvement, if any, in the affair.
Late today Mr Lindwall told heraldsun.com.au he had nothing to do with the fake email.
“I don’t know anything about the email, I can tell you that,” he said.
Mr Lindwall admitted to knowing Mr Grech, adding: “I used to work in Treasury, anyone who worked in Treasury would know Godwin.”
5.02pm: Twittermania - Tweeters have been piling in all afternoon with comments on “utegate”. See the stream of utegate comments here.
4.57pm: Handy graphic that captures the chaos of utegate. Hat tip to news.com.au - see a bigger version here.
4.28pm: Statement from the federal police from earlier this afternoon. The Australian online has a summary here.
“A preliminary forensic investigation of computers located at a premises in Calwell and at the offices of the Department of Treasury has been undertaken,” the AFP says in a statement.
“Preliminary results of those forensic examinations indicate that the email referred to at the centre of this investigation has been created by a person or persons other than the purported author of the email.
“A 42 year-old Calwell man has been interviewed by the AFP in relation to this matter and it will be alleged that the interview is consistent with preliminary forensic advice.”
4.21pm: New video - highlights from Parliament earlier today. Watch the sparks fly.
(2pm - 4pm: Readers join in to watch Question Time live. See the replay below.)
4.15pm: Parliament summary - We’ve been on the live blog for proceedings in the House, where Malcolm Turnbull was censured. It was an extraordinary few hours. Turnbull has called for a judicial inquiry into the OzCar affair and during Question Time the Opposition repeatedly questioned the Treasurer over the handling of John Grant in relation to OzCar.
2.27pm: Summary of developments. The Australian online reports:
OPPOSITION Treasury spokesman Joe Hockey has seized on a report that the missing email at the heart of the OzCar affair has been found to defend his leader amid a heated debate in parliament
2.22pm: Tweet of the day - @jendudley says this is like watching a lame episode of 24.
2.11pm: The opposition leadership has left the chamber. Lindsay Tanner’s speaking on the motion (remember, it’s a Coalition motion to get the Treasurer to explain himself, amended by the Government as a proposed censure of Malcolm Turnbull).
And Phil Ruddock has a guernsey. Old school.
1.36pm: MAJOR DEVELOPMENT - The Punch is now reporting that police are investigating links between the fake email and a staffer in Malcolm Turnbull’s office. You can read the story here.
1.22pm: Take a swig. In non-utegate-related news, the Coalition has decided to support the tax increase on alcopops. As you were.
1.17pm: Swan repeats his assertion that he did not know the outcome of John Grant’s application for OzCar funding. This is one of the statements which the Opposition believes the Treasurer misled Parliament with.
1.12pm: Wayne Swan is on his feet in Parliament, reading a series of emails. They’re all terribly businesslike. Do they never sign off with a “Beer on Thursday?”
12.56pm: MAJOR DEVELOPMENT: There is an email, but it’s a fake, according to ABC News. The report says:
The email at the centre of the OzCar affair has been found and is a fake, the ABC understands.
AAP adds:
An email at the centre of the OzCar affair has reportedly been found and appears to have been concocted inside the Treasury Department.
Australian Federal Police (AFP) believe the email was sent from Treasury to the home account of Treasury official Godwin Grech, the ABC reported.
What this means: If these reports are accurate and police have got a forged email from within the Treasury department, then someone in Treasury has a whole lot of explaining to do.
12.54pm: Joe Hockey’s bellowing across the chamber, yelling that the thing that’s at stake is the “integrity of the Treasurer! The integrity of the Treasurer!”
12.46pm: Rudd is back on his feet with an extension of time to finish kicking Turnbull about the head with his censure motion. He’s bringing up children overboard and the Lindsay pamphlet scandal, saying the Liberal party has form on forging the facts. They’re going to the division now. Joe Hockey’s having a go.
12.41pm: Division called - they’ll vote on the censure motion against Malcolm Turnbull.
12.35pm Rudd slinging some mud of his own , accusing Turnbull of threatening his staff. He’s recounting his version of the discussion between Turnbull and Andrew Charlton at the Mid-Winter Ball last week.
12.28pm: The PM’s case against Turnbull, as expected, rests on the email. The trouble here is that they’re playing two different games, it’s like one of them is playing Scrabble and the other’s playing Hungry Hungry Hippo. Trouble is, when that happens, nobody ends up the winner.
Let’s see what happens.
PM is absolutely hopping into News Limited now for its handling of the email story as published on Saturday.
12.25pm: Rudd hits back. It’s chaos in Parliament. The PM is now moving a censure motion against Turnbull.
12.22pm: Turnbull on Swan: “He has lied to this House.” Says the Treasurer “prostituted his responsibility”.
Postscript: The Speaker warned Turnbull to be careful.
12.20pm: Police at Godwin Grech’s house. The Australian online reports there are two unmarked cars outside Grech’s home in Canberra (and the curtains are drawn). Read the story here.
