Stanhope weeps

If Stanhope wants a right to privacy he should retire from public life.

Oh, okay, Barking uses “gay loving” as a term of abuse. Which is enough to instantly dismiss him into the second-rank of rabid fools.

Feel better now?

I’m a bit miffed I didn’t get a guernsey simbo!

Nope, they’re just ranting for the sake of ranting. JB likes to believe he’s Bernstein and/or Woodward, and this is his chance for a Watergate. Thumper and Maelinar have legitimate grievances as members of the SES (who have remained underfunded and undersupported). Ditto VG, as a member of our Federal constabularly. And Nyssa, as a member of our teaching force. SGS is just a right-wing-talkback radio listener. Bonfire’s a looney. VY is a looney with a car.

As for the rest of them – well, this is a public board. You get all types here – some people have hidden agendas, some don’t. Some randomly beleive that gay marriage is the worst thing ever since Steve Waugh retired as Australian Captain.

My advice is, don’t stress. We’ll be onto something else in a second. And if anybody believes Riotact represents the voting public of Canberra in any meaninful way, dear god are they in for a massive shock next election day.

avacry wrote: The shame is Stanhope’s inability to answer a simple question. Not doing so shows he lacks integrity.

but there is another (equally valid) reading of his answer, that he DID have integrity – regarding his principles on privacy.

why do you privelege one reading above the other? that is the question no-one objecting to my posts (and pandy’s) have answered. c’mon. why?

are you smyth acolytes?

Very Good, does Grant have a close association with our tearful mayor?

Maybe we should just elect a board who could then appoint a CEO for the ACT. This person could then focus on delivering key services (to which their performance bonus would be tied). Of course, they would be available 24×7 (like real executives actually are), and would understand things like performance metrics and revenue results.

Then we could actually get some real societal benefit from Australia’s boom time, and we wouldn’t have to waste time on stupid crap like gay marriage (unless both chicks are hot).

Hansard suggests he was made a special magistrate in 2002.

I would have thought there was a bit of difference between sitting two or three days a fortnight on a traffic/small claims list as a Special Magistrate to being given a $180K p/a appointment for life as a fulltime Magistrate.

Shrinking the “ACT” down to the NCA boundaries would seem to be the obvious solution as the Federales have list interest in having a city.

Agree.

Lack of response to the airport is delat by:
Not providing an ACTION bus service out there.
Not fixing the roads.
I reckon the guvmint is doing a pretty good job then. They cannot do anything else. In fact in Federal Parliament there is a bill to restrict these types of mega-complexes from being built on airports around the country.

From my ten and a bit year study of successive ACT CMs he is no more or less hopeless than the others. He cannot be blamed for the fires though it seems some of his handling of issues surrounding them leave more than a bit to be desired – but who in the ACT had experience with such a catastrophic event? I doubt I will vote for his mob at the next election, but that decision will be made on a failure to future proof the place, eg the lack of response to the rise of the airport, water management, appalling health systems, management of school closures, GDE cost “overruns” and so on.

Well when Humphries was CM, he said that his weekends was with his family. Lump or leave it he said.

The shame is Stanhope’s inability to answer a simple question. Not doing so shows he lacks integrity.

He chose a career in politics, to be Chief Minister, and be the responsible minister of emergency services that night.

If he can’t handle the fact that his job is 24/7 then he should resign immediately.

Because this town is so small and relatively homogenous its easy to get a rumour going or get a bit of dirt on someone. I have heard a few rumours about the Hawkie impersonator, some plausible and some not. None have been as good as those about lil Brendan. Shame the debate about the management of the fires has come to this – it hides the real issues.

I admit: I AM Jon Stanhope in drag, using my lap-top writing to RA via Wi-Fi so as to disguise that I am sitting in the passageway of the Assembly Building.

There I feel better coming out of the closet

Tasmanians have enormous forests, fast rivers, deep ports, and some heavy engineering we couldn’t dream of under our zoning.

