The Canberra Times is twisting the knife they’ve shoved into Liberal Leader Zed Seselja’s guts by questioning just which community groups director of electorate services Tio Faulkner has been spending his time with?
It’s an important question because according to Zed he’s been so busy “out in the community” that he’s never seen at the place of work he draws an ACT taxpayer funded salary from and in fact was so busy he couldn’t get his timesheets in for 22 months:
More than 20 community groups around Canberra say they have had no dealings with Tio Faulkner in his taxpayer-funded role as director of electorate services for Canberra Liberals’ leader Zed Seselja.
Most of the 22 community and professional groups, industry associations and lobbyists contacted by The Canberra Times said they had never heard of the Canberra Liberals president at the heart of the controversy engulfing Mr Seselja’s office.
Zed in turn says it was other community groups but, sadly, none he’s willing to name.
The real next stage in this saga now that Zed has explained himself to the Assembly [ABC article] will be when an auditor goes over 8 odd man years of backdated timesheets and cross references those probable fantasies to the cold hard reality of building and computer access logs.
Zed is trying to inoculate himself from that:
But he has cast doubt on the methods that will be used to track attendance, including a check of computer log-ins and swipe card access.
He says that is of little use when staff are required to work off-site.
Don’t worry though folks the ABC reports Zed says:
“At all times I’ve been satisfied that staff have been gainfully and appropriately employed,”
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Perhaps the CT should be looking at what exactly the advisors and staff of all members do instead of continuing to give one side of the story. I noted that Labor and the Greens voted down the valid request that any time recording audit be extended to all members.. It stinks a bit of the government holding on to government for dear life when they won’t extend the same transparency to themselves, particularly when I think similar problems were noted with all members’ record keeping last time this was looked at a few years back. I’d place money on some questionable practices existing across the assembly.
Should we rejoice that the Canberra Time is finally doing something that looks remotely like journalism? Does it mean that all those stories of improper conduct (in all its shades of meanings) by government might now be worth reporting? Let the floodgates open and get some real reporting in this town, on all political parties.
Why is it hard to believe that only one staffer in one office is not squeaky clean?
Methinks Zed is gone.
Thumper said :
I always felt General Zod was a bit of an asterisk until the Libs could find someone electable for the next race anyway.
Looks like someone at the Times watched “All The President’s Men” last week…
LOL at the Canberra Times canvassing community groups to see if they knew who Faulkner is.
I’d suggest if they did the same for the rest of the MLA’s and their staff the result would be nearly identical.
bd84 said :
And just who is Tio Faulkner’s equivalent at the ACT Branch of the ALP? They do not appear to have a specific job title such as “Director of Electorate Services” but Elections ACT advise that the registered person for electorate matters in the ALP is an Elias Hallaj who according to the website of ACT Labor has an office in 222 City Walk, Civic. Elias Hallaj is also the Secretary of the ALP in the ACT and I understand his “other” office is in Torrens Street, Braddon. So, what is the perceived “dual role” problem?
Pity the Canberra Times didn’t ask all the community groups who Elias Hallaj is. I had never heard of him until today.
Is Elias drawing a staffer’s salary DF?
johnboy said :
Why don’t you ask him?
dungfungus said :
Well I’m moderately confident he is not.
The problem here is Zed’s mob thought they were being very clever with these innovations and it’s coming back to bite them if for no other reason than laziness with the timesheets.
Frankly they should have been pinged when they stripped the MLAs of staff.
Those staff are not paid for by us for the greater glory of the Liberal party, they’re supposed to be assisting the MLA’s help the people they’ve been elected to represent.
It should be the people we’ve elected getting “out in the community” on our dime, not the party president.
‘tio’ and ‘zed’ – and they wonder why there is a disconnect with the community at large..?
but really, why should we not be satisfied with zed’s confirmation that his staff have actually been working, irrespective of the paucity of their timesheets? this is a man in whose hands a goodly chunk of the community would [more or less] happily place the adminsitration of the whole territory…
johnboy said :
well, according to zed’s comments to ross solly this morning, this is what happens, which is why these organisations had heard of / recalled the name of a ‘mere staffer’… and i liked one txter into the show who said he was a small business owner and had never met or heard of the community organisation represetnative ‘representing him’ – classic!
