Chief Minister holidayed in the south of france with data tampering Kate Jackson

Mysteryman said :

Mental Health Worker said :

In the early days of this issue, there were rumours that the perp was the partner of a relative of the Chief Minister. Now she’s just a “friend” of her sister. Is this subtle homophobia?

MHW

Oh geez. Why is there always someone who has to go looking for “homophobia” that’s not there?

I only believe in gay marriage when both chicks are hot.

Nice to see all the Labor staffers coming out of the woodwork in this thread.

Mental Health Worker said :

In the early days of this issue, there were rumours that the perp was the partner of a relative of the Chief Minister. Now she’s just a “friend” of her sister. Is this subtle homophobia?

MHW

Oh geez. Why is there always someone who has to go looking for “homophobia” that’s not there?

loosebrown said :

If anyone held me responsible for the actions of my sister’s mates, I’d be well and truly f**ked.

Go Katy!

If your sister worked for her mate, and her mate worked for you, then her actions in your workplace would be something that you might well have to answer some hard questions on.

If anyone held me responsible for the actions of my sister’s mates, I’d be well and truly f**ked.

Go Katy!

PantsMan said :

dungfungus said :

Mental Health Worker said :

In the early days of this issue, there were rumours that the perp was the partner of a relative of the Chief Minister. Now she’s just a “friend” of her sister. Is this subtle homophobia?

MHW

“We are just good friends”
About as subtle as a brick in flight.

Let’s have some equality here. Why should the not be hammered be cause of their sexuality?

I’m a lot more interested in whether our fearless leader can improve public transport, fix the health system and provide quality education for our kids than whether her sister bats for the other team.

dungfungus said :

Mental Health Worker said :

In the early days of this issue, there were rumours that the perp was the partner of a relative of the Chief Minister. Now she’s just a “friend” of her sister. Is this subtle homophobia?

MHW

“We are just good friends”
About as subtle as a brick in flight.

Let’s have some equality here. Why should the not be hammered be cause of their sexuality?

Pork Hunt said :

EvanJames said :

How_Canberran said :

Now I have started humming ‘Lost in France’ by Bonnie Tyler.

Don’t…. don’t…. argh too late!

I hope they haven’t been to Argentina as well, that’d make you cry…

The also went to Istanbul, …or was it Constantinople?

Mental Health Worker said :

In the early days of this issue, there were rumours that the perp was the partner of a relative of the Chief Minister. Now she’s just a “friend” of her sister. Is this subtle homophobia?

MHW

“We are just good friends”
About as subtle as a brick in flight.

Masquara said :

Katie Gallagher complained that the Australian tourism ad campaign isn’t featuring the ACT.

I’m not suggesting that she holidays in the ACT – but surely it’s a better look for a Labor politician to be seen to holiday somewhere where she will be supporting post-flood, post-cyclone economies up north – like Julia Gillard?

Hmmmm, and wasn’t the South of France where Marie Antoinette attempted to flee before her execution?

It’s called the “Canberra Cringe” – the ACT Government actively promotes the cringe by avoiding as far as possible to deal with local suppliers and service providers. I mean, given a choice of going to a warehouse in Hume or a sumptuous virtual head office in Melbourne (with lunch) on a procurement assignment, what would a normal person do?
The same goes with holidays as we have seen with the CM and some of her family & friends who prefer the South of France to the equally good vineyards of the Canberra region.

poetix said :

Pork Hunt said :

EvanJames said :

How_Canberran said :

Now I have started humming ‘Lost in France’ by Bonnie Tyler.

Don’t…. don’t…. argh too late!

I hope they haven’t been to Argentina as well, that’d make you cry…

Well…

…My baby takes the morning train
He works from nine to five and then

“My baby takes the morning three Action buses to travel 5km
he works from 9 to 5 and then
He takes another three Action buses home again…”

MHW

In the early days of this issue, there were rumours that the perp was the partner of a relative of the Chief Minister. Now she’s just a “friend” of her sister. Is this subtle homophobia?

MHW

Katie Gallagher complained that the Australian tourism ad campaign isn’t featuring the ACT.

