A story that keeps getting more attention


I've drawn attention a couple of times in my writings this year to how the dealings of Julia Gillard back in the 1990s with a former Australian Workers Union official accused of financial impropriety keep bubbling along as an embarrassment for the government. This weekend the story has left the realms of social media, blogging and email and gone mainstream. It was picked up by a couple of the Sunday morning political talks shows after receiving yet another run in The Australian and coverage in Sydney's Herald Sun.
And now the Liberal Party attack dog Christopher Pyne has made the subject one of open party political debate. He told Sky News there were very serious questions about the prime minister's integrity and she should make a personal explanation to parliament. Files held by Slater Gordon should also be released detailing the circumstances surrounding Ms Gillard's resignation. 'In the interest of clearing the prime minister's name, those files should be released,' the Manager of Opposition Business told Sky News.
Earlier on Sky News Prime Minister Gillard dismissed the report in The Australian with claims about why she quit her job with law firm Slater and Gordon.after the newspaper's editor at large, Paul Kelly, raised the story with her without putting any allegations to her. The report says Ms Gillard resigned as a partner with Slater and Gordon as a direct result of an internal probe into work she had done for a former boyfriend.
The Prime Minister responded by describing the story as "malicious nonsense" and challenged Mr Kelly to come up with an allegation of any wrongdoing on her part. "I'm not going to get myself into a circumstance where I spend my time dealing with a circumstance 17 years ago when the people who are asking the questions about them are unable to even articulate what it is they say I did wrong," she said. "This is just nonsense and a distraction from the important work that I have to do as Prime Minister."

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