12.15pm: MAJOR DEVELOPMENT: Sky is reporting police have executed a search warrant at the home of Godwin Grech, the civil servant who has been the focus of he OzCar investigation. Turnbull’s still on his feet in the House. More details as they come to hand.
12.09pm: You can follow Parliament live here. The PM’s in the House, so to speak. Turnbull, who’s channelling Rumpole of the Bailey, has proposed a motion - which will be defeated - that calls on Swan to attend the House and make a full statement about his involvement and that of his office in the OzCar scandal. Specifically, he’s asking the Treasurer (among other details):
- how many dealers he (Swan) personally held conversations with
- how many dealers were the subject of messages to his home fax
- how many dealers had their mobile numbers handed to government officials
- for records of personal phone calls and emails.
The core of Turnbull’s attack is that Swan did not handle John Grant’s application to OzCar in the same way as other dealers.
Settle in, folks. Going to be a fun afternoon.
12.02pm: It’s on! MPs have just gathered in Parliament and there’s already a fight, shouts of “bring it on!” and Malcolm Turnbull has tabled a motion that Wayne Swan come to the House and explain himself.
11.39am: Overseas coverage. Some links to how the story is being reported beyond Australian borders.
BBC: Australian PM escalates car spat
AFP: Australia PM rejects calls to quit over sleaze
UK Independent: Rudd denies giving favours to car dealer
Xinhua: Australian PM rejects car allegation
11.05am: At least they agree on something. Christian Kerr reports at The Australian online: “Both sides of politics concede that Treasurer Wayne Swan faces the greatest pressure today.” You can read his update on Kevin Rudd’s morning media blitz here.
10.52am: A bucket for everyone. An angry reader over at news.com.au writes:
Australian politicians have hit a new low…. well done to all of you. I would prefer you focus on the Global Financial Crisis, Climate Change and N1H1 but lucky for Australia you have found some useless irrelevant topic to focus on… Well done Canberra, I feel my tax dollars are at work now and we are on the road to recovery. Lets get on with it…..
10.43am: Ambush? AAP reports this morning suggest a possible “preemptive strike” by the Government against Malcolm Turnbull two hours before Question Time, when Parliament’s business gets underway at noon - though it’s not clear what that might entail. We’re trying to check this out.
10.36am: New summary of developments on news.com.au.
KEVIN Rudd reckons Malcolm Turnbull is in trouble. Malcolm Turnbull says Wayne Swan should be worried. Wayne Swan says he has nothing to hide, but he won’t show you the proof.
10.11am: Who cares? A quick scan of the most-read articles on major news sites shows utegate is not exactly must-read material this morning. The main utegate story on The Australian is the site’s most-read, but is quickly followed by an update on swine flu.
This story from yesterday on Rudd’s ultimatum is the most-read on smh.com.au, while over at news.com.au there are articles about Andrew Symonds playing rugby league and Miranda Kerr (warning: possibly NSFW) nudging out the utegate package for the top spot.
10.05am: Online poll at The Australian. Voters are asked “Did the PM mislead Parliament?” Current result - 67% Yes, 33% No. Cast your vote here.
9.56am: New video - a short clip from Agenda on Sky News this morning, featuring federal minister Tony Burke and Bronwyn Bishop of the Liberal Party. Watch it in the player below or click here.
9.28am New video of Rudd - live now on ninemsn, the PM’s interview on Channel 9’s Today show, from this morning. Highlights:
- Rudd predicts “utegate” will be known as “Malcolm Turnbull’s fake email scandal” by the end of the week. (It doesn’t quite roll off the tongue the same as utegate, but anyway.)
- He refers to Godwin Grech as “that public servant”.
- He tries to keep the atmosphere calm by drawing comparisons to children overboard (at 2m 15sec)
9.17am: More from key Senators. Nick Xenophon says leave the investigation to the authorities, not the judgment of politicians. Bob Brown calls for a commission to investigate hundreds of pages of faxes being sent to politicians’ houses the integrity of politicians.
9.10am: Comment from Steve Fielding and Barnaby Joyce. Fielding calls for a fast police investigation. “It doesn’t need months, it doesn’t need weeks, it needs a very short sharp quick investigation by the Australian Federal Police,” he said. Amen, so to speak. Meanwhile, we got some vintage Barnaby:
Nationals Senate leader Barnaby Joyce preferred to take aim at Treasurer Wayne Swan, who the opposition also accuses of misleading parliament.
“If you do that, regardless of what the issue is, you’re gonesky, you’ve got to go,” he said.
Senator Joyce refuted suggestions Mr Turnbull’s head was on the line, saying it was the role of the opposition to test the government.
“You lay the allegation at the government’s feet and the government has to prove or disprove it.”
