Gerry Georgatos - On the 26th of January last year headlines rocketed around the world out of Canberra from the Lobby restaurant incident where more than 200 protestors descended from the nearby 40th Aboriginal Tent Embassy celebrations and vigil. The Prime Minister’s Office, despite its public denials, tried to stage manage a confrontation between Federal Opposition leader Tony Abbott and some of Aboriginal Tent Embassy’s high profile figures, including legendary co-founder of the Embassy, Michael Anderson. To this day, the Office of the Prime Minister, and the Prime Minister herself continue to mislead the nation about the extent of their involvement.
Days after the tensions at the nearby Lobby restaurant, where civil protestors became frustrated with the perceived dismissive perambulations of the Prime Minister and the Opposition leader, the National Indigenous Times broke the story that the debacle was not limited to one person in the Prime Minister’s Office. Experienced staffer Tony Hodges took the hit for the Prime Minister’s Office and the minion was taken care of and packed off to London where he picked up a job with former ALP power-broker Bob McMullan, biding his time for an eventual return to the ALP core fold. A credible and well placed Federal Government source confided to us that indeed Mr Hodges “did not go rogue” and that the Prime Minister’s Office was extensively involved in trying to stage manage an incident intended to embarrass Mr Abbott, however which spiralled out of their control.
A week later another parliamentary source, close to the Office of the Prime Minister, confirmed what we had been already told - that the Prime Minister’s Office had been involved, and including Prime Minister Julia Gillard, the Chief of Staff, (name withheld), and other staffers such as (name withheld) who has now left the Office of the Prime Minister. Other staffers were involved however after the incident they closed shop and debriefed, and decided on Mr Hodges taking the hit. They believed it more important to see out the Prime Ministership of Ms Gillard sworn to secrecy about the extent of their involvement as what happened that day had gone viral, leading all the major news around the world. They believed it could dramatically negatively impact on a Prime Minister and a Government which at the time was taking one enormous hit after another and at a time when political commentators and pundits believed the Prime Minister's days were numbered. However this argument no longer washes as the political landscape has changed and the Prime Minister appears safe at least till the August elections.
Nearly one year after the event, in which aspersions were cast on Aboriginal peoples and Aboriginal Tent Embassy, in which divisions were ludicrously manifest between Aboriginal peoples Australia wide, the National Indigenous Times contacted the Office of the Prime Minister as to whether they would at long last come clean about the extent of their involvement. Rarely does the Office of the Prime Minister not respond to The National Indigenous Times. This is one of these rare occasions. We asked whether the Prime Minister or her Office would formally apologise to Aboriginal peoples Australia-wide, to Aboriginal Tent Embassy organisers and to its attendees, and indeed to the Australian nation. As we know and without any doubt that Mr Hodges did not act alone we commented to the Prime Minister that a grave injustice continues to languish, and that Aboriginal peoples and Aboriginal Tent Embassy continues to take the hit for the immature actions and theatrics of the Office of the Prime Minister.
This denial of the truth, which one day will most certainly come to light, is a stain on the national consciousness. It is not just an inadvertent racism however because these are educated people in the Office of the Prime Minister it is therefore an act of racism and indeed racial vilification. The integrity of the highest office in the nation and of the nation’s highest officer is therefore in question. The Australian consciousness has had shoved down its throat shameful lies – and coming from the Office of the Prime Minister this is a shame the nation wears. They screwed up, and they should have admitted to it and taken the hit rather than allow for others to be burdened with the unwarranted. Many Australians were fixated on whether American cyclist Lance Armstrong would finally come 'clean' and whether the peak cycling bodies were involved, well maybe they should be just as concerned as to whether our Prime Minister should have to scrub up to the truth.
I was at Aboriginal Tent Embassy throughout the duration of its 40th anniversary. I was at the Lobby restaurant incident from beginning to end, and I too was disgusted at how our nation's highest officers dismissed and disregarded the people who had coalesced outside the Lobby restaurant at the invitation of the Prime Minister's Office. There should have been mediators stepping in from our nation's highest office once they saw what they had planned go haywire - in a never-before-seen debacle. People may have finished up arrested and lives ruined. Instead what we got was cowardice and self-interest only, smacking of the various veils and layers of racism. There was no prime ministerial leadership on the day, not by Ms Gillard nor by Mr Abbott or from any of their many minions.
