The Slipper saga and the questions Mal Brough must answer

The personal and political destruction of Peter Slipper was so complete and vicious it seems unlikely Mal Brough was the only senior political figure involved.

ANALYSIS

The personal and political destruction of Liberal-turned-independent Peter Slipper was so complete and vicious it seems unlikely Mal Brough was the only senior political figure involved.

Yet Mr Brough, now Malcolm Turnbull’s Special Minister of State, has been making that long walk from his seat on the Government front bench to the dispatch box alone to stonewall Labor’s questions about his involvement in the ‘Get Slipper’ campaign.

Mr Slipper, you’ll recall, resigned as Speaker of the House amid an ugly expenses and text messages scandal that hurt the Gillard government in 2012.

He was found guilty of dishonestly claiming entitlements but the decision was later overturned on appeal.

At the 2013 election, Mr Slipper’s Queensland seat of Fisher went to Mr Brough, who was accused of plotting with Mr Slipper’s former staffer James Ashby to bring his political rival down.

A Federal Police investigation is ongoing, and centres on whether Mr Brough told Mr Ashby to disclose extracts from Mr Slipper’s official diary without authority.

Mr Brough continues to insist he has nothing to hide, as the Opposition clamours for him to step aside.

“Integrity is uppermost in everything I have ever done and everything I will ever do,” Mr Brough told Parliament yesterday: “I refer you to the findings of the full bench of the Federal Court, which dealt with all of the evidence put before it and found entirely that I acted appropriately.”

The former Speaker of the House Peter Slipper appeared in court in Canberra. His former wife Lyn was also with the former MP. Pic by Gary Ramage

If there were others involved in activities he has been linked to, and if the accusations against Mr Brough — from Labor or police — get weightier, some of those other names might come out.

But so far it is only his being used, including on an Australian Federal Police search warrant, which was executed last week.

The warrant said: “Between March 24 and April 13, 2012 Malcolm Thomas Brough counselled and procured James Ashby, being a Commonwealth officer, to disclose extracts from the Speaker of the House of Representatives official diary and provide those extracts to third parties without authority, contrary to Section 70 of the Crimes Act 1914.”

This is an allegation. It is not a finding. But it leaves valid questions hanging.

James Ashby's house in Beerwah is being raided by the AFP searching for anything relating to the Liberal National Party, Mr Slipper, Mal Brough, Christopher Pyne and Wyatt Roy pic Jamie Hanson

DID HE ASK FOR THE DIARY ENTRIES OR DIDNT HE?

In September last year Mr Brough told 60 Minutes he had asked for Mr Slipper’s diary material, but in September this year changed that without going into detail.

He then told the ABC the 60 Minutes report was “not exactly the right description of what occurred”.

It is another matter as to whether handing over confidential material was a breach of the law or not. But it still is not clear what happened.

James Ashby, meanwhile is helping Pauline Hanson in her bid to win her first election since 1996. As well as adviser, he is her personal pilot.

WAS HE THE ONLY LIBERAL UNDERMINING THE SPEAKER?

Anger towards Mr Slipper was not a Brough monopoly. The target was the former Liberal who turned independent to accept the Speakership from Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard to help bolster the numbers of her minority government.

It is difficult to imagine Mr Brough dealt with Mr Ashby and acted without the knowledge, encouragement or even assistance of sitting Liberal MPs.

Then Opposition Leader Tony Abbott did not disguise his fury and pursued Mr Slipper even when court action was in train.

The campaign to punish Mr Slipper for, as Mr Brough has put it, having “deserted the Liberal Party”, including charges he had rorted taxpayers money with dodgy taxi trips, charges which were dismissed.

But he could not survive revelations of private messages to and from Mr Ashby, who unsuccessfully sued for sexual harassment.

WHY DIDN’T BROUGH GET AN ABBOTT MINISTRY?

Mr Brough was a Howard government minister from 2001 to 2007, when he lost his seat of Longman. He was even rated a possible future leader by a minority.

After being active in the Get Slipper campaign and in 2013 taking Mr Slipper’s seat of Fisher off him, there would have been an expectation he would go straight into the ministry.

He didn’t, as if he were being punished for some failure.

And this year Mr Brough emerged as a strong supporter of Malcolm Turnbull, helping him depose Mr Abbott as PM. He was quickly appointed to the Turnbull ministry.

PM Malcolm Turnbull during Question Time in the House of Representatives Chamber, Parliament House in Canberra.

SHOULD THE PRIME MINISTER SUSPEND HIM?

As prime minister, Mr Abbott stood aside Liberla Senator and former Howard chief-of-staff Arthur Sinodinos because of Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) proceedings which did not even identify him as a person of interest, merely as a witness.

Mr Turnbull has stood by Mr Brough and declared his confidence in him. But it is not a good look for the Government — in the final sitting days of the year — to be seen protecting Mr Brough, who has given only limited responses to questions related to the Slipper

matter, coupled with his current job as Minister in charge of MP integrity measures.

And if a wider conspiracy is revealed and more Liberal names are presented, things could suddenly get messy for the Government, which has so far enjoyed an extended honeymoon since Mr Turnbull took the helm.

The PM told Parliament yesterday: “There are no new facts, matters or circumstances that have come to hand, and so there is no basis for the shadow Attorney-General’s withering torrent of cross-examination. If there are new developments, obviously, they will be considered.”

Originally published as The Slipper saga and the questions Mal Brough must answer