‘The deputy PM is qualified to sit in this house, and the High Court will so hold’

It doesn’t matter if your prediction is right or wrong, just ensure you make it with confidence.

Malcolm Turnbull in question time, parliament, August 15:

Based on the advice we have from the Solicitor-General, the government are very confident that the court will not find that the member for New England is disqualified from being a member of this house — very confident indeed … The leader of the National party, the deputy prime minister, is qualified to sit in this house and the High Court will so hold.

Not on the fence. Headline on Andrew Bolt’s blog yesterday:

Turnbull must go next month.

One Nation’s Malcolm Roberts on Twitter, October 26 last year:

I only hold Australian citizenship. End of story.

Pondering the Australian Federal Police raid. Waleed Aly in Fairfax Media yesterday:

“Bill Shorten has questions to answer.” Questions to answer. What a phrase that has turned out to be in Australian politics. You might remember the last time it was invoked: when Tony Abbott was hounding Julia Gillard over her dealings with the AWU back in the 1990s. You might remember how George Brandis took to parliament to label Gillard a criminal. You might remember that time Gillard held a press conference to answer every question journalists had until they had run out … What you mightn’t remember is what specific allegations were being made against Gillard. And that’s because there weren’t any.

National chief correspondent Hedley Thomas in The Weekend Australian, October 7:

Notes of panicky, closed-door debrief­ings of Julia Gillard’s then lover and law firm client, disgraced union boss Bruce Wilson, set out his con­fessions 22 years ago to perpe­trating a major fraud with a “slush fund” that she had set up for him. The hand­written notes, leaked to The Weekend Australian and revealed publicly for the first time, show that Mr Wilson admitted his crimes to Bernard Murphy, now a Federal Court judge, in a tense meeting at Slater & Gordon in August 1995 … The notes show Mr Wilson told Ms Gillard’s manager and mentor at the law firm, Mr (later Justice) Murphy, that if the slush fund were “ever investigated”, he (Wilson) would “go to jail” with others over the misappropriation of more than $400,000 … Some at Slater & Gordon, including equity partner Nick Styant-Browne, were furious the firm had been caught up in fraud with a slush fund they did not know Ms Gillard, who did not open a file, had set up for her client and boyfriend.

Thomas in The Australian on April 19, 2014:

It is time to call off the dogs. Stand down, Detective Sergeant Ross Mitchell. You and your misguided colleagues in the Victoria Police Fraud Squad have clearly squandered valuable time and a truckload of taxpayers’ money for 18 months in a forensic and major investigation of what you strangely suspected were crimes … you needed to show a great deal more initiative: you really should have run it all past one of the ABC’s renowned investigators, Waleed Aly.

Thomas carefully finessing his sales pitch:

After all, Aly … would have been able to set you straight before you had gone so far in this folly. You see, Aly knows that there is nothing in it. He said so this week …

And then changing gear:

I agree, Sergeant Mitchell, that Aly’s omission of a few minor facts surrounding the “complete non-scandal” is somewhat troubling …