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Post by mikey on May 22, 2014 10:05:05 GMT 7
Prime Minister Tony Abbott appears to be in some quite severe hot water surrounding a scholarship awarded to his daughter Frances Abbott. Ms Abbott completed a three year Bachelor of Design course at the private Whitehouse Institute of Design, for which she was awarded a $60,000 scholarship. Here's where the problems are arising. The Whitehouse Institute has claimed that what Ms Abbott was awarded was a "Chairman's Scholarship." Internal documents have shown that it is, in fact, a "Managing Director's Scholarship." The terminology doesn't pose much of an issue. However the school has declined to disclose how many times that particular scholarship has been awarded in the past. And, in fact, the school's website currently clearly states that it "does not currently offer scholarships to gain a place into the Bachelor of Design." The school does offer scholarships for exceptional students to continue their studies at the school, but none for students prior to entry. Ms Abbott received her scholarship prior to attending the Whitehouse Institute. For her three years at the private, and exclusive, school, she paid a grand total of $7,546 tuition, for a degree that ordinarily costs $68,182. Where the Prime Minister runs into trouble is due to the fact that he did not declare the scholarship on the Members' Interests Register, which discloses political gifts. Mr Abbott has stated the scholarship was not included because it was earned on merit. But the nature of that merit is in severe question, with prior relationships between the Whitehouse Institute Chairman of the Board, Les Taylor and Tony Abbott emerging. Taylor has been shown to have donated large sums to the NSW Liberal Party, and evidence is emerging that Taylor expressly approached Frances about attending the Whitehouse school, and not a rival. If the scholarship is found to have been awarded on grounds other than merit, then the Prime Minister's political career is in severe trouble. www.pedestrian.tv/news/arts-and-culture/prime-minister-abbott-in-severe-hot-water-over-sch/5f8d9c1b-b86d-4b25-96c4-d0b8fd9b52e6.htm |
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Post by roxane on May 22, 2014 11:03:08 GMT 7
"If the scholarship is found to have been awarded on grounds other than merit, then the Prime Minister's political career is in severe trouble."
I doubt it. If something will bring Mr freaky winky down is a revolution.
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Post by macadamianut on May 22, 2014 11:16:21 GMT 7
His political career is over now no matter what.
Liberals won't get back in for years and years.
Australia needs a revolution... French style.
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Post by Banjo on May 22, 2014 11:25:32 GMT 7
His political career is over now no matter what. Liberals won't get back in for years and years. Australia needs a revolution... French style. Roxane can work the guillotine.  |
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Post by Deleted on May 22, 2014 11:26:46 GMT 7
Abbotts other daughter Louise has a nice job overseas at the Switzerland embassy and she is only 24. The Skiiing must be great up there a some nice trips to Italy across the border. Looks like a dream job that thousands of young people would have applied for but she got it, l guess many young people born with not so privileged parents will end up in the green army rather then switzerland. Australias still the lucky country if your born with wealthy or powerful parents. l guess that's the Australia ABbott and his goons are creating, the privileged few have everything and keep getting more and more while those and the bottom keep getting less and less. www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/australia-newzealand/article3863807.ece |
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Post by roxane on May 22, 2014 12:06:53 GMT 7
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Post by Deleted on May 22, 2014 12:09:34 GMT 7
Again different rules for the rich and the battlers
If you are a politician you can get things get behind the scenes.
This is a good find to show the double standard
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Post by Banjo on May 22, 2014 12:30:34 GMT 7
Leaked Documents Cast Doubt On Abbott's $60k Scholarship ClaimsPrime Minister Tony Abbott is tonight under fire over a $60,000 education scholarship awarded to his daughter Frances. Chris Graham and Max Chalmers reveal why Assurances by the Prime Minister that a $60,000 scholarship awarded to his daughter Frances on the basis of merit have been contradicted by testimony and documents obtained by New Matilda. And in breaking developments, the Australian Parliament’s Registrar of Members' Interests has tonight also contradicted the Prime Minister over an explanation he provided earlier today about why he did not publicly disclose his daughter received the scholarship. In February of this year, Frances Abbott – the Prime Minister’s middle daughter – completed a three-year Bachelor of Design course at the Whitehouse Institute of Design. New Matilda can reveal that the Prime Minister’s daughter paid just $7,546 for the $68,182 degree. The news come on a day where thousands of students in six capital cities around the country marched to express their outrage at an Abbott Government budget which see some university fees rise by more than 100 per cent. Documents obtained by New Matilda also challenge claims by the Prime Minister that his daughter’s scholarship was won on merit. Rather than an exhaustive application process, Ms Abbott, aged 22, was offered the ‘Managing Director’s Scholarship’ at her first and only meeting with the owner of the Institute, Leanne Whitehouse. The Institute declined to nominate any other occasion when the scholarship has been awarded, and did not address a lengthy list of questions submitted by New Matilda early this morning. Whitehouse