Maybe Tio is Mr Gillespie.
johnboy said :
Has the CT asked him? As I said, today was the first time I have ever heard of Elias Hallaj and 5 other people I asked have never heard of him either. Two people thought he owned a F&V shop.
I am “moderately confident” that Labor under Stanhope knew about the arrangements so the current kerfuffle is just a timely smokescreen attempt to hide the impact of the budget defecit.
If being “lazy with timesheets” is a crime then amassing a $180 million budget deficit must be a hanging offence.
Apart from us fellow Rioters, a few ABC Radio listeners and the declining CT subscriber base, no one is really interested in this sideshow anymore. If anything, it reinforces why ACT residents voted twice 25 years ago, for no self-government.
Being lazy with timesheets may not be a crime, although it doesnt speak well of the office as they generally arent challenging, but deliberately using tax payer funds for private uses might be.
Frankly who else has done what isnt a defence. The fact that someone has been murdered doesnt mean burglers shouldnt be prosecuted.
NoImRight said :
One of us needs to take medication. My reason is that I can’t comprehend what you are on about.
dungfungus said :
Comprehension failure is not new for you so seek whatever help you need. Or did you think this comment would pass for witty in the absence of something useful to say?
One day I met upon the stair,
A little man who wasn’t there.
He wasn’t there again today,
Oh, how I wish he’d stay away.
Ben_Dover said :
Your point is?
all public servants should have to sign in and sign out every time the enter and leave the building. They also should have to work at night so the roads aren’t congested every morning and afternoon.
housebound said :
It’s been a long time, maybe they’ve forgotten how. Clearly the various auditors and things don’t find these instances any more… some of the entities I’ve worked in, I could not fathom how they passed audits, until I realised that they wrote their own procedures and the TOR for the auditors…
So if the auditors and whatnot don’t uncover fraudulent use of taxpayer money, I guess that leaves the media and if we don’t have one, then we’re stuffed. Hopefully the CT will get a taste for blood and start sniffing around a few more filing cabinets. I’m sure plenty of leads and gossip comes their way.
Some of the Crimes’s informants are hardly objective. Marie Coleman, for example, is an old loyal ALP hand – appointed to the Labor gubmint’s Social Welfare Commission in 1975. She used to do fundraisers for the ALP for years. Absolutely at the core of the party machinations and very, very culturally “NSW Labor”.
I think Marie Coleman left the reservation when she started savaging infill in Dickson.
johnboy said :
True! But I bet the urge to stick the boot into the Tories would never, ever leave her!
My husband & I run a small business in Canberra & like the majority of small business owners, we are balancing on the edge of losing everything thanks to union pressure/insurance premiums/ludicrous amounts of unnecessary paperwork/non-payment of work completed.
No one in the labor government has ever made a minute of their time available to speak with us or listen to our concerns for our industry. They are more concerned with keeping their labor bosses at CFMEU happy & not tread on their toes (that alone is a full time job, leaving them available to the rest of us).
On the flipside, from our first meeting with Zed & Tio, they have consistently made themselves available to us anytime we need them. They genuinely share our concerns for our local community & businesses struggling under the labor government. Zed & Tio have completely changed my opinion of politicians & personally I have found them to be dedicated to their community & genuinely good people.
Why the heck are we worrying about time sheets when we should be more concerned with how the labor government & the unions are screwing up our country?!
SocialHandGrenade said :
*unavailable*
SocialHandGrenade said :
Really? So why did he scupper the power generator/data centre that was going to be built next to the Mugga tip at the behest of a few neurotic NIMBYs in Macarthur?
He’s an opportunist.
Incidentally, have you seen this cartoon?
http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/first_post.png
HenryBG said :
I don’t know. Why don’t you pick up the phone & ask him? When we used that tactic he actually made the time to sit down & talk to us & has done what he can to help us. I guess the ‘Nimbys’ did the same? Why didn’t you??
HenryBG said :
Ah man, I believe Stanhope was in charge at that stage?
SocialHandGrenade said :
Is this a political broadcast?