They’re also addicted to handouts from the earliest days of their settlement otherwise the place would be an absolute dynamo.

NT has a vast amount of mining revenue to tap.

We have a large population that get their wages paid for producing very little of measurable export value. Take the public service (and all the consultants totally reliant on it who very dodgily count as the private sector here) and we’ve got a much smaller economy than the likes of Wollongong.

Shrinking the “ACT” down to the NCA boundaries would seem to be the obvious solution as the Federales have list interest in having a city.

Well as long as we’re making comparisons, both the NT and Tasmania have far lower population densities than the ACT, which makes government service delivery far more expensive; so I submit that it’s swings and roundabouts in terms of our revenue base. All of the specific items of government spending you mentioned, from Grassby statues to arboretums, are straw men in this context because I never argued that we could afford any of them, just that I think we _can_ afford a proper state-level government.

i’m not suggesting he WAS unable to be contacted.

(nor, for that matter, the inverse)

as for voting, i didn’t vote for him and probably won’t be upset if and when he [and they] are not re-elected… but this isn’t about that.

anyway, seems like we’re commenting on differing understandings of what CM did and didn’t so that and the next day[s]… all i was trying to do was uphold the CM’s premise that privacy starts somewhere and his dinner guests were entitled to that.

Sorry astro, if you’re happy to have the minister responsible for emergency services not able to be contacted on the eve of a firestorm and then refusing to explain why contact couldn’t be made and where he was, good for you. Fobbing it off by saying he didn’t get a call but could have been contacted if someone had contacted his staff is Neroesque. It was his ‘staff’ that tried to call him.

It’s not suggesting he was responsible for the actual firestorm but it confirms incompetence for the responsibility he held as minister.

His memory loss about contact the next day further confirms it.

To come out now and provide an answer but seek to deflect criticism by doing a Latham is another nail in the coffin.

If only the electorate will hammer it.

Hansard suggests he was made a special magistrate in 2002.

Grant Lalor wasn’t even a Magistrate at the time of the bushfires and ‘dinner’. He was appointed without the position being advertised about 12 months later. Maybe that’s why he never mentioned who he was at dinner with.

Yeah, what he said. We can talk turkey some time on the vagaries of the National Accounts 🙂

caf is obviously no economist. If you want to examine capacity to pay for State government services and the ability of government to obtain revenue for such services then you have to look at Gross State Product (GSP). Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is a national figure. The ACT’s GSP is 2% whilst Tasmania’s is 1.8% and the NT is 1.3%. However the ACT figure is mainly made up of 26.7% “Govt admin and defence” and 13% property and business services”. These are not good sectors for the government to make revenue out of. Tasmania and the Northern Territory however have larger figures for mining and manufacturing which are good sectors for revenue raising, especially when there is a resources boom and economic good times. the ACT has nil mining and 2% manufacturing in its GST. Don’t be fooled by trying to compare us with the smaller States (or any of the other States) when determining the ACT’s ability to fund education, health, infrastructure and the like out of our narrow revenue base. We cannot afford Grassby statues, human rights commissioners, Supreme Courts, an ACT ATSIC, lawyers and legislation drafters consuming resources on social justice issues like gay marriages, the “Live in Canberra” promotion where our bureaucrats are going interstate and overseas trying to attract people to the ACT when we have nowhere to put them up, the arboretum, etc etc. So much for caf’s “load of crap”. If he wants that then he should look in the gutters at Tuggeranong according to the Chief Minister. Incidentally, Stanhope is on record admitting we have a narrow revenue base so caf must know something we don’t.

After all, we have 70% of the population of Tassie and a higher GDP.

False economy. Most of this is just taxes that have been sucked out of other parts of Australia.

i think the bigger issue is this:

the cm cannot handle pressure and is prone to irrational behaviour when under pressure.

irrational thinking leads to bad decisions.

as the chief decision maker, this is a concern.