I’m not suggesting that she holidays in the ACT – but surely it’s a better look for a Labor politician to be seen to holiday somewhere where she will be supporting post-flood, post-cyclone economies up north – like Julia Gillard?

Hmmmm, and wasn’t the South of France where Marie Antoinette attempted to flee before her execution?

I was amazed at WIN News coverage of this tonight, I thought they ran very soft.

Perhaps they dont want a repeat of 2008 when Geraldine Nordfeldt was removed weeks out from the Assembly election from political reporting, and WIN sued, for reporting material that was in the public domain.

Much easier to just run soft and let Katy bumble her way through another ‘not my fault’ line.

Chip said :

Some of the attacks on Katy Gallagher seem akin to bullying or like the sort of treatment an injured animal gets from its former mates. She impresses me as being a decent person who tries hard to do the right thing. Zed strikes me as a decent person who sometimes gives into the temptation to join with the bullies. Kate Jackson probably just thought she’d try and make a a lot of hardworking decent people look better. Totally wrong but probably not part of a wider conspiracy. About a year ago I saw Katy in the supermarket buying a pack of cheap ball point pens amongst other groceries. Couldn’t help but muse about how many public servants would get them for free from the stores cupboard.

I bought some of those cheap ball point pens as well. They tasted horrible.
Your point is?

Some of the attacks on Katy Gallagher seem akin to bullying or like the sort of treatment an injured animal gets from its former mates. She impresses me as being a decent person who tries hard to do the right thing. Zed strikes me as a decent person who sometimes gives into the temptation to join with the bullies. Kate Jackson probably just thought she’d try and make a a lot of hardworking decent people look better. Totally wrong but probably not part of a wider conspiracy. About a year ago I saw Katy in the supermarket buying a pack of cheap ball point pens amongst other groceries. Couldn’t help but muse about how many public servants would get them for free from the stores cupboard.

Ray Polglaze said :

Fair comment dpm, but you may have got part of the message. The ACT Government has record keeping “systems” that capture some records. But they don’t reliably capture all of the records. So you can never know what other records there might be that may be critically important to understanding what is going on. This is a real problem. In response to follow up FOI requests and requests for review, Housing ACT kept finding important documents they should have already found.

This is different from Centrelink where once something is done on their computers it is captured by their electronic record keeping system and can be easily accessed in response to an FOI request.

Hahaha! Sorry, I was only stirring. I agree with you 100%. In fact, I tried to say something similar in an earlier thread, without much success.
http://the-riotact.com/katy-gallagher-presides-over-industrial-scale-data-fraud-because-she-cares-ok/77892/comment-page-2#comments

My guess is the system they are using for this was never designed to do what they are (also) using it for now (i.e. ED waiting times) so things like audit/security logs were never considered an issue. Then, when they were asked to report ED waiting times they decided to use it, without considering if it was a valid and safe tool for that purpose?! Apparently this has now bit them. I suppose it shows that if something is designed so it *can* be used incorrectly, it will be….

How_Canberran said :

Now I have started humming ‘Lost in France’ by Bonnie Tyler.

me too

So she was holidaying in France with Kate Jackson in 2010. She missed the Melrose High 40th anniversary reunion and open day for that?

Pork Hunt said :

EvanJames said :

How_Canberran said :

Now I have started humming ‘Lost in France’ by Bonnie Tyler.

Don’t…. don’t…. argh too late!

I hope they haven’t been to Argentina as well, that’d make you cry…

Well…

…My baby takes the morning train
He works from nine to five and then

Fair comment dpm, but you may have got part of the message. The ACT Government has record keeping “systems” that capture some records. But they don’t reliably capture all of the records. So you can never know what other records there might be that may be critically important to understanding what is going on. This is a real problem. In response to follow up FOI requests and requests for review, Housing ACT kept finding important documents they should have already found.

This is different from Centrelink where once something is done on their computers it is captured by their electronic record keeping system and can be easily accessed in response to an FOI request.

EvanJames said :

How_Canberran said :

Now I have started humming ‘Lost in France’ by Bonnie Tyler.

