I want the Federal Senate on my Jury!

With all the excitement of the Liberal Party spill it would have been very easy to miss that the Senate Committee looking into the Godwin Grech / OzCar affair handed down its report on the 25^th November 2009. And after reading it I want the any one of the Senators on Privileges Committee on my jury if I am ever charged with a crime.

Their conclusion was that they were "unable to arrive at a conclusion that a contempt was committed by Mr Grech" based on his inability to appear in front of the committee due to a medical condition. This is despite Mr Grech having given "to the Economics Legislation Committee [evidence] that was objectively false and misleading, and although the committee was also misled by references to an email later revealed to have been fabricated by Mr Grech."

The committee also made these conclusions from the evidence it received:

At [6.8]:

• Mr Godwin Grech gave a misleading impression to the Economics Legislation Committee about the amount of work involved in his advocacy on behalf of Mr John Grant.
  
• Mr Godwin Grech gave evidence to the committee about his dealings with the journalist, Steve Lewis, that was untrue.
  
• Mr Godwin Grech did not disclose to the committee that he had created a record of the email that he asserts he believed existed.
  

Collusive pre-arrangement of questions and answers for an undisclosed purpose

• Mr Godwin Grech suggested to the Opposition that the Car Dealership Financing Guarantee Appropriation Bill 2009 should be referred to a Senate committee for the purpose of getting his 'evidence' about alleged corrupt conduct by the Prime Minister into the public arena.
  
• Mr Godwin Grech met with the Opposition Leader, Mr Turnbull, and Senator Abetz in Sydney for the purpose of showing them the 'evidence' he had of alleged corrupt conduct by the Prime Minister.
  
• Unbeknown to Mr Turnbull and Senator Abetz, Mr Grech's 'evidence' of this alleged corrupt conduct had been created by himself as a record of an email that he asserts he believed existed.
  
• Apart from Mr Grech's recollection, which he asserted may be faulty or false, there was no evidence put before the committee that an email resembling Mr Grech's record of it ever existed.
  

So basically the Privileges Committee found that there was overwhelming evidence that Grech had concocted an email to allege the Government had asserted undue influence in order to bring down the Prime Minister. He was in effect a Liberal spy assisting the Opposition and although the Committee found no evidence of wrong doing on behalf of Senator Abetz he clearly had seen the email prior to questioning Mr Grech. This may not point to collusion on behalf of the Opposition member but it clearly shows that Mr Grech had developed a quite elaborate plan to bring down the Prime Minister.

Now, my blog is not about Mr Grech's involvement nor is it to denounce him for his actions as this has been done many times over. It is to highlight the weakness of this Committees conclusion.

This committee states that it "is frustrated by its inability to arrive at a conclusion as to Mr Grech's culpability, both because of the state of his health, and the practical difficulty of testing the claim of medical incapacity advanced by his treating doctor."

What practical difficulty? In Queensland (and I am sure every other state) we have a mental health tribunal. It assesses the person's mental state at the time of the offence and deems whether they are fit for trial. Why does the Federal Senate, with all the power and resources at its disposal, not have some mechanism to test the claim of medical incapacity? This is a cop out and the committee should be disgusted with themselves.

This committee has taken the easy road by brushing under the carpet a serious matter which caused great public scandal at the time. If fabricating evidence and lying in front of a Parliamentary Committee, to bring down a Prime Minister no less, is tolerated then what will be acceptable to the Federal Senate next?