Correspondence from lofty, and other, sources

Waterstreet Down ... Slippery Pete on giving Tasmanian silks an option ... Morrison's gush at the Australian embassy in Washington ... Our investigations department riffles through the rubbish bins 

Times are difficult for former Sydney barrister Charles Waterstreet who hit a reef in June when the bar cancelled his ticket after he failed to show he was fit n' proper. 

The cancellation is attributable to his bankruptcy, following a judgment in favour of the Tax Office for $420,000, and appears not to be connected to alleged instances of sleazy behaviour with younger women. 

Here's his message to friends dated October 10, distributed on Facebook Messenger ... 

  

Slippery Pete 

Slipper: not driven by self-interest

Peter Slipper has weighed into the survey on Tasmanian QC appointments, recently distributed to the rank n' file by the local bar association. 

Slipper, the former speaker of the House of Representatives, fetched up at the Tasmanian bar after he lost his Queensland seat following nasty political gyrations which saw him stitched-up by a News Corp hack Steve Lewis, along with Mal Brough who wanted to slip into Slipper's seat of Fisher, and James Ashby his former member of staff who is now working for Pauline Hanson. 

All that is now behind the Slip while he concentrates on building a career in Van Diemen's Land. Here he writes a florid epistle to Tasmanian bar president Sandra Taglieri SC about the QC survey. 

His message is weird, as the Tasmanian proposal being pushed by Fabial Dixon SC is along the lines adopted by the Yarraside bar: SC and then the option of letters patent. 

"Good evening Sandra,

 Firstly please allow me to express both the high regard I have for you personally and also for the excellent manner in which you are carrying out your role as President of the Tasmanian Bar. 

I would however like to express my extreme disappointment at both at the format of the survey and the accompanying material. 

While I cannot imagine and am not for a moment suggesting you would do so intentionally, one could be forgiven for believing that both the survey itself and the accompanying material were designed to achieve an outcome which would deny Tasmanian silks the choice to become QCs available to their peers in Victoria and South Australia (with the accompanying competitive advantages).

Additionally in Queensland, all new silks compulsorily as part of the process of becoming silks are granted letters patent as Queen's Counsel. Equally that approach like that now in Tasmania denies choice to silks which is inappropriate.

A more suitable title for the survey would have been 

SHOULD THOSE APPOINTED AS SENIOR COUNSEL IN TASMANIA BE GIVEN CHOICE TO BE OR NOT TO BE DESIGNATED AS QUEEN’S COUNSEL WITHOUT GAIN OR LOSS OF SENIORITY. (AS OCCURS IN SOME OTHER  AUSTRALIAN JURISDICTIONS?)

Given my experience in the cesspit of politics, the decision to distribute two 'no' cases but only one 'yes' case shows a distinct lack of balance which is disturbing. 

My passing on of these views does not in any way diminish my respect and admiration for the manner in which you are carrying out your functions as our President. I hope you do not mind my expressing my views to you on this extraordinarily important issue.

My considered opinion on this subject is not driven by self interest; given

my almost a quarter of a century of service in the Commonwealth Parliament, I am under no illusions that I would ever be given the opportunity to be appointed as a silk in any manifestation; thus I believe I bring an objectivity to my contributions.

With kind regards,

Peter Slipper"  

See: Order of the Silken Quoll 

Brown Nose of the Month 

Morrison & Hockey: Mates BBQ, Washington

This award goes to Scott Morrison who, on the lawns of the Australian Embassy in September, made the following gushing remarks while on an official visit to Washington. In case you missed them, here they are in all their cloying vacuity: 

"Joe, to you and Melissa and your family it's wonderful to be here with you. And I really wanted to start off today on behalf of Jenny and I but not just us two but all of us from right around Australia to say thank you to both of you for what has been an outstanding ambassadorship that you've led here in Washington for Australia. When Joe came here, and the relationships which he's established here, the initiative around the Hundred Years of Mateship, this is, those of you know is 100 per cent Joe. It is it is how he looks at life, it's how he looks at the world, how he looks at others. It's about friendships, it's about personal connections.