So if it’s no big deal AJ why is the CM weeping into the microphones while casting slurs at all of Tuggeranong?

you say, barking toad, i missed the two points:

1. Why couldn’t the mayor be contacted
2. Why wait for 4 years to give an explanation

from what the CM said in the i/v i heard him give on 666 – and that’s all i have purported to relate – i have indeed answered.

first, he stated he did have his phone and it was on. now, if there is some allegation he was ‘uncontactable’, then it would seem that he is disputing that allegation. i wasn’t there, and i suspect you weren’t either, so i don’t purport to hold at prima facie that anyone did try to contact him, or otherwise.

and as far as i can tell, he did answer the question on where he was the night before. just because he didn’t give a minutae of his whereabouts and tell who he was with, in the name of their privacy, doesn’t mean he hasn’t answered the question. if others think that his answer was trying to hide something, then that is their own perception andf their problem. it isn’t good enough to sling slime at him when, if you actually listened to the answer he gave, it was entirely adequate without divulging personal information that, really, was no-one else’s business – and he said that!

can you [all] shut up now?

Get this lot of whinging, useless bastards out of office and give [another lot of whinging, useless bastards] a chance.

Piers Akerman has a blast at the hopeless one in today’s Tele.

Unfortunately his slights at us residents takes the gloss off a bit.

But if you ignore that, it’s a fair indictment of our sobbing mayor and his inept cronies.

Has anyone bottled those tears; because isn’t that holy water he’s shedding?

Comments like “ACT is too small to support a State like government” are common, but I suggest they’re a load of crap. After all, we have 70% of the population of Tassie and a higher GDP.

I’m going to start a campaign to lobby the federal government to abolish it – who’s with me?

Count me in.

yes pandy, its all about you isnt it.

are you sure you arent stanhope ?

Yes Unbeliever, self-government has been a disaster and was always going to be. Why do you think the Federal Govt wanted to foist it upon us. The ACT is too small to support a State like government with its own Supreme Court, Human Rights Commission and the like, especially when we have politicians of all persuasions trying to push their own particular barrows (gay rights, gay marriage, Grassby statues, etc). We do not have the resources and critical mass to support anything else than a provincial council or shire council which restricts itself to mundane matters like local infrastructure. Otherwise we can expect higher rates, charges, taxes, stamp duty and particularly levies which are growing like mushrooms despite the fact that these kind of things were supposed to go with the introduction of the GST.

It would be nice to see a “None of the above” option on the ballot like they have in newer democracies.

Yes unbeliever. Who ever is in power Federally appoints a party hack to manage the ACT.

Oh that was the NCDC!!!

Pandy, I wouldn’t place any weight on comments here that you’re an ALP party member. It’s the only mindless retort evident here if anyone dares to suggest there may be more than one side to the story against Stanhope. Like those pushing the ‘nohope’ cart don’t have their own personal agenda that they don’t readily disclose on here, yeah right. But hypocrisy is the flavour of the nohope claims.

I’m over this whole self-government facade. I’m going to start a campaign to lobby the federal government to abolish it – who’s with me?

Pandy,

If Stanhope had answered the question as to why he was not contactable at the time it was asked then everything would be fine. Instead HE made the decision not to answer, choosing to use the angry voice, bluster and bravado which he uses everytime something appears in the assembly or press that he does not agree with. Therefore people see this as him trying to conceal something, so people start wondering what that something might be.

If there were people specifically starting rumours that he was playing an away game, then that’s not good.

But the fact remains that this government and Stanhope in particular has used bluster and stalling tactics to avoid being held accountable to the public. Unfortunately some of the public don’t have a long enough attention span, and generally the opposition seems to lose interest in the government after a while and start devouring themselves, and so these tactics have worked.

With the fires however, people haven’t lost interest, and the opposition knows it is worth their while to press the issue, so the tactic hasn’t worked.

they would say something like ‘i voted independent last time, but this time…’ or ‘ i used to vote liberal but now i…’.