Don’t…. don’t…. argh too late!

I hope they haven’t been to Argentina as well, that’d make you cry…

Ray Polglaze said :

Deref #15 is raising a major issue and that is the failure of the ACT Government to put in place robust electronic record keeping systems. This is a major failure for which Gallagher and her Government should be held accountable. It means that the ACT Government can’t fulfil its basic administrative and legal responsibilities because it doesn’t have robust or comprehensive records of what has been said or done by its officers.

Part of a robust electronic would be limits on who can change and delete records. Another part of a robust electronic record keeping system would be to have comprehensive and accessible back up archives. Then if the records were subsequently changed, it would be possible to go to the original records in the backup archive.

The failure to put in place robust electronic record keeping goes pack to the early years of the last decade and first years of the Stanhope – Gallagher Labor Government. When records and communications where shifting from paper to computers, and other governments (e.g. Victoria) where putting in place comprehensive electronic record keeping to ensure they captured and kept the records, the Stanhope Government made a decision to not put in place an electronic record keeping system.

Instead, the Stanhope Government decided to keep a paper record keeping system while communications and records transferred to electronic systems. Supposedly the records would be printed and kept on paper files but are not. Since then, the ACT Government has baulked at the cost of actually putting in place robust electronic record keeping systems.

The broad consequence of this that the ACT Government has not addressed the many issues involved in having robust and comprehensive electronic record keeping systems. The process looks akin to the people who grew up with horses and carriages struggling to make sense of cars and buses.

I discovered this when I did multiple FOIs on Housing ACT in an attempt to make sense of what still looks like four years of idiocy from multiple senior officers in that agency. Ultimately I concluded that they didn’t have an electronic record keeping system and because much of their communications where being done by email, they therefore didn’t have a comprehensive record keeping system. It seemed like getting them to satisfy an FOI request was like getting them to search through the garbage at a tip for relevant documents or trying to get their staff to find their old lost socks.

The implications of this are much bigger than people appreciate. While with robust and comprehensive electronic or paper record keeping systems it should be easily possible to identify all those who had made alterations at Canberra Hospital. In the real sloppy reality of ACT Government record keeping, this may be difficult or impossible.

But rather than this just being seen as the disappointing reality, it should be recognised as a basic failure of administration by the Labor Government. It’s similar to having not put in place robust accounting systems and just reporting that lots of the accounts have been changed but we don’t know who or how or what money might have gone where. This would be recognised as a basic failure. The failure to have in place robust electronic record keeping systems should also be recognised as a basic failure.

(It is interesting though that no one seems to have talked about going to the back up tapes which exist for ACT Government Agencies. This is an old and inadequate system but people may find things if they looked.)

If I had started a drinking game where I downed a shot each time I read ‘robust’ and/or ‘comprehensive’ in that post, i’d have been under the table by the third para! hahahaha!

Deref #15 is raising a major issue and that is the failure of the ACT Government to put in place robust electronic record keeping systems. This is a major failure for which Gallagher and her Government should be held accountable. It means that the ACT Government can’t fulfil its basic administrative and legal responsibilities because it doesn’t have robust or comprehensive records of what has been said or done by its officers.

Part of a robust electronic would be limits on who can change and delete records. Another part of a robust electronic record keeping system would be to have comprehensive and accessible back up archives. Then if the records were subsequently changed, it would be possible to go to the original records in the backup archive.

The failure to put in place robust electronic record keeping goes pack to the early years of the last decade and first years of the Stanhope – Gallagher Labor Government. When records and communications where shifting from paper to computers, and other governments (e.g. Victoria) where putting in place comprehensive electronic record keeping to ensure they captured and kept the records, the Stanhope Government made a decision to not put in place an electronic record keeping system.

Instead, the Stanhope Government decided to keep a paper record keeping system while communications and records transferred to electronic systems. Supposedly the records would be printed and kept on paper files but are not. Since then, the ACT Government has baulked at the cost of actually putting in place robust electronic record keeping systems.

