santoros gift to rudd johhny hopping mad

Santoro's gift to Rudd - The Bulletin

Friday, March 16, 2007

John Howard will be worried about how voters perceive the demise of another minister, writes Paul Daley.
The resignation of Minister for Ageing, Santo Santoro, over yet more undeclared share dealings, will do little to take the pressure off the Howard Government or alleviate the odium that is enveloping the Queensland Liberal Party.

Santoro – a Bible-thumping, bovver boy of the QLD Liberal right – is the second Howard minister to quit inside two weeks over questions of probity. The first, Ian Campbell, was a sacrificial lamb – effectively sent to the slaughter over his fleeting, perfectly innocent, meeting with Brian Burke so the Federal Government might pursue Kevin Rudd over his dealings with the dodgy former Labor Premier-cum-lobbyist.
Santoro’s initial slip-up (the non-declaration, until last October, while a minister of a small but profitable parcel of shares) would be almost forgivable were it not a technical breach of Howard’s Ministerial code. But Santoro, who has clearly experienced a few "seniors’ moments" of his own of late, compounded the error by saying he’d donated the profits to "charity". He had, in fact, given the $6000 profit from the deal to the so-called Family Council – a group headed by Alan Baker who, it also happens, is his financial adviser.

The Family Council is not, unfortunately for Santoro, a charity.

But wait. There’s more. About 62 more, in fact. Because that’s the number of share deals the forgetful Santoro also failed to declare to the Senate Registrar of Private Interests as per his obligations as a Senator and to the PM’s code.

Significantly, Santoro claimed he – and he alone – discovered the oversight.

This is in stark contrast to Howard, who said "a detailed review of his financial records" was "required by me".

Indeed, the anger was almost palpable in Howard’s statement, released a few minutes after Santoro’s resignation in Canberra.

" ... circumstances such as those now outlined by him are unacceptable," Howard said.

"Senator Santoro clearly has failed to comply with the rules of the Senate and has not made the disclosures to me required of him as a Minister. He had no option but to resign."

Indeed.

Santoro’s enemies will be applauding his resignation; none more so, perhaps, than those in the Queensland Liberal Party.

It’s said that nothing runs quite as deep as Labor Party hatreds. Wrong. Nothing beats the Queensland Liberals for treachery, serpentine political manoeuvrings, innuendo and invective. Santoro has been on the front-line and his share deal slip-ups show he won promotion due to the swings and roundabouts of factional alignment rather than any genuine talent or acumen.

He won’t be missed in the ministry and there are plenty of other worthy contenders – not least South Australia’s Christopher Pyne – who would have been a more appropriate appointment in the first place.

Howard will be furious about Santoro’s stuff-up. Not out of any sentiment for Santoro; he neglected to say anything positive at all about his ministerial contribution. No, Howard will be furious because he hates cutting loose a minister for any reason. Most importantly, however, he’ll be attuned to perceptions that the loss of a second minister in as many weeks lends a whiff of death to his 11-year-old government.

The forthcoming federal election will be won or lost north of the Tweed where Labor – rejuvenated under the leadership of a Queenslander, Rudd – holds just six of the state’s 28 seats. Rudd is counting on winning at least six or seven of the 16 he needs, and the likes of Santo Santoro will help him all the way.

So, too, will two more of the Queensland Liberal Party’s leading lights – Andrew Laming and former minister Gary Hardgrave, both under investigation by the Australian Federal Police for the alleged improper use of electoral allowances. Depending on what the police find, the Queensland party may be forced to dis-endorse a sitting candidate or two. This would raise the prospect of a couple of unwelcome by-elections (if the incumbent MPs quit in a pique) or messy, three-cornered contests (including former Liberals-turned independents) at the election.

But it gets worse still for Howard and the government in Queensland; revelations that former Liberal president Shane Stone is auditing all expenditure and fund-raising by Queensland’s federal and state MPs adds new mystery to the controversy.

What skeletons, it’s fair to ask, are the Queensland Liberals so worried about?

The king tide, it seems, is about to ebb for the Queensland Liberals.

Kevin Rudd is counting on it.