A smear on a Liberal figure has been traced to his own party. It is claimed that the married federal minister, who has children, visits gay bathhouses and sexually harasses other men. The dirt sheet suggested he was sleeping with one of his staff and that his wife was known in Liberal circles as "a beard". The Government blamed Labor for the smear. However, Laurie Oakes said he was fed the story by a Liberal as part of an internal power struggle. Oakes said there was no proof, only allegations and that "you hear that sort of thing all the time."
On Thursday 20 September 2007, Parliament sat for what is likely to be the last time before the election. Opposition MPs alledged the government had dug up Rudd's private medical records revealing he had a heart valve transplant 14 years ago. Rudd and his front bench accused the government of hiring private investigators to dig the dirt on Rudd's private life and to probe his finances.
Julia Gillard claimed that a journalist, Jason Koutsoukis, was invited into a ministerial office to look at a dirt file on her. Koutsoukis looked at it and decided there was nothing newsworthy to it.
During the rowdy debate, Howard asked the Opposition to produce evidence to back up their claims.
Question time was abandoned amid the worst uproar in years as the Speaker struggled to maintain order and the Government made a "put up or shut up" motion against the Opposition.
As Labor continued on Friday 21 September 2007 to accuse the government of using a dirt squad to run a smear campaign about Rudd's health, the PM said Rudd had been given an opportunity to produce evidence during the Parliamentary debate on Thursday and had failed. "Having not been able to put up, it should-in the words of an old adage-shut up about it." "Let's go back to debating the health that people are interested in, and that is the health of the nation."
Bob Hawke predicted the Coalition would run one of the worst smear campaigns in years as it faced defeat. "Now I'm not saying...every Liberal is going to play hard ball and dirty ball but I think there is going to be more of it this time, because they are more worried than they've been before."
The Age, 24 September 2007, http://infoweb.newsbank.com.ezproxy.lib.uts.edu.au/iw-search/we/InfoWeb?p_action=doc&p_docid=11BDA805CD3B3118&p_queryname=2&p_product=AUNB&p_theme=aggregated4&p_nbid=T60B4FNFMTESMDc5MDUWOS44MTMXNjU6MjU
The Age http://infoweb.newsbank.com.ezproxy.lib.uts.edu/iw-search/we/Infoweb?p_action=doc&p_docid=11BDOIF302027BO8&p_docnum=21&p_queryname=3&p_product=AUNB&p_theme=aggregated4&p_nbid=T60B4FNFMTE5MDc5MDUWOS44MTMxNjV6MToxMjoxMzguMjUuNzguMjU
http://infoweb.newsbank.com.ezproxy.lib.uts.edu.au/iw-search/we/Infoweb?p_action=doc&p_docid=11BCA5FED8DA32A8&p_queryname=3&p_theme=aggregated4&p_nbid=T60B4FNFMTE5MDc5MDUWOS44MTMxNjU6MjU
The Canberra Times, 24 September 2007, http://infoweb.newsbank.com.ezproxy.lib.uts.edu.au/we_search/we/InfoWeb?p_action=doc&p_docid=11BE143586D35C38&p_docnum=8&p_queryname=2&p_product=AUN&p_theme=aggregated4&p_nbid=S6FN5ELLUMTESMDc5NTcxNi34NjY5Mz16MToxMjoxMzguMjUunzgMju
The Weekend Australian, 22 September 2007, http://infoweb.newsbank.com.ezproxy.lib.uts.edu.au/iw-search/we/InfoWeb?p_action=doc&p_docid=11BCFF004F7A4F908p_docnum=33&p_queryname=2&p_product=AUNB&p_theme=aggregated4&p_nbid=S6FN5ELUMTE5MDc5NTcxNi43NjY5Mz16MToxMjoxMzguMjUuNeguMjU
On Thursday 20 September 2007, Parliament sat for what is likely to be the last time before the election. Opposition MPs alledged the government had dug up Rudd's private medical records revealing he had a heart valve transplant 14 years ago. Rudd and his front bench accused the government of hiring private investigators to dig the dirt on Rudd's private life and to probe his finances.