The broad consequence of this that the ACT Government has not addressed the many issues involved in having robust and comprehensive electronic record keeping systems. The process looks akin to the people who grew up with horses and carriages struggling to make sense of cars and buses.

I discovered this when I did multiple FOIs on Housing ACT in an attempt to make sense of what still looks like four years of idiocy from multiple senior officers in that agency. Ultimately I concluded that they didn’t have an electronic record keeping system and because much of their communications where being done by email, they therefore didn’t have a comprehensive record keeping system. It seemed like getting them to satisfy an FOI request was like getting them to search through the garbage at a tip for relevant documents or trying to get their staff to find their old lost socks.

The implications of this are much bigger than people appreciate. While with robust and comprehensive electronic or paper record keeping systems it should be easily possible to identify all those who had made alterations at Canberra Hospital. In the real sloppy reality of ACT Government record keeping, this may be difficult or impossible.

But rather than this just being seen as the disappointing reality, it should be recognised as a basic failure of administration by the Labor Government. It’s similar to having not put in place robust accounting systems and just reporting that lots of the accounts have been changed but we don’t know who or how or what money might have gone where. This would be recognised as a basic failure. The failure to have in place robust electronic record keeping systems should also be recognised as a basic failure.

(It is interesting though that no one seems to have talked about going to the back up tapes which exist for ACT Government Agencies. This is an old and inadequate system but people may find things if they looked.)

HenryBG said :

PantsMan said :

HenryBG said :

I think the question I’d be interested in is, “How many other friends of the Chief Minister are holding plum jobs in the Public Service for which they lack some necessary qualification?”

Some free advice to Zed if he gets in, purge the top of the ACTPS ASAP! After 11 years they are mostly just Labor flunkies who will hang him out to dry otherwise.

Purge them and don’t bother replacing them. Use the money saved to…

Exactly.

I’d like a candidate not too afraid to point out that our Government is far too big.

HenryBG said :

PantsMan said :

HenryBG said :

I think the question I’d be interested in is, “How many other friends of the Chief Minister are holding plum jobs in the Public Service for which they lack some necessary qualification?”

Some free advice to Zed if he gets in, purge the top of the ACTPS ASAP! After 11 years they are mostly just Labor flunkies who will hang him out to dry otherwise.

Purge them and don’t bother replacing them. Use the money saved to reduce Rates and vehicle licensing fees.

Do a new fit-out on the 5-star resort for criminals so as to increase its capacity by 5x in order to bring its cost-per-prisoner in line with the rest of Australia. Sack the gourmet caterers and feed them beans, bangers and mash to save even more money. Sack all the useless psychologists and scoial workers and put them on chain-gangs to get some activity happening at the ACT’s numerous phantom “road-works” sites. Get some more white-collar inmates by actually imprisoning people involved in corrupt or dishonest activity. Encourage through financial incentives all inmates and their skanky wives to get the snip/their tubes tied.

Ban pokies in clubs to reduce the ALP’s ability to fund their swarm of mischievous political “staffers”.

Eliminate the Human Rights Commission entirely and leave it to the Commonwealth to take care of Federal issues.

Review all government-housing tenancies and spill all tenants occupying more bedrooms than they need to smaller properties. Sell off the resulting excess housing stock to allow young first-home buyers to get a look-in to the housing market.

I’m sure if somebody sensible got in, they could halve our rates and other fees we pay by cutting back on all the rubbish our rates and fees are used for.

I’m beginning to warm to you Henry…..(oh s***!)

HenryBG said :

PantsMan said :

HenryBG said :

I think the question I’d be interested in is, “How many other friends of the Chief Minister are holding plum jobs in the Public Service for which they lack some necessary qualification?”

Some free advice to Zed if he gets in, purge the top of the ACTPS ASAP! After 11 years they are mostly just Labor flunkies who will hang him out to dry otherwise.

Purge them and don’t bother replacing them. Use the money saved to reduce Rates and vehicle licensing fees.