I have pursued the Prime Minister’s Office to come clean. I have for the first time in my life pressured confidential sources to go public, and maybe one of them will, because it is abhorrent racism and a terrible bullying lumped on Aboriginal Tent Embassy by what is perceived to have brought about what happened at the Lobby restaurant on that fateful day. It may even arise that for the first time in my life I will name the sources, and this will go against what I and any journalist believes in and lives by, in order that what is right is finally done - Unless the Prime Minister and her Office at long last honourably stand up and face the nation. The Apology is well overdue.
LINKS:
http://www.theage.com.au/national/pms-staffer-did-not-act-alone-report-2...
The National Indigenous Times (NIT) reported today that an unnamed source, described as holding a "senior position within government bureaucracy", had told it a number of people within Ms Gillard's office knew beforehand the "leak" was going to happen.
The explosive report, which has not been confirmed, comes after a protest last Thursday at The Lobby Restaurant in Canberra sparked a security scare involving Ms Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/julia-gillard-staffer-d...
DUMPED Labor minister Robert McClelland finds it hard to believe that only a junior member of Julia Gillard's office helped spark a chain of events that led to this year's violent Australia Day protest.
http://www.nit.com.au/opinion/525-georgatos-my-personal-look-at-the-tent...
http://lefthack.net/the-national-riot-mismanagement-squad
"The glass was never going to be broken", he argues. In fact, he says that the Australia Day medals ceremony had already concluded by the time the protesters arrived. "The ceremony wasn’t even interrupted," he said. Georgatos saw the detachment of security staff exit the restaurant in flying wedge formation, dragging the Prime Minister with them. He confirms the widely reported observation that there were in fact only a couple of protesters outside that door. "The Prime Minister could have simply walked out," he tells us. The footage of the police frantically waving their hands and yelling "get back" was in fact evidence of their over-reaction, as the only people in front of the exiting column were media and Michael Anderson himself. "The flying wedge was waving their hands at no-one," he said.
http://indymedia.org.au/2012/04/22/source-spills-beans-on-government-pmo...
A source close to the Office of the Prime Minister said that the scandal "was in the works, would soon surface, and just like the Lobby restaurant incident that went on for a little while having pearshaped on the government
http://www.6pr.com.au/blogs/6pr-perth-blog/why-should-we-believe-you/201...
The Prime Minister spoke with Paul Murray who asked 'Why should voters have confidence in the budget's promises?"
http://www.nit.com.au/opinion/525-georgatos-my-personal-look-at-the-tent...
Gerry Georgatos is our journalist, from Western Australia, and he was in Canberra with the rest of our team reporting on Aboriginal Tent Embassy
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/mobile/article.aspx?id=8411829&_sp=2045&noid=...
A federal government source has contradicted Prime Minister Julia Gillard's statement that a former staffer acted alone when he passed on information to a third party that led to a security scare at an Australia Day event, an indigenous newspaper says.
http://www.nit.com.au/news/622-more-leaks-hit-pms-office-with-new-claims...
The Prime Minister's office has been hit by another leak from another separate source close to the Prime Minister's Office who has claimed there was a meeting of key members of the Prime Minister's Office "to work out how best to handle matters" after the events that took place at the Lobby Restaurant in Canberra
http://www.theage.com.au/national/pms-staffer-did-not-act-alone-report-2...
"The federal government source said Mr Hodges did not act alone, that others in his office were aware of what was planned and the intention behind the call, and those who were aware may have included the Prime Minister herself,"
http://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/aboriginal/highlight/page/id/204717/t...
Prime Minister Knew Of Plans To Discredit Tony Abbott on Australia Day
http://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/aboriginal/highlight/page/id/204013/t...
Australia Day Protest - did the Prime Minister know?
http://indymedia.org.au/2012/02/28/lobbygate-the-prime-minister-would-ha...
The Office of the Prime Minister continues to deny any involvement in sparking the Lobby restaurant incident - and their official spokesperson claims that Tony Hodges went rogue and acted alone
http://newmatilda.com/2012/01/31/national-riot-mismanagement-squad
As the media continues to distort the tent embassy protest, the behaviour of Gillard's office is under scrutiny. It's another media debacle for the embattled PM, writes Ben Eltham