These are the things I said. And this is your response:

these liars soil our democracy

pandy you are a fool.

read what i actually wrote, not what you read.

Well teddy, I have never questioned that Stanhope needs tobe taken to account. Personal attacks on me for not siding 1110% with the anti-Stanhopes, on my intelligence for siding 120%(that includes you mutely-bite me) and on percieved close links with Labour Party are below the belt.

So teddy, what did Doogan say about Stanhope being uncontactable? Did he switch his phone off? Did Catles try to call him more than once? Was a message relayed to him by anyone else omn that Friday nite?

I recall Stanhope saying blame me. I recall him saying he was going to implement 100% the Macleod report. But later on he said circumstances change; budget priorites change. That is a politician for you.

Still waiting for bonfire to fess-up from where i am posting re: ID address. Or is that just a smear campaign?

… one might even wonder whether it was convenient to have this issue in the back pocket.

Confected outrage is a common political tactic to divert attention from something else.

1) Yes. If a political decision had not been made to deny there was any risk of the fire reaching Canberra many properties and possibly some lives would have been saved. The Coroner clearly stated the Chief Minister was responsible.

2) Mr Stanhope has chosen to blow up this issue at this time, he and no one else. I don’t know enough about the people Mr Stanhope was dining with to pass any other comments and perhaps he regularly dines with magistrates and priests, but the coincidence that he dined with them that specific night seems staggering to common folk like me.

So you didn’t lose your own house Pandy. Enough said. And as for closure; I also am close to the community in Weston Creek. Yes, they want empty blocks rebuilt. But whose fault is that? Stanhope offered $5000 to people who rebuilt. Then his government imposed new planning rules that cost more than the grant to meet. Then he took around $50,000 in GST off people rebuilding and replacing homewares, fences, gardens and the like. The GST is collected by the Commonwealth but returned to the ACT at a 112 percent rate. The fact that only 10 percent of this was returned to the victims meant that only 40 percent of victims rebuilt. This after Sandy Hollway, Chairman of the Bushfire Taskforce, became alarmed when the proposed rebuild rate by victims fell from the Government’s stated aim of 75% to 61% to 51%. At that point Sandy said it should not be allowed to go any lower as that figure was the minimum required to serve as a core for rebuilding the suburbs. I can look up the date of that statement published in the Canberra Times if you do not believe me. The last figure was 40 percent. So apart from the finacial aspects, what else is delaying closure? Well Stanhope, Corbell and the 9 emergency service bureaucrats refusal to accept responsibility is one. The collective loss of memory is another. The appeal against his own Coroner is a third. The refusal to explain why he was not contactable on the 17th is another. Another appeal by 4 bureaucrats to the Supreme Court means another delaty to closure, as is the fact that we still do not know why the fires were not put out on the 8th January (if you look at the CSIRO Research Forester’s video of the fire on the 8th at MacIntyres hut you will see that it could easily have been put out). Maybe if you watch the ABC Four Corners program (that I helped with) on the 12 March you might learn why closure is so difficult for many people when our politicians and bureaucrats seem to have learn’t nothing from the past. Maybe then you will understand why people distrust Stanhope and his government when they refuse to answer simple questions, close down inquiries, refuse Freedom of Information requests and not respond to phone calls, letters or even publish the results of the survey of fire victims done by the Uni of Canberra and the Catholic University a year ago. As for preaching, your obvious lack of knowledge requires some kind of response. Perhaps you could replace “preaching” with the words education and information.

Two things I dont understand:

1. does anyone actually think Stanhope knowing about things would have made a difference? He’s a politician,not an emergency expert. What could he have offered to the experts that they couldnt think of themselves? Argue he didnt do his job or whatever, but does anyone think it would have made a difference had he been called and told ‘oh, there is a big fire but we dont think its serious’.

