24 July 2010

Zebra-Lundy!

| johnboy
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The ABC brings word that The ALP’s Senator Kate Lundy has been caught out using her electoral resources to give a sister a hand:

ACT Senator Kate Lundy has admitted her staff made a genuine mistake by sending out a press release on behalf of a fellow Labor candidate.

The release was written by ALP candidate for Canberra, Gai Brodtmann, and detailed her response to the start of a new women’s and children’s hospital in the national capital.

Under the electoral rules, public money cannot be used to promote unelected candidates.

Senator Lundy says the release was sent by email, and taxpayers are not out of pocket.

The Department of Finance is investigating. One wonders how much staff time went into the media release?

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“Senator Lundy has admitted her staff made a genuine mistake”. I’m not sure what the proper legal response to that mistake is but I’m confident she will be happy to accept that response.

Kate Lundy is one of the most ethical, intelligent and hard working people I have ever met in my life. I would describe her as a great Australian which I’m sure would embarrass the hell out of her. Actions speak louder than words so you might want to have a look at all the work she has done for all of us over the years.

Skid, I resigned in Feb 2010 from the ALP.
I’d be prepared to take that bet you’re offering, since I find that in this election campaign more than any I remember, the level of trivial point-scoring is appalling – mainly caused by the determination of both sides to run campaigns devoid of substance.
And the quote you used from 2008, if you bother to read it, is quite critical of an ALP MLA (although unnamed).
My comment above stands.

Aurelius said :

And for everyone else:
…get some perspective.

From an old 2008 Election thread:

Aurelius said :

I can say that in my 13 years attending Labor party meetings…

I’d put money on you trying to extract maximum gain from this if it was a candidate from any other party.
Your biases are showing.

Just a point for One @ 1: The offence you mention does not exist. Care to clarify your claim? The closest offence I can find that might be what you’re thinking of is Crimes Act 474.17, and that’s about using a carriage service to send harassing or abusive material, which this does not seem to have been.

And for everyone else:
yeah, sometimes, especially during election campaigns, there can be unpaid volunteer staff working in electoral offices, so that’s possible.
It’s also possible the press release was prepared elsewhere by unpaid staff (perhaps the candidate in question) then forwarded to Sen. Lundy’s office with a request “Pls send this out to that mailing list we discussed?” and so the total amount of resources used is in the order of a couple of minutes.
Both scenarios are commonplace.
I don’t know what did happen in this situation, but really – get some perspective. There’s a lot of waste in the bureaucracy and there may be some in this situation. But if there is, it’s not going to be a lot.

With millions of dollars being wasted in areas of defence – perhaps we should put more money into a review into a breach of accountability and investigate a mistake that cost less than $0 to the tax payer but did take away 2 seconds of a staffers time which would otherwise have been spent serving the community.

Affirmative Action Man9:40 am 26 Jul 10

Beautifully put Mr E.

The cushiest job in Australia.

She was probably too busy with her snout in the trough to notice what was going on anyway.

It’s obviously easy being stupid and lazy when you have your ample arse wedged in a safe seat!

Senator Lundy says the release was sent by email, and taxpayers are not out of pocket.

Don’t you know that party hacks work for free?

hellspice said :

“Senator Lundy says the release was sent by email, and taxpayers are not out of pocket.”

did she use her iphone on her own data plan ? and the staff did it on a lunch break i guess. time to light the torches and get the noose out of the closet

I keep my noose by the front door, next to the pitch fork…

If end-stage media releases for another candidate are being:
prepared using hard resources of her electoral office, and
reviewed by staff paid for in part by the taxpayer, and
polished on computer systems paid for by the taxpayer, and
sent out on a connection paid for by taxpayers,
then its unlikely that the simple data/bandwidth expense used by just the one mass-email would be what Dept of Finance are concerned about.

The Parliament Rep on the National Archives Advisory Committee, with a history of sitting on the IMT senate Select panels and public administration committees, makes a rookie ‘mistake’ of confusing government information management assets for party resources, and she wants us to consider it inconsequential?
Thats a standard she wouldn’t let anybody else get away with, and with her history should hold herself to the higher standard, and not prevent an investigation…

stirred408 said :

Honestly, Johnboy, One – you both sound incredibly petty.

Not at all. Politicians need to be held to account. And when Lundy says no taxpayer’s money was involved – who drafted it? Who proofed it? Who cleared it? Who discussed it? Who accessed the distribution list? Whose distribution list – distribution lists cost a lot of time to create and maintain. Pretending it didn’t cost administration was more than disingenuous – it was an untruth on Lundy’s part.

This may have been a small issue – but how many other irregularities have never come to light?

Her office should be audited.

“Senator Lundy says the release was sent by email, and taxpayers are not out of pocket.”

did she use her iphone on her own data plan ? and the staff did it on a lunch break i guess. time to light the torches and get the noose out of the closet

Honestly, Johnboy, One – you both sound incredibly petty.

Meanwhile Senator Lundry has membership in a political party that charges people with criminal convictions. I loved how she blamed the staff – those bad lemmings are at it again – did any of them work for Jon Stanhope?

Never mind the IMPROPER USE OF CARRAGE SERVICE / COMPUTER which anyone else would be charged with…

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