Husar harassment

Geez aren't the Lefties sensitive over this exposure of the inner workings of the union controlled labor Party.

And again just to help the utterly confused Lefties oblivious of reality understand what a chaotic brothel Hussy has thrown Labor into.

Shorty is in PANIC MODE as the CFMMEU pressures him to ditch Hussy and put their candidate in.

The CFMMEU will be ropeable that their carefully orchestrated smear campaign scandal to put the skids under Hussy failed.

The CFMMEU don't want and don't trust Hussy because she never served an apprenticeship as a union brown noser.

Will Hussy bring the house down and turn INDEPENDENT?????

Oh the scandal prone union controlled Labor Party never fails to entertain.


And now Hussy is trying to find out who leaked her alleged deeds to Buzzfeed.

It will be fascinating to see what happens to the Lindsay candidate pre-selection before the next election.

Will the CFMMEU be furiously re-greasing the skids under her ???

Patriot wrote:

But now comes the STOP PRESS BOMBSHELL announcement!!!

Hussy is now going to try to re-contest her seat!!!!

Labor in panic mode as the CFMMEU goes on the attack and demands THEIR candidate MUST replace Hussy!!!!

How are the unions going to put the skids under her now ? Another scandal ?

She needs to grow up.

I guess that she suddenly remembered that she hasn't been an MP long enough to get a Pension for Life.  Poor ting. :sleep:

But now comes the STOP PRESS BOMBSHELL announcement!!!

Hussy is now going to try to re-contest her seat!!!!

Labor in panic mode as the CFMMEU goes on the attack and demands THEIR candidate MUST replace Hussy!!!!

How are the unions going to put the skids under her now ? Another scandal ?



Scare for Labor as Husar rethinks resigning
BRAD NORINGTON 12:17AM AUGUST 14, 2018


Emma Husar in Canberra.

Senior NSW Labor officials fear federal MP Emma Husar may be reconsidering her decision not to recontest her seat at the next election, buoyed by the findings of a ­report on staff bullying and harassment allegations that there was “no basis for her to resign from the Australian parliament”.

A possible change of heart by Ms Husar, who announced last week she would bow out, two days before report findings on her conduct were released, would pose a dilemma for the NSW ALP’s head office, which had made it clear she needed to depart “her way or their way”.

A sudden reversal could also create a political headache for Bill Shorten, who appears to publicly maintain his support for the first-time MP amid allegations she mistreated as many as 22 staff. However, he is believed to back efforts to ensure she quits.

The NSW ALP has already flagged calling nominations for Ms Husar’s seat of Lindsay in Sydney’s west, but there are no obvious candidates to replace her.

Despite Ms Husar announcing last week that she would not recontest her seat, she has not yet submitted a letter to party head office to confirm she is relinquishing her endorsement for Lindsay, and she remains the officially anointed candidate.

Unless NSW ALP general secretary Kaila Murnain and other top party officers were to accept Ms Husar reversing her decision, their only recourse to force her out would be formal steps to dis­endorse her as the party candidate.

Such a move could precipitate a legal battle six months before the federal election, if lawyers for Ms Husar ran a case arguing the party’s internal investigation into her conduct by barrister John Whelan had found “no basis” for her resignation.

A well-placed Labor source told The Australian: “Party officials are racking their brains about what to do if she decides to run. Unless they receive a letter from her saying otherwise, she remains the candidate, and they can’t do anything about it.”

A spokeswoman for the NSW ALP head office said it was among the recipients of Ms Husar’s emailed statement last week saying she would not recontest her seat, and accepted this as confirmation of her decision. “The NSW Labor Party officers met to accept Ms Husar’s public notice of her resignation as Labor’s candidate for Lindsay on Wednesday evening. Nominations will open in due course,” the spokeswoman said.

According to a summary of findings, Mr Whelan found allegations against Ms Husar that she subjected staff to “unreasonable management” and demanded they perform non-work “personal duties” had “merit”. But he said other allegations against her of lewd conduct, sexual harassment and misleading parliament could not be supported. The barrister left it up to authorities to investigate other allegations that Ms Husar misused her MP entitlements, and that campaign funds landed in a personal bank account.

The Australian asked Ms Husar last night — via the office of the Opposition Leader, which has been handling requests for comment while she is on extended leave — if she might be reconsidering her decision to not recontest her seat, in light of the Whelan report findings released on Friday, and public support over the weekend urging her to continue.

“Not that I’m aware of,” her spokesman said.

Senior party sources said the prospect of Ms Husar rethinking her position had become a “live issue” inside the NSW ALP, despite her saying on Wednesday that she wanted to leave on her “own terms”, and would not let people keep “pummelling” her with “vexatious, malicious allegations” and “no facts” and “no ­evidence”.

The main factors behind any reconsideration of Ms Husar’s decision not to run appear to be the overall softness of criticism of her behaviour in the summary of Mr Whelan’s findings, and the key phrase saying there was “no basis” for her to resign from parliament.

An online petition called “Bring back Husar!” has been started by her friend and local party member Peggy Willcox, who said she hoped to present the petition to Mr Shorten.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/scare-for-labor-as-husar-rethinks-resigning/news-story/fd719398e27e4761ff8ebca01e7c9860

Enough for Emma, but will it be too much for Shorten?
By Brad Norington,
August 11, 2018

The toll of staff churning through Emma Husar’s office had already started mounting when Blake Mooney fell out with her. It was late March last year. Young Mooney’s attention to detail bothered the first-time elected federal Labor MP for Lindsay in Sydney’s west so much that she complained to Bill Shorten’s then chief of staff, Andrew Thomas.