Do a new fit-out on the 5-star resort for criminals so as to increase its capacity by 5x in order to bring its cost-per-prisoner in line with the rest of Australia. Sack the gourmet caterers and feed them beans, bangers and mash to save even more money. Sack all the useless psychologists and scoial workers and put them on chain-gangs to get some activity happening at the ACT’s numerous phantom “road-works” sites. Get some more white-collar inmates by actually imprisoning people involved in corrupt or dishonest activity. Encourage through financial incentives all inmates and their skanky wives to get the snip/their tubes tied.

Ban pokies in clubs to reduce the ALP’s ability to fund their swarm of mischievous political “staffers”.

Eliminate the Human Rights Commission entirely and leave it to the Commonwealth to take care of Federal issues.

Review all government-housing tenancies and spill all tenants occupying more bedrooms than they need to smaller properties. Sell off the resulting excess housing stock to allow young first-home buyers to get a look-in to the housing market.

I’m sure if somebody sensible got in, they could halve our rates and other fees we pay by cutting back on all the rubbish our rates and fees are used for.

Give this man a ticket at the next election! Classic! Hahahaha!! 🙂

PantsMan said :

HenryBG said :

I think the question I’d be interested in is, “How many other friends of the Chief Minister are holding plum jobs in the Public Service for which they lack some necessary qualification?”

Some free advice to Zed if he gets in, purge the top of the ACTPS ASAP! After 11 years they are mostly just Labor flunkies who will hang him out to dry otherwise.

Purge them and don’t bother replacing them. Use the money saved to reduce Rates and vehicle licensing fees.

Do a new fit-out on the 5-star resort for criminals so as to increase its capacity by 5x in order to bring its cost-per-prisoner in line with the rest of Australia. Sack the gourmet caterers and feed them beans, bangers and mash to save even more money. Sack all the useless psychologists and scoial workers and put them on chain-gangs to get some activity happening at the ACT’s numerous phantom “road-works” sites. Get some more white-collar inmates by actually imprisoning people involved in corrupt or dishonest activity. Encourage through financial incentives all inmates and their skanky wives to get the snip/their tubes tied.

Ban pokies in clubs to reduce the ALP’s ability to fund their swarm of mischievous political “staffers”.

Eliminate the Human Rights Commission entirely and leave it to the Commonwealth to take care of Federal issues.

Review all government-housing tenancies and spill all tenants occupying more bedrooms than they need to smaller properties. Sell off the resulting excess housing stock to allow young first-home buyers to get a look-in to the housing market.

I’m sure if somebody sensible got in, they could halve our rates and other fees we pay by cutting back on all the rubbish our rates and fees are used for.

dpm said :

johnboy said :

You don’t need forensic data to find wrongdoers (it just makes it easier).

Grilling the staff in interviews, checking inconsistencies, and comparing periods of wrongdoing to employment histories, rostering, and leave-taking can narrow things down very dramatically.

I do not believe they could not find them if they were sufficiently determined. Therefore in my opinion they do not want to find them.

…or Kate Jackson could just do the right thing (for once) and tell…..?

If Kate Jackson was paid $200K a year then she was very senior executive in Health, with a lot of staff reporting to her. Senior execs dont the work, the staff do…a few well asked questions should reveal all!

Kaie is a joke.

HenryBG said :

I think the question I’d be interested in is, “How many other friends of the Chief Minister are holding plum jobs in the Public Service for which they lack some necessary qualification?”

Some free advice to Zed if he gets in, purge the top of the ACTPS ASAP! After 11 years they are mostly just Labor flunkies who will hang him out to dry otherwise.

I think Jon Stanhope was bicycling across Spain about the same time Katy Gallagher was in France. With “ambassadors” like this, it is no wonder the Australian tourism industry is going down the gurgler.

HenryBG said :

How she just admits, “Kate, my sister and I holidayed in France together” instead of this, “uh, I was somewhere with my sister and, uh, this Kate person who’s somebody else’s friend and who I don’t really know all that well happened to visit”.

I think the question I’d be interested in is, “How many other friends of the Chief Minister are holding plum jobs in the Public Service for which they lack some necessary qualification?”