2. Given that his wife was at him at the dinner, surely even if you get tired of people insinuating things about what was going on that night you will know perfectly well it was untrue. Not even in a ‘I completely trust him’ kind of way but in a ‘I was there so know’ way. I mean, partners of celebrities put up with affair and gossip rumours as a matter of course, why would people asking you about matters you absolutely know to be untrue cause more than annoyance?

The rumours (which I hadn’t heard, although I did hear the old ones about a former Lib CM alluded to here) would only have caome about through Stanhope’s refusal to answer questions about the night in question.

Why can’t this govt (and Stanhope in particular) front up and admit when they’ve screwed the pooch?

“Yep, we didn’t handle XYZ well, but lessons have been learned and they will form part of a strategy if XYZ occurs again.”

Instead, all we get is the angry voice and lots and lots of distractions.

Canberran’s ain’t happy Mr Stanhope and the intelligent ones (sorry, rules out pandy and astrojax on current comments) will see that this teary posturing has come as a direct result of your arrogance and refusal to be accountable to anyone.

Personally I think this was all to take the heat off Andrew Barr and his fraudulent personal staff.

But people who value their privacy shouldn’t enter politics IMHO.

LMAO at Barking Toad.

And pleased for you too astro re non-nohope connections.

But again you miss the two points.

1. Why couldn’t the mayor be contacted
2. Why wait for 4 years to give an explanation

Blubbing about alleged smear campaigns is just a tactic to avoid answers. As is the bleating about being questioned about overseas junkets.

Pandy, I was delighted to see you’re not part of the nohope empire and thought your opinions could be treated more seriously.

Then I saw :

“…I am only reporting what the Canberra Times said.”

and, by the way, two close friends lost houses and i have done much to support them since.

prejudice is a curse.

no, barking toad, i am no acolyte or even voter of the CM. i just don’t wish to stand by and see the principles of privacy, which i seem to hold in tandem to the CM and not to you, be assaulted on some grounds of perosnal bias from bogans and bolsheviks. i do not expect my CM or anyone else to have to open every single nook of their life.

and no, morgan, people didn’t die the night before. it is oversensationalism like this that obscures the issues and plays on emotion, not reason.

and it is reason i expect from a serving MLA to govern me and my community. as far as i am concerned, i have been satisfied by an honest answer that the man was at a dinner in his home with his wife and guests and his telephone was on and operable.

if you think there is more to the issue than this then make representations in the proper manner and stop muckraking and slimy scandal mongering.

and stop pre-judging people on the basis of one comment or stated opinion.

acolytes indeed!

What do you agree with regarding me teddy? That I am an ALP acolyte? Then you are a stoopid moron teddy. What part of I have placed the boot into Simon and Hargraeves and yes Sonic when only a few days ago I said on this web-ste that he has to go, that you don’t understand?

As far as lost houses, I know several (yes several) people from work who did. I also know from a close source in local community affairs that the community in Weston Creek is saying that they want closure and don’t want to see empty fire affected blocks reminding them about the event. So don’t you preach to me.

What I am seeing that because of his mismanagement of the events around the fires it is OK for the smear campaign to happen affecting his family. So all you people who think it is OK like you bonfire (who calls me a liar-so what is my cookie/IP address smart-arse?) can go frack themselves.

LG, I am only reporting what the Canberra Times said. If Doogans report says anything different than JB can tell us.

Geez Toad, that is a contender for spray of the year!

It seems to me that it’s time for a new deck, shuffle and deal.

Get this lot of whinging, useless bastards out of office and give someone new a chance.

