Credlingate appears to gathering some momentum. From Fairfax:
Labor has accused the federal government of taking “cash for questions” after it was revealed that Tony Abbott’s chief of staff, Peta Credlin, planned to use Parliament to showcase the case of a prominent Liberal Party donor against the carbon tax.
…The emails reveal that, in March 2011, while the Coalition was in opposition, Ms Credlin used a major donor to the Liberal Party, Brickworks, as part of Tony Abbott’s campaign against the carbon tax.
Ms Credlin is married to Brian Loughnane, the party’s federal director. Brickworks was one of the largest corporate donors to the Liberal Party, giving $384,000 in a nine-month period from July 2010 to April 2011. As well as its brand Austral Bricks, Brickworks also lists property development as a core business.
Shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus has dubbed the saga “cash for questions”, saying: “We have claims that one of the Liberal Party biggest donors is virtually writing Tony Abbott’s question time strategy. These are some remarkable allegations that go to the highest levels of the Abbott government.”
Tristan Edis has the right take:
Actually, the favours are being granted in the other direction.
In the lead up to Abbott’s election, the chief executive of Brickworks, and other business executives and lobbyists aligned with the Liberal Party, repeatedly put out claims to the media about how a carbon emissions trading scheme would lead to jobs flowing overseas and lead to significant increases in householder costs. In almost all cases the claims failed to materialise and were horribly exaggerated. But they served to provide vital ammunition for Abbott to scare the general public about the impacts of an ETS.
Thanks to the Partridge, we saw headlines like ‘Carbon tax will make house prices soar’. The Brickworks’ chief claimed the carbon tax would increase the cost of building a new home by 10 per cent while at the same time making the contradictory claim it would dangerously squeeze company earnings, putting business under threat from overseas competitors.
The sad, sad state of Australia’s political economy.