Julia Gillard claimed that a journalist, Jason Koutsoukis, was invited into a ministerial office to look at a dirt file on her. Koutsoukis looked at it and decided there was nothing newsworthy to it.
During the rowdy debate, Howard asked the Opposition to produce evidence to back up their claims.
Question time was abandoned amid the worst uproar in years as the Speaker struggled to maintain order and the Government made a "put up or shut up" motion against the Opposition.
As Labor continued on Friday 21 September 2007 to accuse the government of using a dirt squad to run a smear campaign about Rudd's health, the PM said Rudd had been given an opportunity to produce evidence during the Parliamentary debate on Thursday and had failed. "Having not been able to put up, it should-in the words of an old adage-shut up about it." "Let's go back to debating the health that people are interested in, and that is the health of the nation."
Bob Hawke predicted the Coalition would run one of the worst smear campaigns in years as it faced defeat. "Now I'm not saying...every Liberal is going to play hard ball and dirty ball but I think there is going to be more of it this time, because they are more worried than they've been before."
The Age, 24 September 2007, http://infoweb.newsbank.com.ezproxy.lib.uts.edu.au/iw-search/we/InfoWeb?p_action=doc&p_docid=11BDA805CD3B3118&p_queryname=2&p_product=AUNB&p_theme=aggregated4&p_nbid=T60B4FNFMTESMDc5MDUWOS44MTMXNjU6MjU
The Age http://infoweb.newsbank.com.ezproxy.lib.uts.edu/iw-search/we/Infoweb?p_action=doc&p_docid=11BDOIF302027BO8&p_docnum=21&p_queryname=3&p_product=AUNB&p_theme=aggregated4&p_nbid=T60B4FNFMTE5MDc5MDUWOS44MTMxNjV6MToxMjoxMzguMjUuNzguMjU
http://infoweb.newsbank.com.ezproxy.lib.uts.edu.au/iw-search/we/Infoweb?p_action=doc&p_docid=11BCA5FED8DA32A8&p_queryname=3&p_theme=aggregated4&p_nbid=T60B4FNFMTE5MDc5MDUWOS44MTMxNjU6MjU
The Canberra Times, 24 September 2007, http://infoweb.newsbank.com.ezproxy.lib.uts.edu.au/we_search/we/InfoWeb?p_action=doc&p_docid=11BE143586D35C38&p_docnum=8&p_queryname=2&p_product=AUN&p_theme=aggregated4&p_nbid=S6FN5ELLUMTESMDc5NTcxNi34NjY5Mz16MToxMjoxMzguMjUunzgMju
The Weekend Australian, 22 September 2007, http://infoweb.newsbank.com.ezproxy.lib.uts.edu.au/iw-search/we/InfoWeb?p_action=doc&p_docid=11BCFF004F7A4F908p_docnum=33&p_queryname=2&p_product=AUNB&p_theme=aggregated4&p_nbid=S6FN5ELUMTE5MDc5NTcxNi43NjY5Mz16MToxMjoxMzguMjUuNeguMjU
All photos are from The Daily Telegraph website.
2 comments:
Hi Karen, great work with this blog post! I particularly liked the title 'Smear Campaign'. I find it really interesting the sheer lengths the Coalition Government will go to when trying to save themselves before the election. Bob Hawke was right when he said they are more worried than ever before. It is probably because it is the first time when Howard has been in power and had real competition for his seat and his position as Prime Minister. Rudd seems to be the people's man. He is demonstrating that he is in touch with the community he could represent in future. This is evident through the success of his Myspace which has a large amount of friends. It is no wonder that Howard is fretting about his future. He is thus resorting to unscrupulous means in trying in every way possible to damage the reputation of the Labor government, especially Rudd. It is probably because of this that he is stalling with setting a date for the election. I don't understand why Howard has so much leeway in when he will call this election. The Governor General should be given this power, thus ensuring that it is not called when the environment is politically favorable to the Liberal party. Kind Regards, Melissa Sequeira
I think the way political campaigns are run these days is so depressing. both side focus so much on the short fallings of the side that we eventually believe that we have the crappest governments and politicians in the world when in reality we have some of the best.
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