Is that the current Chief Minister or the previous one you are referring to? You will need a lot of paper and a few biros to make a list.

jase! said :

dungfungus said :

According to Katy Gallagher’s financial interests and declarations on the ACT Legislative Assembly website, she accepted hospitality from the Qantas Chairman’s Lounge. The declaration was made 18.2.10. It is normal practice for politicians to book economy and then accept an upgrade to premium economy or beyond. Some declare it, some don’t. Access to a Qantas Chairman’s Lounge is part of a holding a business class ticket.

as much as I hate to stand up and defend this miserable government and the miserable leader of it I have to say you are wrong about the Chairman’s Lounge. Access to the Business class lounge requires you to be holding a business ticket, access to the Chairman’s lounge requires you to be invited regardless of the ticket being held

I concede I was wrong as you point out. I assumed what I said because the one and only time I flew business class with Qantas I was directed to the Chaiman’s Lounge when I checked in. I haven’t been able to afford to fly Qantas since then.

‘The truthful, well-weighed answer
That tells the blacker lie —
The loud, uneasy virtue
The anger feigned at will,
To overbear a witness
And make the Court keep still.’

Rudyard Kipling, ‘Gehazi’

johnboy said :

Or to put it another way a decent high school principal could crack this mystery in about a week.

Scooby Doo could crack it quicker. Those pesky public servants. Dagnabbit!

johnboy said :

You don’t need forensic data to find wrongdoers (it just makes it easier).

Grilling the staff in interviews, checking inconsistencies, and comparing periods of wrongdoing to employment histories, rostering, and leave-taking can narrow things down very dramatically.

I do not believe they could not find them if they were sufficiently determined. Therefore in my opinion they do not want to find them.

…or Kate Jackson could just do the right thing (for once) and tell…..?

I am at a loss for words about how this town and certain sections of the media react to things. The Opposition is doing its job in holding the government to account in a scandal that does go to the Chief Minister. Clearly the Chief Minister didn’t orchestrate or desire the systemic fraud with the health stats however it does not change the fact that a person who is very close to the Chief Minister falsified the stats over a prolonged period of time and one direct result was the government and the Chief Minister looked better for it.

Apparently the Chief Minister withheld information from the Auditor-General which you should never ever do.

So that brings us to the revelations in the Canberra Times today. I thought the Canberra Times treated the story appropriately. That cannot be said for ABC and the appalling interview Alex Sloan conducted with Zed Seselja.

Clearly Alex didn’t like Zed’s approach to the interview and interrupted him on mulitple occasions and subsequently read out a myriad of texts and tweets from listeners whose major gripe was the fact that Zed pronounces Katy’s last name incorrectly.

So taking the opportunity to put the boot into Zed, Alex lined him up on the fact that he wasn’t pronouncing Katy’s last name correctly!

Zed could be forgiven for thinking he’d entered the twighlight zone. The Chief Minister kept relevant information from the Auditor-General about her relationship with the person who falsified nearly 12,000 health records to make the Chief Minister look better and Alex Sloan thinks the best thing to do is put the boot into him about the silent ‘g’ in the Chief Minister’s surname!!!

That interview was the most farcical and biased I’ve heard in 15 years listening to local ABC radio.

I scratch my head sometimes.

Yep, fair call.

johnboy said :

You don’t need forensic data to find wrongdoers (it just makes it easier).

Grilling the staff in interviews, checking inconsistencies, and comparing periods of wrongdoing to employment histories, rostering, and leave-taking can narrow things down very dramatically.

I do not believe they could not find them if they were sufficiently determined. Therefore in my opinion they do not want to find them.

Of course we could find out what really happened. The problem is that when you call in a specialist service provider to do such an investigation they often uncover other ‘stuff’ along the way. Then there’s the issue of what you do with the report, generally they contain information that should not be made public.

rescuedg said :

I agree it was stupid on the part of Government to say “there probably weren’t any other tamperers and it would be too hard to find them.”

They’re right.

The system allows anonymous and untraceable entries of and modifications to the data. They were warned time and time again about the danger and that, sooner or later, it would turn around and bite them in the arse.

