There are less 'recent' scandals with Liberal MPs because they do not hold government except in one state so not only would their indiscretions will be less likely to hit the radar, but they have little influence in political decision making.

The ALP does seem to continually trip over themselves lately with one scandal after the other.

The Coalition is not without tarnish though if one remembers AWB, children overboard, Peter Reith's phone bill and one of my favourites:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindsay_pamphlet_scandal

You are right to raise this issue SM - but it would be nice to see you show some impartiality and honesty in your zeal in exposing corruption.

There needs to be reform surrounding political donations, that would go a long way to preventing scandal on both sides. We need more checks and balances, transparency if we are to really foster accountability in a democracy.

http://www.democracy4sale.org/

I obviously cannot do that, Shadow Minister.

>>Please feel free to point out where my interpretation is wrong.<<

You may be right, you may be half-right, you may be entirely wrong. It is, after all, simply your "interpretation".

But as I said, it is an interesting situation where an Independent is acting on behalf of a constituent, instead of being at the beck and call of Party factions. It becomes a matter between himself and his constituency, and in the due process of our parliamentary democracy, will be resolved at the ballot box.

After all, if matters stand as you interpret them, the voters will desert him en masse.

But it is interesting, is it not, that all this stuff happened well before the last election. So the source of the contamination, the intervention of Oakeshott and the "'meeting' with the EPA's star witness" was public knowledge before they went to the ballot box.

My "interpretation" of that is that not enough of them actually care that much.

Do you know differently?

Pelican, you are clutching at straws.

The children overboard claim was based on the report from the Navy, which actual as of yet has not be altered. So the claim was based on supposedly sound evidence. That prior to an election the libs may have guilded the lily a little is hardly a scandal. It is notable that the senate inquiry that found this to be false was stacked almost exclusively with Labor senators.

Similarly the AWB affair was the actions of a private company, for which Labor tried unsuccessfully to tie to the government, which were at worst oversight by the relevant departments. The closest the judicial enquiry could get was a couple of emails in which mild concern was expressed, which were probably not even read by the ministers concerned.

The only example with any validity was the phone card incident which is from over a decade ago

Given the string of scandals this year from Labor, and previously the pink Batts, the BER rorts etc, none of which Labor wants exposed to a judicial inquiry, the vast preponderance of scandals are on Labor's side.

Should have known, Shallow Minister. No comment for fear of encouraging him/her.

SM why would I be clutching at straws when you are not? Do you know the full truth about the Oakeshott events, do you really care or are you just about muckraking.

Are you are seriously that the Liberals did not use the Children Overboard scandal (think Downer using inflammatory comments like "we don't want those sort of people here in Australia"), and that the Howard government knew nothing about AWB well before public revelations, and that the Lindsay pamphlet event did not happen.

Gee these Libs are truly as pure as the driven snow.

Are you about greater transparency as in my earlier post or not - it has to be applicable to both parties to work.

Pelican,

Of course the libs used the children overboard to their advantage. However, it did not originate from the libs, but from the navy, the only question is when the libs became aware of it.

As far as the AWB scandal, there is not a single shred of evidence that the libs knew of the rort whilst it was happening, and they even allowed a judicial inquiry to occur which subpoenaed hundreds of thousands of documents and emails. I don't have any reason to believe they knew. If you have, please share it.

As for the pamphlets, it was decade ago. If I was to dredge up every labor malfeasance there would not be space in this thread, compared to the handful of petty or manufactured examples you have given.

The libs are not as pure as the driven snow, but by comparison, Labor reeks of continuous and rampant corruption.

Rob Oakeshott referred to NSW corruption watchdog
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/investigations/rob-oakeshott-referred-to-nsw-corruption-watchdog/story-fn6tcs23-1225955228651