Back in July, my brief foaming at
the mouth rant about the tawdry corrupt tender process
for the Australian overseas broadcasting service - Australia Network - elicited
little to no interest from my small but adored readership.
I'm still foaming, and can't
believe how little the public care about yet another truly gobsmacking ALP
perversion of governance.
And those who do care, a tiny bit
(you know, the bogans in Frankston), hold a sturdy and misguided belief that
this thing should never have gone to tender, should always be handed on a
platter to the ABC as an expensive sheltered workshop for a select group of journalists
(and old re-runs, as it turns out; although that might be a tautology). I assume, those people also believe the
lie of "the leak" offered by the Gillard Government for aborting TWO
tender processes, both of which recommended Sky News as the preferred supplier
on an objectively assessed value for money basis. TWICE.
Oddly, the ABC managers,
approaching ministers to discuss the tender while in progress - an action that
should be sufficient to disqualify the tenderer - isn't cited by the government
as one of numerous corrupt episodes.
The only clean player in this has been the evil empire - the hate media - the Murdoch
owned Sky News.
The federal police are now in search of the leaker, and the auditor general will also inquire into all the wrong things.
White washing the Gillard Government is becoming a full blown industry.
The federal police are now in search of the leaker, and the auditor general will also inquire into all the wrong things.
White washing the Gillard Government is becoming a full blown industry.
This, from
Graham Richardson:
To hear the PM at a press conference telling us that the tender process had been compromised by leaks was just plain embarrassing.Everyone knows that the only leaks have been about who won the tender not about the details of the tender themselves. Sky News won and she and Conroy just wouldn't accept it.An independent panel was set up to examine the documents and the next leak was that they had recommended Sky News - again. It wasn't the process the government didn't like. It was the leaking of who had won - because it was the wrong winner. The police were called in and the Auditor-General decided to have a look as well.With two investigations under way, ministers raced to find microphones to say no decision would be made until inquiries were completed.Then bang, out of the blue, the declaration of the loser coming out on top was made.The investigations are continuing but obviously their findings could not be allowed to interfere with the predetermined announcement. If the Auditor-General finds the ABC comprehensively lost, the PM and Conroy will look ridiculous.

This is how a government that knows it's curtains soon behaves. They don't give a damn how much damage this does. Proper governance is the last consideration. In fact no consideration at all. Can you imagine how much weight Bob Brown would put on that in his weekly compulsory briefing?
ReplyDeleteIt is obscene of course but not in the slightest bit surprising. You can just see the Canberra up itself elite getting all huffy at the very thought of this being taken from the ABC. This service has no audience to speak of anyway. Not even the expats tune in. Get rid of it. It now has no purpose at all. $223 million is a lot of money to save.
Piss off SBS too while they're about it.
DMO continue to defy gov't policies and ignore all of their own requirements - with Defence Minister recently announced $2.9 billion of vehicles that don't meet Australian needs.
ReplyDeleteHow many times has Defence done that?
When will they be told to STOP it?
(Apologies for layout.)
THE Defence
Minister,
Stephen Smith,
is expected to
end a bitter
contest to
supply
thousands of
trucks to the
Defence Force,
announcing
today the
German company
Rheinmetall
MAN has won
the contract.
The decision
has been
criticised by
Defence
insiders, who
say soldiers
could be left
exposed to
roadside bomb
attacks by the
way the tender
has been
handled.
The government
will throw a
bone the way
of the Bendigo
company
Thales,
ordering about
150 of its
Bushmaster
utes and
forestalling
potential job
losses at the
company.
The $2.9 billion project to supply 2700 light, medium and heavy trucks has
been a three-way shoot-out between the Rheinmetall MAN option, Thales and
Mercedes-Benz.
A source close to the tender process said some of the Rheinmetall trucks
were originally supplied to the British armed forces, but will be diverted
to Australia after the British cut their order.
''These vehicles, whilst they meet mostly the tender requirements, are not
actually designed to suit the conditions the [Australian Defence Force]
will require in deployment. They will require modification to meet ADF
specification,'' the source said.