insiders have claimed the scholarship was kept secret, even from many senior staff. Documents show that in December 2010, over a period of one month, at least four attempts were made to contact Ms Abbott by phone and arrange an interview with Leanne Whitehouse. A meeting finally took place on February 18, 2011. Internal documents record: “Had interview with [Leanne Whitehouse]… – offered at time of interview.” The next entry, on February 24, reads: “Student been offered ‘Managng (sic) Director Scholarship for 2011.” Despite this, the Institute’s website states that Whitehouse does “… not currently offer scholarships to gain a place into the Bachelor of Design”. It adds: “At the discretion of Whitehouse, a scholarship for further study may be offered during the academic year to students who have formally commenced their studies and show exceptional ability and dedication.” Ms Abbott was awarded her scholarship before the school year began. The Whitehouse website does not list the Managing Director’s Scholarship on its awards page, despite the fact it is by far the largest scholarship awarded by the school. There also appears to be some confusion about the name of the scholarship – Leanne Whitehouse told Guardian Australia today it was called the ‘Chairman’s Scholarship’. But internal documents repeatedly refer to it as the ‘Managing Director’s Scholarship’. An account of how Frances Abbott came to be a student at Whitehouse, provided to New Matilda by a staff member, casts further doubt on the claims by the Prime Minister that her appointment was based entirely on merit. The source told New Matilda that Frances Abbott was approached by Whitehouse Chairman of the Board - and friend of the Abbott family - Les Taylor, after Taylor became aware that Frances was looking to complete a degree with a competing design school. “Les Taylor knew the Abbott family. [Frances] wanted to do something related to creativity and styling. She was going to go to one of our competitors. I think it was Billy Blue ,” the source told NM.
“Leanne got the Chairman of the Board [Taylor] to tell [Frances] she had the offer of a scholarship.”
A few years later, in the run-up to the 2013 federal election, Ms Whitehouse became increasingly excited at the prospect of a Liberal win, the staffer said.
“She said to me something like, ‘Do you know what this could mean to Whitehouse if [Abbott] gets in?’
Les Taylor is a prominent and respected barrister, and also has a long history of donating to the NSW Liberal Party. A document supplied to New Matilda by Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon this evening reveals donations of at least $12,500 to the NSW Liberal Party by Mr Taylor, from 2007 to 2010.
Mr Taylor is also listed in the Prime Minister’s Members Interest’s Register as having gifted clothing to Mr Abbott in 2012 and 2013.
On that front – the Members’ Interest Register – the Prime Minister also appears to be in some difficulty tonight.
A spokesperson for the Prime Minister told New Matilda this morning that scholarships were not required to be lodged with the Members’ Interests Register because they were won on merit, and “not a gift”.
“Under the Statement of Registrable Interests, a scholarship is not a gift, it is an award based on merit and disclosure is not required,” the spokesperson said.
That statement, however, does not align with advice provided to New Matilda this evening by the Australian Parliament’s Registrar of Members’ Interests, Claressa Surtees.
Ms Surtees said that the ‘Resolution of the House’ – the rules governing disclosure of members’ interests – does not make a distinction between gifts, scholarships and awards based on merit.
“It’s not an exhaustive list of what is and isn’t required to be declared. Not all items are explicitly referred to in the [rules],” Ms Surtees said.
“In relation to dependent children, there are only general statements about what might need to be declared.
“There’s nothing that talks about scholarships. The word ‘scholarship’ does not appear in the [rules].”
More problematic for Mr Abbott is section 2(n) of the rules, which states that Members must declare “any other interests where a conflict of interest with the Member’s public duties could foreseeably arise, or be seen to arise.”
That means it doesn’t matter whether the benefit to Frances Abbott was a scholarship or a gift, nor how it was awarded. What matters is whether or not there can be a perception of a conflict of interest.
Whitehouse Institute is a privately owned facility - the Abbott Government has the power to alter laws to benefit the institution.
Ms Surtees said that rule 2(n) was broad, and relied on individual members to make reasonable decisions around disclosures.
“That [section] gets into the realm of the member’s view… it’s a matter for the member individually to decide what he or she believes falls within the requirements, and what falls outside the requirements.”
Ms Surtees was also asked whether or not Mr Abbott was correct to assert that “… a scholarship is not a gift, it is an award based on merit and disclosure is not required”.
“There is nothing in the resolution that says disclosure is not required of such matters. It sounds like an interpretation,” she said.
“Certainly those words do not appear in the resolution.”
Prime Minister Abbott’s failure to record the scholarship in his register of interests sits at odds with what appears to be an enthusiasm for recording benefits received by himself and his family.
Many of the entries are seemingly benign, including the declaration of a “modest one-off sum” earned by his daughter Bridget, “for her part-time work as an Ambassador for the Sydney Autumn Racing Carnival”.
In other declarations Mr Abbott discloses attending charity occasions and major sporting events with his family.
“My wife and daughters, Frances and Bridget, attended the Australian premier of ‘The Great Gatsby’ in Sydney on Wednesday 22 May 2013 as guests of Village Roadshow,” a declaration from June 5, 2013 records.
