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catsidheBefore the election, Joe Hockey made a big song-and-dance about how the Opposition's budget was audited. He explicitly used that word. He made the point that it was audited by a top-five accounting firm, because they could not trust Treasury. He claimed that its numbers were superior to Labor's, because it had been audited.
He lied.
It was looked at by a big accountancy firm, that much is true. But they explicitly did not audit it, and indeed a statement to the effect that it was not an audit was countersigned by senior Opposition folks.
It was an outright, deliberate lie.
Now that they've been exposed, Hockey and Robb are pleading sophistry: they used the technical term ‘audit’ in the non-technical sense, and it's not their fault if they forgot to mention that this audit was not technically an audit.
I thought there was something suspicious about the anonymous accounting company and the refusal to let Treasury see the numbers when it first became an issue, but now we have the evidence that he was lying through his big cuddly-bear teeth.
And it's buried in The Age on page five or seven or something. (I forget exactly, and I haven't got a copy handy.) The so-called Left Wing rag. The Australian seems to have deleted the story from its site (it comes up in a search, but the liked article doesn't exist any more). It's there in Adelaide Now, though. I wonder if Adelaide Now is anything to do with the Adelaide Advertiser. Maybe the low rent version. You know, like MX is the Herald-Sun for people who don't have time for the H-S's level of intellect.
I'm sorry, media, I thought that this might be slightly more important than whether Gillard thinks Abbott used ‘harsh language’, or who's going to be playing for Collingwood next year. Maybe I just have different expectations.
He lied.
It was looked at by a big accountancy firm, that much is true. But they explicitly did not audit it, and indeed a statement to the effect that it was not an audit was countersigned by senior Opposition folks.
It was an outright, deliberate lie.
Now that they've been exposed, Hockey and Robb are pleading sophistry: they used the technical term ‘audit’ in the non-technical sense, and it's not their fault if they forgot to mention that this audit was not technically an audit.
I thought there was something suspicious about the anonymous accounting company and the refusal to let Treasury see the numbers when it first became an issue, but now we have the evidence that he was lying through his big cuddly-bear teeth.
And it's buried in The Age on page five or seven or something. (I forget exactly, and I haven't got a copy handy.) The so-called Left Wing rag. The Australian seems to have deleted the story from its site (it comes up in a search, but the liked article doesn't exist any more). It's there in Adelaide Now, though. I wonder if Adelaide Now is anything to do with the Adelaide Advertiser. Maybe the low rent version. You know, like MX is the Herald-Sun for people who don't have time for the H-S's level of intellect.
I'm sorry, media, I thought that this might be slightly more important than whether Gillard thinks Abbott used ‘harsh language’, or who's going to be playing for Collingwood next year. Maybe I just have different expectations.