why would julia gag the media on awu scandal, page-3

LOL not long now.

There is no other plausible reason wogarlb.

THE tagline for Steven Spielberg's Jaws 2 was: "Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water ... " For Julia Gillard this week, beset by disaster at every turn, it was a case of just when she thought it was safe to go back in to the caucus.

Not only did the Australian Workers Union slush fund scandal continue to dog her, but the Prime Minister endured a near-death experience over support for Palestinian statehood and the party schism it revealed.

Gillard and her allies have thought themselves on the front foot in recent weeks, since her much-vaunted misogyny speech. Polling has improved only from portending annihilation to the prospect of a clear loss, but it has led to a misplaced confidence that the only way is up. A string of feel-good announcements with no tangible funding commitments added to growing optimism.

Last time the AWU slush fund scandal surfaced, Gillard came out fighting with a press conference and the speech that made the so-called gender wars front and centre. We saw a repeat performance this week.

A feisty press conference was supposed to lay all questions to rest, backed up by Greens leader Christine Milne and a chorus of Labor MPs and ministers invoking sexism and smear as the root cause of the trouble.

But this time there is a palpable difference in the scale of the damage to Gillard's integrity. Union figures including former AWU boss Bill Shorten and former ACTU chief Bill Kelty all but abandoned her publicly, moving to protect the AWU and the union movement at her expense. There was the sense that if Gillard is going to be brought down, better that the broader labour movement not suffer too.

The reaction to the admission by Julie Bishop that she had met briefly one of the principal players in the slush fund debacle spoke volumes. An almost hysterical bellow by Labor reflected the fears festering in cabinet and caucus. Bishop's brief conversations with Ralph Blewitt were suddenly the real crime. It was apparently of no moment that Gillard had dealings with the two alleged fraudsters across many years. Talking to one of them for 10 minutes was trumpeted as the genuine transgression.

Anyone paying attention to the affair will have noted the Prime Minister's carefully couched words about her off-file services provided to two union officials who set up a dodgy association and accompanying slush fund.

Gillard has been eager to answer questions at a press conference, where the consequences of misleading journalists are trifling, and avoid answering the same questions in the house. She couldn't even bring herself to give a straightforward answer about a power of attorney she witnessed enabling the purchase of her then boyfriend's house in the name of his bagman.

It was a repeat of her tactics in August. With the document trail slowly unravelling and a police investigation under way, it is wishful thinking to imagine that bluster can make this issue go away.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/bluster-wont-cover-scandal/story-e6frg7ko-1226527706006