I agree with barking toad re his comments on Astrojax and Pandy. I wonder if they lost houses, friends, neighbours, pets and property in the fires like I did. I had to tell many of my friends that their houses (and mine) had gone up in flames whilst they were on holidays with the kids. I have been involved in helping many victims whose spouses and children have been going through psychological trauma years after the fires. And we still have the Chief Minister refusing to take any substantive responsibility, give any clarity to what actually happened in the days before the 18th, maintaining the employment of Emergency Services bureaucrats that showed huge failings in there competency and memory, and still won’t accept the findings of the Coroner or the McLeod report. As far as I am concerned Stanhope deserves all that he his getting.

it would be naive to assume that the ALP do not have people posting here.

it would be naive to assume they would identify themselves.

they would say something like ‘i voted independent last time, but this time…’ or ‘ i used to vote liberal but now i…’.

look at the way they clog up talkback radio. often they cant even remember their assumed identities. at least here cookies and ip addresses link them to an id of sorts.

these liars soil our democracy.

now to stanhope in tears.

if i was asked wher ei was on friday night i’d say – at the pub with some friends until x oclock. unless i had something to hide i wouldnt dissemble or prevaricate for 3 years.

and if the alp thinks he or his wife have my sympathy – forget it. look at the real harm people have suffered due to his governments incompetence. ordinary citizens have shed buckets of tears as a result of his reign.

What were people’s general impression of the Stanhope’s interview last night? I missed it (will watch the vid when home tonight) but feedback I’ve been getting is that it came off looking scripted and didn’t invoke any sympathy.

Pandy: In regards to “His phone was on. Castles phoned him but did not leave a message on his voicemail. He did not call back. Sonic was able to be contacted by his advisors if necessary.”

I was just wondering where that information came from? Was it Stanhope? Or corroborated by someone else? Always confusing when two people give two versions of a story and you don’t know who to believe.

Frak off barking toad.

I have voted mostly Liberal all my life. Voted independant in the local assembly last time and will do so again. And I do not work for the local Labour party. In the past I have placed the boot in Simon and Hargraves in this forumn.
I *know* how being in the public spotlite can place your personal life under stress.
And the the fracking Canberra Times today. His phone was on. Castles phoned him but did not leave a message on his voicemail. He did not call back. Sonic was able to be contacted by his advisors if necessary.

Since Castles and no-one else thought to call him back on the Friday night, then it could not have been important.

I hope he reads this and realises Canberra doesn’t empathise with him.

And while I’m pumped.

His claim that questions about an overseas junket are related to this issue is a pathetic attempt to dodge both issues.

Please **** off nohope!

You’ve gotta admire Stanhope for:
a) doing his now patented ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK (and ignore the question)
b) changing the issue to be about those Evil Libs from:
— why couldn’t the ESA contact you as A/g Emergency Services Minister that night, when you should have been on call
— why you refused to answer what appears to now be a non-issue for four years!
— aside to that, who went O/S with you and were they paid for by the taxpayer.

All logical questions as far as I’m concerned.

by the way… what started the outburst yesterday?

Astrojax & Pandy – are you nohope acolytes – on staff?

Your representations on his behalf seem to betray your loyalties.

Let us explain – again.

Your boss was Emergency Services Minister on Friday evening 17 January 2003 after allowing the normal occupant of the position to go on holidays. He’d been briefed the day before about the danger of the fires hitting Canberra (the detail of which he chooses to dispute – argument for another time). Conditions worsen on Friday. He can’t be contacted that evening despite being the Minister responsible for Emergency Services. Less than 24 hours later 4 lives are lost and nearly 500 houses are destroyed.

In the aftermath, questions are raised as to his whereabouts and the fact he could not be contacted. He chooses not to answer fully either query.

His failure to respond prompts questions as to why and innuendo and rumours start.

Four years later he provides an answer and sobs that he has been subject to rumours which have hurt him and his family.

The real question remains unanswered. Why was he uncontactable? Having a barbie with priests and magistrates and his missus doesn’t excuse that.

This whineing, whingeing, socialist, pathetic, gay loving, panderering to leftist causes, lover of statues of evil, community destroying wimp should try and maintain some level of personal dignity and resign forthwith and spare us the public sobbing. And his acolytes should go with him.