And what you've been able to do with 100 years of mateship, mate, has been absolutely extraordinary and I think it's been a lesson to right across our missions all around the world that I had, we had all the Heads of Missions down in Canberra recently. And I was talking to them I said you guys are in the people business. You're in the business of getting on with other people and ensuring that we have great relationships with other people all around the world, it's because it's through those relationships that our heads of mission our ambassadors our High Commissioners form that we're able then to pursue through those very important personal relationships the broader policy agendas and alignment of our interests and even dealing with the odd difficult issue things like this.

And where you invest in those relationships then then you can be a great success as an ambassador. And so Joe you've taken that a whole new level. You've set a great bar for others to follow and I want to thank you and Melissa for the tremendous job you've done, but particularly with this Hundred Years of Mateship and you know when we've come here and I welcome all of the guests who are here but particularly the members of the cabinet who are here I can see Secretary Lighthizer down there and others who are here today. We really appreciate you coming and we were completely overwhelmed by the response that we've had. And in particular standing there yesterday morning on the South Lawn with the President.

And to be able to look out at around 5,000 people there seeing them waving Australian and US flags with both hands not just holding an Australian flag or some holding U.S. flag they were holding both and they're waving both and to see that as an Australian Prime Minister standing next to a US President, it just said everything about the nature of the relationship that we have.

But to see that topped off last night in what was the most magnificent, spellbinding, magical night crafted out of the imagination of Mrs. Trump. She was, wasn't she Jen, she was across every detail of last night and from the very touching remarks that the President made, referring to my great great aunt. I heard the start of the poem and I said that's, that's aunt Mary's poem! I'll have to tell him that when he's finished. And he ended up telling me so you know that's the sort of detail that shows an affection, it just shows a closeness and then to finish off, so I was already a bit weepy after that. And then at when Waltzing Matilda played.

That was just something that any Australian I think, although there was quite a few Americans who had been overcome by the emotion of that moment, I was overcome by it. It was great. And so I think that said it all about the relationship that we have together. And so we come here together this afternoon in a very Australian way around a barbecue and a few drinks and amongst friends and enjoy each other's company and in the spirit of mateship and that's really what this relationship is and that's how we'll keep getting stronger and stronger and stronger. And but the thing you know, politics is a, can be a really rough business.

But the elegance of politics I think the highest form of politics is when you're able to speak very clearly about the things you believe in and in this visit the President I've been saying the same things. Our belief in free markets, our belief in the power of the individual, our belief in peace and in liberty the rule of law, you know the things that have made the world the safe place that it is and has been since the end of the Second World War and together we've been building that. And these are things that sometimes we can take for granted. We can take for granted freedom of religion, we can take for granted any number of things. Things that have been so important that Australia and the United States have worked so closely together to create this peaceful, liberal democracy that we both enjoy and that we're keen for others to understand and be able to enjoy as well.

These things are important in the world today and Australia and United States stand together for these things and we will always stand together for these things. So this afternoon I think we can celebrate that, we can enjoy it and we can have a few drinks and we can get to know each other even a bit better more, we are going to plant a tree which is gonna be great. Which I understand is already planted. Joe was out there with a shovel this morning. Fantastic. So let me just conclude by saying thank you all for being here this afternoon.

And I want to, I want to finish where I began and that is to thank Joe and Melissa, Ambassador Hockey and Mrs. Hockey for the wonderful, wonderful job they've done here for Australia in the United States. You'll miss them, I'm sure, in this role in particular and it'll be our gain because we're going to see a lot more of them back home in Australia and when they return, and the things that they do back in Australia I'm sure they'll do tremendous things. But what you've been able to do here Joe has been truly extraordinary and a grateful nation thanks you. All the best everyone cheers."   

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