This shows how inept Fitzgibbon truly is. Not only as Defmin but as a politician. This is nothing more than internal Labor Party Political bun-fighting.

No-one gets to be a Minister of ANY Government in Australia without vetting. 

If there is any substance to the allegations then forget about sacking those responsible, they should go to gaol!

 

Whether Fitzgibbon is the right person for the role of defence minister or not is irrelivant as the real issue is whether or not members of the department have betrayed the trust of the Australian people.

 

If it is ok to spy on a minister they don't like what is next, removing a government they don't like?

except anyone who has had anything to do with security knows that whats been explained and promoted to date is a nonsense.

It's a crock.  DSD/DSA can't and don't operate without direction from the AG when these things are concerned - apart from the fact that things are setup to provide a trace. I worked in a Ministerial Security Support area for over 4 years.  The way that this has been sold to the public is absolute rubbish.

This is more probably an issue of political faction payback.   There are two other departments that have access to this info - and both are also hurting - either of them could have looked at his computer without any problems.

Part of my MSS job was to review and sanitise official and private computers when people came back from overseas.  

 

Whether Fitzgibbon is the right person for the role of defence minister or not is irrelivant as the real issue is whether or not members of the department have betrayed the trust of the Australian people.

finally.  this is my last comment on this until the formal investigation runs its course.

I will reiterate that I think he's a stupid dick because he's backed himself into a corner by making allegations that any fool with a basic comprehension of DSD and DSA would be able to counter.

Fitzgibbon has just demonstrated a biological association with how random particles behave.  No sense of order, discipline and logic at all. 

Fair call gf, I didn't think for one moment that the uniforms would have initiated anything but rather that someone with a vested interest from the civilian side, assuming anything happened at all that is. I hope you are right and Defence had nothing to do with it at all as the thought of the department turning on its self make me feel sick

Its far easier to get sacked as a civilian than as a uniform. again, anyone who was familiar with how DSD or DSA worked, and the fact that the details did not make sense as an issue of process would have known that this was a crock and started from outside of defence.

So, yes, I'm prett confident that a formal investigation was not triggered from within to burn the Minister - similarly, my own view is that anyone involved with intel gathering within the organisation is not stupid - and DSD and DSA have no axe to grind.

If someone went off the reservation then it's possibe - but i have serious doubts as the audit and investigation trail is far too obvious and you'd get caught.  the gathering and collection processes, the audit trails, etc... make it virtually impossible for someone to conduct this and get away with it.  it all points for me to the Minister copping a t-bone from within his party. 

whats more dissapointing for me is that he hasn't had the sense to wait for a formal investigation to run its course - and he's walked right into a setup by committing perjury and by misleading parlt. that makes him a moron.  lets see if he has the decency to apologise to everyone he's impugned to protect his own arse.

whoever did it knew exactly what they were doing - he's been set up big time and he's shot himself in the foot by his behaviour.

he's lost credibility, and more to the point, he has now poisoned (all by himself) the relationship between himself and the organisation by accusing them of malicious behaviour without waiting to get all the results in.

Bring Combet in - he is a smart operator and could do a much better job at reform. 

 

 

Bring Combet in - he is a smart operator and could do a much better job at reform.

 

The sooner the better!

I suspect that Rudd will take a leaf from the Howard (2nd-4th term) playbook & tough this out. Unless Fitzgibbon is caught spying for the Chinese they will wait for it to blow over. In the current climate people will move on pretty quickly.
 

As I've said elsewhere, Rudd is not far off a major reshuffle - perhaps 12 months out from the election. I suspect some of the poorer performers will get shunted. Swan is probably safe (though not necessarily on performance). Gillard & Macklin will stay where they are, likewise Tanner & probably Roxon (if anything she will move up). Ludwig & Albanese are too powerful to move anywhere but sideways. Garrett & Fitzgibbon haven't impressed & Wong bores me too badly to actually tell if she is doing a good job. Anyone know how Shorten & Mike Kelly have been doing? Haven't been keeping track of folks like Carr & Conroy too carefully

I think Fitzgibbon will last until the next screw up (which is sure to happen before to long) and then he will be out on his ear. He's just too much of a political liability now.

On the others, Gillard has done a good job politically even though I don't agree with what she has done economically. Wong has done ok so far, its just that she has had to deal with the longest line of rent seekers in history to put together the CPRS layered on top of recession worries. You over-rate Roxon entirely, all she has done is to impose a tax hike disguised as a public health measure, which got bounced in the Senate and which the Government will have to pay back. I don't hold out any hope that she can pull off taking the public hospitals off the States as Rudd said they would if they don't meet their performance targets. AFAIC Swan is dangerously incompetant and he should be given the boot, though I doubt that it will happen. Conroy is a frickin joke with his internet filter and secret list of innocent businesses which will get blocked. I can't see how that idiot is going to be successful in getting the $4.7billion broadband network working. Macklin hasn't done much except to undermine the Northern Territory intervention, because they don't have the balls to stand on their principles and get rid of it.

personal view based on interaction with some and comment from associated.

Garrett - dud.  met him at the REGA conf approx 2 years ago - nice enough bloke but he'd already worked  out that he'd be unable to get past the party hacks and do things properly.  Sidelined

Wong.  WOFTAM out of her depth and hopeless with her brief.  Bought in to park Garrett 

Swan WOFTAM  hopelessly out of his depth.  They should have used Tanner instead.  The fact that he's still in is more of an indictment on the effectiveness of the Libs than his ability at the job

Conroy WOFTAM, should have paid more attention to the geeks than the zealots

Macklin - who's Jenny Macklin? .  the ultimate MIA

Roxon - according to contacts within she's as sharp as a billiard ball and hopelessly out of her depth. 

The only performers are Tanner, Gillard, McClelland and at a pinch Albanese..

For a party thats been in for 18months - thats not a good ratio. 

one of Rudds "kinder" nicknames is "the one man cabinet"

the more you look at what he's got, the more one can understand that its probably out of necessity.

going to the US to discuss Afghanistan and yet not taking his DefMin or DFATMin sends a loud message of confidence... :)