“The entry of Dr Andrew Wadsley into the debate about the FV Margiris has been spectacular in the same way a sideshow magician is spectacular. It has been an exercise of distraction over reality.”
So wrote Senator Richard Colbeck the Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Fisheries and Forestry.
I ask: Should Colbeck consider looking for a new job?
Colbeck is well qualified in sewers and drains with his certificate in carpentry and joinery from the Devonport Technical College.
Progressing through the ranks to own his own business as a building estimator and supervisor he has come on in leaps and bounds since becoming an Alderman on the Devonport City Council.
As with his mentor Abetz both were State Presidents of the Tasmanian Liberal Party and both gained entry to the Senate as “un-elected swill” (thankyou Paul Keating; such a beautiful turn of phrase) via none other than a casual vacancy.
Tasmania – with 500,000 people under a Constitution drawn up by our founding fathers – elects the extraordinary number of 12 Senators to Parliament. They are there to look after the interests of Tasmania.
Colbeck and Abetz push the Liberal Party political barrow … and to hell with Tasmania.
Abetz as Minister for Forests can claim full marks for the implosion of the industry here in his home State of Tasmania.
The seeds of this disaster were sown by him as Minister when his Liberal Party took $50,000 dollars from Gunns immediately after he was made the Minister.
This man was the great promoter Managed Investment Schemes (MIS), which has become of the greatest debacle.
Richard Colbeck, his successor (as Opposition spokesman on forests) has made no positive contribution to the debate and has so far waved his magic wand with impunity.
Colbeck has interpreted Dr Wadsley’s work ….using his Devonport TAFE education honed by his parliamentary experience of political sewers and drains.
“Do you consult your dentist about your heart condition,” says Colbeck. (TT here)
He says this is a fair comment.
It isn’t … it is a political comment and it destroys your credibility.
You claim to have been misrepresented by Dr Wadsley and you blame the Greens.
The Greens are not that good … but Dr Wadsley is.
He has been insulted and his professional reputation trashed falsely, because a new document has been secreted onto the AFMA site which shows that the science behind the super trawler quota was unsound, has always been unsound. To add insult to injury, this document breaches the University Research Code of Conduct by not referencing Dr Wadsley’s work, and AFMA has left the Fisheries Minister and Senator Colbeck himself misled and misinformed. (TT here)
This document vindicates Dr Wadsley’s last analysis (posted on TT on 10 September, TT here, and here) and reproduces his results.
Colbeck. We pay you to look after the interests of the State of Tasmania.
Please make some attempt to do so.
Abetz, your political mentor, is dangerous (ask Godwin Gretch and Malcom Turnbull).
Stand on your own two feet and never, “ring Erich”.
Will you apologise to Dr Wadsley?
This would regain you some respect.
