Dear Paul,

There are many bloggers who deal
in a mixture of allegations, rumour, and
fantasy. The difficulty for any blogger is
to make themselves heard in the cacophany of
online voices. So to stirrers such as these
notoriety is a precious asset. The threat of
legal action by a would be PM would be tauted
triumphantly through the blogosphere.

We need to take what they write with a grain of
salt.

On the more positive side - look at Hawke - hardly
a saint and yet he led with the help of Keating
and made THE changes which saw Australia develop
into a 21st century economy before its time.

Some people here are bringing up the old "reds
under the beds" scare again. It shows their age
and how far out of it they really are. (probably
mentally and physically).

The only kind of "Red"that appeals to me is the following:

http://taking-shape.com.au/product/a11722/smooch-me-brooch

cont'd ...

Ooooops. Sorry for the typo - here's the link
again:

http://takingshape.com.au/product/a11722/smooch-me-brooch

Paul1405, it is not defamatory to say that someone accused someone else of something. Some of what is published on that website would not be acceptable on this website because it is clearly not based on truth. However, that Bill Shorten was accused of rape, that there is a rumour that he got a member of staff pregnant, that he short-changed workers in various industrial agreements, and that he took donations which he didn't declare until much later, plus some others are all on the public record.

The public generally think that all politicians are corrupt, so these sorts of allegations don't tend to change votes. People just shrug their shoulders.

It's not my post, but I think the issues about donations and industrial agreements are material. Shorten is a deeply dishonest individual and will be a terrible prime minister. He will dud anyone else to get his own advancement. Just ask Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd.

Thanks Graham Y for your clarification!

GrahamY,
Do you think Bill Shorten's response to the accusation of short changing workers is material? He made the point that under WorkChoices the workers and unions had very little bargaining power, so there was no way of avoiding the workers getting short changed.

We only have to look at his ridiculous scaremongering to see that ScoMo is already deeply dishonest and a terrible PM. Whereas having just watched QandA, I think it's now safe to say that not only will Shorten be our next PM, but he will be a good one.

Aiden we need a like button, I like your post