At Number 10, a number of some note in political circles, the “Political Animal” as described by the Mercury – one Erich Abetz – just scraped into their top ten of influential Tasmanian Pollies.
Federally the debacle created by Abetz and the mole Godwin Grech cost Turnbull, the natural leader of the Liberal Party, the job of Leader of the Opposition.
In Tasmania Hodgman failed to conclude a deal with the Greens after the last State election, thereby forcing the Greens into the arms of Labor; the Abetzian unbridled and absolute hatred of the Greens providing the shut-out bid.
Abetz is indeed adept at the game of politics! It is his extreme right wing mantra that is so in evidence in the Abbott-led Liberal Party of today.
The Mercury article sums up Abetz as follows:
“The sharp tongue and rapier intellect of Abetz has been an unmistakeable feature of the Coalition in the Australian Senate for 18 years. The Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, Abetz controls the Liberal Party in Tasmania with an iron fist. He is a tireless operator behind the scenes and has a brilliant mind for detail. Abetz does not take kindly to being challenged and those colleagues who cross him usually find themselves on the outer with the party. He is as comfortable in front of the cameras as working in the shadows of the corridors of power. Few politicians have mastered the game of politics quite as adeptly.”
My experience with Abetz a man to whom I have never spoken or for that matter met is that he is all these things and much more.
He first crossed my path when he threatened to sue me over my published letter to The Age regarding large political donations to the Liberal Party by Gunns Ltd. He desisted after I raised with him the subject of a further donation of 50,000 dollars made by Gunns Ltd some three weeks after he was made Minister of Forests in the last Liberal Government.
I asked him by letter if he felt in any way beholden as a result of the 50,000 dollars to a Tasmanian Company pushing a Pulp Mill in Tasmania, for he was both a Tasmanian, a Tasmanian Senator and a relevant government Minister.
As a Minister Abetz sent two visitors to my front door in Chudleigh to warn me that it would be in my best interests to lay off the Senator, an approach I neither liked nor appreciated.
I have since taken him to the High Court to challenge his right to sit in the Parliament as a dual national. He has been a Senator since 1994.
Abetz renounced his German citizenship just prior to the election in March 2010, the German Government granting him the required certificate, thereby giving him the undisputed right to stand for the 2010 Senate election.
I suggest that no Government, German or otherwise would allow an individual to renounce a citizenship they did not enjoy.
I withdrew my case, Abetz paid his own costs.
This brings me to the Abetz land deals on the Channel Highway in Hobart as published for comment on this website ( Abetz and Channel Highway land deals ).
On the surface there would appear to be a transfer in value between two adjoining Abetz-owned properties on separate titles so as to enable a large reduction in capital gains tax.
According to the Mercury, Abetz is a man with a rapier intellect and brilliant mind.
I am sure that it will be within his powers to explain why a 10-acre block, subject to capital gains tax that cost his family, 100,000 dollars should be declared as sold for 400,000 dollars, yet his home on just over an acre on the adjoining block – exempt capital gains tax – sells for 1,500,000 dollars.
The original purchaser, who purchased both blocks togetherfor 1,900,000 dollars, has reduced the value of the Abetz house block for rating purposes since his acquisition by more than half and demolished the home.
I ask: Do these sequential events suggest that the Abetz selling price of 1,500,000 dollars on his capital-gains, tax-free Channel Highway home was – for reasons of tax – overstated.
Has the Tax Department taken any interest in this matter; if not why not?
Further, the sale of the 10 acre block never seems to have been declared by Abetz as a Registrable Interest to the Senate as required by Parliament. Why? Is there one law for the ordinary person and one law for a legal practitioner turned Pollie, who no-one in this Parliament wishes to call to account.
Or would a declaration lead to a tax audit?
I ask the Mercury: Is it possible that the much-vaunted Abetz, “intellect” and “brilliant mind” has – in the case of Erich’s personal affairs – gone “missing in action”?
I will now move to another area of interest regarding one Senator Abetz; the seeming lack of documents regarding MIS forestry schemes protected by Abetz, up to the fall of the Liberal Howard Government.
The personnel at the National Archives of Australia have to be very quick to lay their hands on Government documents when a Government is likely to fall or falls, for the shredders seem to be great eaters …
I applied under Freedom of Information to access the documents in the then ministerial office of Abetz the Minister of Forests regarding MIS schemes in the Liberal Government during its review of the100% upfront deductions for investing in plantations.
I requested in particular the correspondence between the Minister, Abetz, Gunns Ltd, Carmody, the then Tax Commissioner and Dutton the Minister for Revenue and Assistant Treasurer between 1 April 2006 and 13 Feb 2007. The heat was then on from Treasury and the Tax Commissioner to reign in the tax deductibility of MIS scams then promoted and protected by Abetz as Minister of Forests.
Initially I was told that there were no ministerial papers ( Erich Abetz and the mystery of those MIS facts ).
Abetz as Minister for Forests triumphed but split the Liberal Coalition when the 100% up front deduction on Plantations was maintained, from 1 July 2007 yet was withdrawn from other MIS products. The only change regarding plantations was that investors in forestry had to spend 70% of all expenditure on developing forestry. This requirement was enough within 4 years to bankrupt the industry as these Abetz backed scams collapsed; commissions were cut to accountant’s promoters and scammers, moving them to other fields.
Now, of the major players in this Ponzi scam that cost the nation billions of dollars, Gunns are bust, Timbercorp bust, Great Southern bust, Wilmot Forests bust and FEA bust. Not a good result for the taxpayer who I suggest has been dudded by political patronage resulting from the large sums of money pumped into the Liberal Party by those parties then involved in MIS forestry.
To help tabulate this major Liberal Party epic I discovered under FOI – at a second attempt – in the former office of Minister Abetz, 17 documents, 6 to be released in full, mainly press releases and 11 in part.
We will all be dead in 20 years when the duplicity of those involved in this seemingly protected forestry MIS scam is finally exposed.
What did Minister Abetz’ parliamentary staff do all day when not filing those 17 documents received and dispatched by the Minister over those 10 long defensive months on this very important and politically divisive issue?
In conclusion:
Why are all of our Pollies as noted by the Mercury so in awe of Abetz, a seemingly all powerful Liberal Party head kicker?
Will someone of any political persuasion raise these important matters in Parliament, be it State or Federal?
What is it about the Abetz persona that appears to keep the system of due process in check?