9.03am: Speersy says - Sky’s political editor predicts everyone will still be standing at the end of today. (He’s good with predictions - he called the heavy victory for Labor in the November 2007 election when most commentators were calling it a narrower one for Rudd.) Qualification: unless there’s significant new evidence.
Coming up later - we’ll be covering Question Time live from just before 2pm today. Do drop by, it should be a corker.
8.57am: Turnbull quote trotted out - Tony Burke on Sky was armed with this quote from Turnbull on Friday: “The Prime Minister and the Treasurer abused their offices and taxpayers resources to seek advantage for one of their mates and then lied about it to the Parliament.” Burke says you cannot make that allegation without backup.
So what do you think? Let us know in the comments.
8.52am: Federal minister Tony Burke repeats the “hundreds of pages of faxes” line on Sky News. Tsk tsk, ministers. Do they actually sit down and read them at night with a cup of cocoa?
Postscript: Any chance the Greens will raise hell about ministers receiving hundreds of pages of faxes?
8.49am: The Auditor General must be Caesar’s wife. So says Bronwyn Bishop.
8.44am: Bronwyn Bishop on Sky News says, about the Treasurer’s role in the John Grant application, that “this is not a matter of outcomes. It’s a matter of process.” (Which is word-for-word what The Australian’s editor-at-large Paul Kelly said yesterday morning on the Insiders show on ABC TV.)
8.42am: New video from Sky News
8.36am: Turnbull’s message of the morning - He was on Macquarie radio. From the wire:
“Godwin Grech was shut down by the intervention of Labor senators and his own Treasury senior official on Friday,” Mr Turnbull told Macquarie Radio on Monday.
Labor senators and fellow Treasury official David Martine had tried to stop Mr Grech answering a question about whether he had seen a document from Mr Rudd’s office regarding Mr Grant. When Mr Grech finally answered the question he was clearly emotional.
“He wanted to say more about that email but the minute he talked about it they jumped on him like a tonne of bricks and basically prevented him from giving his testimony,” Mr Turnbull said.
“He has said that he recalls receiving a short email from the prime minister’s office but before he could say anything more about it, Mr Rudd’s henchmen in the Senate stopped him from answering questions.”
8.26am: More emails we might never see. Swan said this morning that some emails about the OzCar scheme which might help the government case are “commercial in confidence”.
8.23am: Rudd on Channel 9 this morning - story on ninemsn here.
8.18am: Rudd said on AM that he told The Daily Telegraph on Friday night that the email published in the paper on Saturday did not exist. He said this raised questions about professional conduct.
8.14am: Not environmentally friendly - on messages to home faxes, Rudd says that every night he receives “hundreds of pages” of messages from people. I know we haven’t got to the paperless office quite yet, but this was the government that signed Kyoto.
8.09am: “This is the same party that gave us children overboard,” says Rudd on ABC Radio. Adds that as Turnbull demanded he resign, he has no alternative but to go himself. He also turns it on Joe Hockey for repeating the allegation that Rudd misled the Parliament. (We’ll check this.)
8.03am: Sky News Poll - Sky’s asking “Who do you believe on the OzCar scandal?”. Result: 20% Rudd, 80% Turnbull. Rudd’s on AM now.
7.55am: ABC Radio reports the federal government is saying there’s “new evidence” that John Grant didn’t get preferential treatment - apparently there are emails showing two other car dealers got handled the same way.
Meanwhile, Rudd compared the email allegations to children overboard. That should help calm things down then.
7.45am: We’ll be posting updates and links to developments in the utegate affair here today along with video and photos as they come to hand. To get you started there’s a collection of links to coverage in the newspapers here.
Recent posts
The latest and greatest
Put this summer of cricket out of its misery
Call the RSPCA. Alert PETA. Get the anti-whaling boats to steam north from Antarctica and stop this mindless… Read more
Most commented
The talk of the town
- My Southern Cross tattoo now brands me as a racist 625
- Frankston not in the hunt for Australia's top bogan suburb 354
- Climate changes sceptics a threat to national security 274
- Good Lord, Monckton is no Nobel laureate 242
- Why Australia Day is rubbish 226
- At the end of the day, the kids caned Kevin on Q&A 210
- You can't debate immigration without being called a racist 201
- Should women accept a guy who's just good enough? 153
- Young Labor plan to ban smoking within 50 years 119
- Freak show? At least Barnaby didn't blow the budget 117
Punch live
Up to the minute Twitter chatter
Libs reckon the future of australian tennis is in doubt due to rudd's ETS. They're smoking the same stuff as screaming lord monckton #qt
RT @penbo: Question Time live on http://www.thepunch.com.au 2pm mr straight talk vs kevin king of the kids from qanda
Gentle jabs to the ribs
US Superbowl: now with ad breaks worth watching
Usually, when it comes to watching your favourite sport or movie on television, ads are the last thing… Read more
71 comments
Show oldest | newest first