The question we should be asking is “what are they doing to put proper controls on the data collection?” I bet I know the answer.

How_Canberran said :

Now I have started humming ‘Lost in France’ by Bonnie Tyler.

Don’t…. don’t…. argh too late!

dungfungus said :

According to Katy Gallagher’s financial interests and declarations on the ACT Legislative Assembly website, she accepted hospitality from the Qantas Chairman’s Lounge. The declaration was made 18.2.10. It is normal practice for politicians to book economy and then accept an upgrade to premium economy or beyond. Some declare it, some don’t. Access to a Qantas Chairman’s Lounge is part of a holding a business class ticket.

as much as I hate to stand up and defend this miserable government and the miserable leader of it I have to say you are wrong about the Chairman’s Lounge. Access to the Business class lounge requires you to be holding a business ticket, access to the Chairman’s lounge requires you to be invited regardless of the ticket being held

Regardless of whether the revelations to date amount to bombshells, for this voter (to misquote the famous saying) the quacking is growing ever more duck-like.

How Ms Gallagher and her family (and likewise other Ministers and MLAs) choose to spend their money is their business – nonetheless the news of a holiday in the south of France, catching up with family and friend/s will not go down particularly well with Canberrans who are worrying about the winter heating bills, and the annual rates notice etc. etc. For those of us who have such worries, it will, perhaps, help to explain why those who run this town apparently don’t understand the concerns of others about the galloping rate of cost increases for utilities and other basics and seem, instead, to think that most Canberra households can well afford such increases.

Now I have started humming ‘Lost in France’ by Bonnie Tyler.

According to Katy Gallagher’s financial interests and declarations on the ACT Legislative Assembly website, she accepted hospitality from the Qantas Chairman’s Lounge. The declaration was made 18.2.10. It is normal practice for politicians to book economy and then accept an upgrade to premium economy or beyond. Some declare it, some don’t. Access to a Qantas Chairman’s Lounge is part of a holding a business class ticket.
Also noted is that her spouse is a public servant on a salary of $107k. Typical Labor “working family”
I am concerned that the Chief Minister sought advice from the Attorney General who told her to keep quiet about the “French Connection”
If this isn’t a conflict of interest I don’t know what is.

She’s now, probably a consultant earning double.

Where is Kate Jackson working now? In which department has she been given a cushy job as a thank-you for taking the hit?

She must have been given some sort of assurances to resign from a job paying over $200k – would be interesting to know.

It’s not the scandal that gets you, it’s the coverup.

How she just admits, “Kate, my sister and I holidayed in France together” instead of this, “uh, I was somewhere with my sister and, uh, this Kate person who’s somebody else’s friend and who I don’t really know all that well happened to visit”.

I think the question I’d be interested in is, “How many other friends of the Chief Minister are holding plum jobs in the Public Service for which they lack some necessary qualification?”

.So the Libs are playing the guilty through association and not being upfront card.Unless there was some form of collusion who gives a s***. Politics can be such a grubby business.

I agree it was stupid on the part of Government to say “there probably weren’t any other tamperers and it would be too hard to find them.”

But since the initial revelations of tampering there hasnt really been a “bombshell”. Just further clarification of the initally available information.

I think if the CM had announced a credible program to seek out the other data tamperers suspected by the auditor-general I’d have more faith in her as these bombshells keep rolling out.

So Kate Jackson (the tamperer) is a close friend of the Chief Minister’s sister. This was already pretty much known from the very beginning.

As soon as the allegations were made the Chief Minister stepped aside to allow the next most senior Minister to investigate. I think this action made it pretty clear that the Chief Minister acknowledged that she was too close in this individual to do an investigation without a clear conflict of interest.

What would you have had the Chief Minister do differently?

I don’t think it would be fair on her sister to expect the Chief Minister (while an investigation is still ongoing) to give a detailed history of every interaction she has had with the tamperer especially seeing as the Chief Minister is not actually accussed of any wrongdoing.

If I understand her statements on The Beast the Chief Minister is only guilty of trying to protect people.