Canberra deserves this relief.

people died!
people died and this bloke who was responsible for management of the crisis was having a pleasant dinner with his wife and friends – was he on the slops? Was he not contactable cos he had had a few?

if canberra returns Nero next year – there can be no better case for abolishing self government

I think it was Smyth said all of Canberra had heard the rumours. I will go on the record to say I hadn’t.

But I had heard the scuttlebut from an ACT ALP member about a former chief minister and a certain grog shop proprieter (I am a visual person, it still give me shivers).

Sonic and his bunch of Development Dollar addicted yes men have finally lost it – its time to go…

Resign Stanhope. You and your pathetic MLAs are a disgusting indictment on Canberra.

So the FOI request was worded “What evidence is there you were having an affair?”?

I don’t know but I’m guessing it was worded more like “details of Mr. Stanhope’s travelling expenses and those accompanying him overseas”

If a man goes mental over that sort of question personally I find that interesting.

And if Mrs. Stanhope finds the details of her public expenditures when on junkets being made public embarrassing then frankly thank god she no longer makes them.

If Brendan was walking up to Mrs. Stanhope saying “How do you feel about your husband having an affair” then that’s an attack.

Somehow I doubt that is what was happening but I’ll be happy to stand corrected.

If it’s her friends repeating a rumour they heard back to her then I can see how that’s hurtful but it’s hardly a personal attack on her.

That’s just my 2c.

It’s not Mrs. Stanhope who’s ever been under attack.

What crap JB. You obviously do not listen to the ABC. Sonic expressed very streneously his wife and kids are asked by people they know about the alleged affair. There is an a FOI based on the rumour that Sonic went OS with some other woman. Sonci says that the stress has affected her so much that she refuses to go on these trips with him.

A minor point of privacy: Humbug! You really need your head screwed.

I do not apologise for feeling strongly on this.

Tuggers slur noted. He’ll keep.
It’s clear that, according to this govt, some parts of Canberra are more equal than others.
Now I really like this part of town – gorgeous mountain views and just a hop to the bush. I will be furious if they cull any more services (like Libraries).
I also note that the hail storm that hit Tuggeranong was much worse than the one that hit Civic, if we look at insurance claims – interesting contrast in press coverage. OK maybe I’m conspiracy theorising but then again, perhaps I am justified when the boss cocky lambasts our place.

And why the hell can’t people know how their money was spent?

It’s not Mrs. Stanhope who’s ever been under attack.

If Mr. Stanhope had mentioned his dinner with the magistrate and the priest the question would have simply been why he had so miserably failed to be on call when his city needed him.

But for his own reasons he chose not to.

A minor point of privacy at such a crucial moment seems a very, very, peculiar thing to hew to for four years in such circumstances.

Oh Big Bill Stefaniak on the Canberralibs web site says the questions are about why he was uncontactable on the eve of the fires. So why the FOI about who went with him on an overseas trip? Do you KNOW something that you are too gutless to state? Or are you just bullshitting?

You JB after 3.5 years of people digging into your wife, maybe you too would eventually find it a bit weepy.

Stanhope can’t even get his own act

Jesus wept.

Hey Stanhope, you’ve caused so many internal tears of your constituents with your shit house economic incompetence – you have punished every single family in Canberra with massive hikes in fees and charges, your extreme left views that only support lesso commo pinkos, your lies when it comes to the Bushfire victims and so on. Suffer in ya jocks.

Bring on election day.

Oh so you’re an official stanhope spokesperson are you? That makes things a lot clearer.

I’ve been looking at the Chief Minister’s media release page, hang on, just go have a look now…

Yep, still no apology made.

If one is to make a statement of apology to a specific audience, when it is convenient, then making a general statement is the normal way of showing it is genuine and not merely convenient.

no sign of an apology? i posted in another thread about his statements on 666 to alex sloan this morning, and particularly about apologising to anyone offended by his reference to tuggeranong.

I saw that on WIN News as well and it was pathetic. Shades of Bob Hawke! Perhaps the job’s getting to him. Time to go, Jon.