In another declaration, from March 2013, Mr Abbott even discloses that his daughters Frances and Bridget accompanied him to a Myer fashion launch in Melbourne, even though they paid their own travel and accommodation costs.
Yet nowhere in Mr Abbott’s disclosures does he mention the $60,000 scholarship awarded to daughter Frances.
Abbott’s spokesperson told New Matilda this morning that “if alternative advice is provided, Mr Abbott will meet the amended requirements.”
In fact, the requirements don’t need amending. Mr Abbott’s Member’s Interest Register, however, apparently does.
newmatilda.com//2014/05/21/leaked-documents-cast-doubt-abbotts-60k-scholarship-claims
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Post by mumof5 on May 22, 2014 14:49:47 GMT 7
hi im new to this forum ....
I am so sick to the stomach on this Abbott is so out of touch with reality and is so WRONG morally on this one
Abbott has stopped the pension education supplement so my children who have a intellectual disability and all fall under the manifest rule will loose 62.40 a fortnight 1 is still at special school and the other is at tafe but now I don't know what is going to happen
why is he taking away from the most vulnerable in our community .....
so his daughter can get a 60,000 hand out ( remember the age of entitlement's is over) the abbot family have enough money to fund their daughters education... there were other students who ended up with a hecs debt but she walks away debt free ....
so he wants me to fund my disabled children's education with the little money I have but his daughter can get all the help in the world ... he really has torn a nation into 2 parts The Rich and The Poor are now being played off each other .... sad day for Australia when did we become so divided aussies help thoses in need NOT degrade them
Im scared for my children's future but what I am most scared of right now that if something happened to me there would be NOONE there to protect them and help them through this cruel system that fails us everyday
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Post by Deleted on May 22, 2014 15:20:50 GMT 7
hi im new to this forum .... I am so sick to the stomach on this Abbott is so out of touch with reality and is so WRONG morally on this one Abbott has stopped the pension education supplement so my children who have a intellectual disability and all fall under the manifest rule will loose 62.40 a fortnight 1 is still at special school and the other is at tafe but now I don't know what is going to happen why is he taking away from the most vulnerable in our community ..... so his daughter can get a 60,000 hand out ( remember the age of entitlement's is over) the abbot family have enough money to fund their daughters education... there were other students who ended up with a hecs debt but she walks away debt free .... so he wants me to fund my disabled children's education with the little money I have but his daughter can get all the help in the world ... he really has torn a nation into 2 parts The Rich and The Poor are now being played off each other .... sad day for Australia when did we become so divided aussies help thoses in need NOT degrade them Im scared for my children's future but what I am most scared of right now that if something happened to me there would be NOONE there to protect them and help them through this cruel system that fails us everyday l think Australia has now seen the real Abbott and what him and his government are all about, attacking the poor, old, sick and disabled and helping the wealthy and large corporations. A you said he likes to divide Australians against each other, l think he will lose the next election the only problem is it could be three years, l wish we could have a double dissolution election this year. Hockey smoking his expensive cigars and $50,000 dinner and going on about ' the end of the age of entitlement ' what entitlements to they and their rich mates give up , nothing, except abbots pay freeze stunt where he gives up a $10,000 pay rise on a $500,000 salary, l guess that really hurts, l bet next year when the pay freeze is over he doubles his pay rise to $20,000 to make up for it |
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Post by prodius on May 22, 2014 16:12:03 GMT 7
hi im new to this forum .... I am so sick to the stomach on this Abbott is so out of touch with reality and is so WRONG morally on this one Abbott has stopped the pension education supplement so my children who have a intellectual disability and all fall under the manifest rule will loose 62.40 a fortnight 1 is still at special school and the other is at tafe but now I don't know what is going to happen why is he taking away from the most vulnerable in our community ..... so his daughter can get a 60,000 hand out ( remember the age of entitlement's is over) the abbot family have enough money to fund their daughters education... there were other students who ended up with a hecs debt but she walks away debt free .... so he wants me to fund my disabled children's education with the little money I have but his daughter can get all the help in the world ... he really has torn a nation into 2 parts The Rich and The Poor are now being played off each other .... sad day for Australia when did we become so divided aussies help thoses in need NOT degrade them Im scared for my children's future but what I am most scared of right now that if something happened to me there would be NOONE there to protect them and help them through this cruel system that fails us everyday Welcome to the forum. I have an intellectual disability (mild) so I can understand how difficult it would be for your children. I’m finding it so hard to find work atm and the work I have had in the past I’ve had problems with discrimination and bullying etc. I’m also looking into doing some training but with one term tony getting rid of the education supplement is going to make it much harder. |
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Post by scallywag on May 22, 2014 16:26:48 GMT 7
ablott in hot water? did someone order shit soup?
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Post by Deleted on May 22, 2014 18:55:16 GMT 7
His political career is over now no matter what. Liberals won't get back in for years and years. Australia needs a revolution... French style. Roxane can work the guillotine. I'll apply for an arts grant, collect the heads, shrink 'em, 'n' put on permanent display around the chamber to remind 'em all who their beholden to.... We the people! Cheers bear. |
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