Husar told Thomas she wanted Mooney moved out. He’d ­appar­ently had the temerity to challenge her about her alleged use of parliamentary entitlements for personal purposes. The alleged specifics involved a Comcar limousine service, the purchase of some household groceries and a claimed flight to a Labor women’s event in Melbourne. Picky.

With help from Kaila Murnain, the NSW ALP’s sparky head office boss in Sydney, Mooney was shifted to a safe spot in the ­office of a state Labor MP Kate Washington. A bright, level-headed staff member such as Mooney was thought too good to waste over an office spat with a novice MP.

Meanwhile, Thomas, Shorten’s right-hand man in charge of making things work, seems to have realised a troubleshooter was needed in Husar’s office.

Cameron Sinclair, whose resume included stints with senior party players Chris Bowen and Sam Dastyari, was planted there for the next two months. To some observers it seemed a comedown, working for a newcomer, but Sinclair’s Husar brief, as he states on LinkedIn, was an important one: “Recruited to ­restructure staff, ­office budgets and provide strategic planning advice.”

Flash forward to Wednesday this week, Husar was all washed up. The MP who won Lindsay for Labor in July 2016 with a 1.1 per cent margin, and made a name for herself campaigning against domestic violence, especially after a stirring parliamentary speech about her personal experience, gave an afternoon exclusive to Nine Network reporter Chris O’Keefe, announcing she would not recontest her seat at the election expected next year.

“Enough’s enough,” Husar said. “You know, I’m going to do this on my own terms. I’m not going to let people just keep pummelling me the way they have for the last three weeks with no evidence, with no facts, and just vexatious, malicious allegations that are just designed to smear me.”

Husar’s foreshadowed end of a brief political career was the ­climax to weeks of damaging allegations — first leaked to BuzzFeed and then snowballing in mainstream media — about how she had treated staff at her Penrith electorate office over two years.

Despite bowing out, Husar dismissed a remarkable array of claims that included bullying and verbally abusing staff, ordering staff to walk her dog, clean up its excrement and do other menial chores, having one staff member live at her home to help mind her children, and hiring the children’s nanny as a part-time electorate staffer. There were other serious allegations, too, well outside treatment of employees: that Husar could have misused her MPs’ travel entitlements intended strictly for parliamentary and official business, and that campaign funds could have found their way into a personal bank account.

“I categorically and absolutely vehemently deny the allegations that are put,” Husar said. The timing of Husar’s retreat was significant. She was just a day away from learning the results of a six-month internal investigation into allegations against her that NSW ALP head office had commissioned barrister and former party staff member John Whelan to conduct.

The signs were not positive. Husar’s denials came in the face of 22 former staff members coming forward as witnesses for Whelan’s inquiry with tales of woe. The numbers alone suggested something was wrong: a first-time backbench MP entitled to four electorate staff going through so many in just two years was an all-time record.

The other imperative for Husar was to stop the scandal dragging on any further before parliament resumed this week. Husar had not only become close friends with Bill Shorten and his wife, Chloe, and part of Shorten’s office clique that included Thomas and his chief of staff successor, Ryan Liddell. In parliament she had been in full public glare every day during question time, strategically placed in the seating ­arrangements for TV cameras ­behind her party leader.

During her tearful exit announcement, Husar thanked Shorten and his wife for their continued support and, in an indication of strained relations that had developed between herself and NSW ALP head office, said she had spoken to no one from that direction since the previous Thursday. Regardless, intermediaries were clearly at work via Shorten’s office. The blunt message relayed from NSW ALP officials had been that her departure would be “her way or their way”.

The Husar saga, while sad and even tragic for her personally, has raised serious questions about how apparent dysfunction in one MP’s office could have been allowed to fester. While Shorten and his office have claimed they had no idea about problems involving Husar and her staff until just recently, the swift exit of Mooney in March last year suggests otherwise. There was a concerted attempt to remedy staffing issues then by ­inserting Sinclair, an experienced hand, as a fixer.

But Sinclair’s temporary appointment was not enough. He left to work briefly for a Canberra lobbyist firm before returning to help settle in new-chum Labor senator and former NSW premier Kristina Keneally. Sinclair now works as the public policy manager for Woolworths, the same retail giant where Thomas, or “AT” as he is known, served as a government relations executive before returning to Labor as Shorten’s chief of staff after the 2016 election.

Why is this recounting of these and other interconnections significant? Because they point to how Shorten, and many around him, had much to do with Husar both professionally and socially during the concentrated time­frame since she was first elected.

Yet Shorten professes he had no idea about the allegations against Husar — or her unprecedented staff turnover — until July 18 when BuzzFeed reporter Alice Workman contacted his ­office for comment about allegations she intended to publish the next day. It would seem neither Thomas nor Liddell mentioned it. Asked if he knew Sinclair had worked for Husar, Shorten said: “I’m not entirely clear who Cameron Sinclair is.”

Poor Bill Shorten, kept in the dark. Or is his get-out clause that he was short on specifics? It seems no one high up in Labor treated problems in Husar’s office seriously after Sinclair’s brief troubleshooting role. Husar was given no help as difficulties escalated with staff unable to cope lasting months and sometimes just weeks before they said, “enough’s enough”.

The problem runs deeper. Where was Labor’s vetting process for a key western Sydney seat when it selected an inexperienced Husar, relatively new to the party, and someone who posted on ­social media in 2010: “Anyway politicians, I want to be one, you can lie, steal, cheat and use other peoples (sic) Money to go on holidays — best job in the world.” Husar later admitted the comment was silly and deleted it.

Peter Anderson, a former NSW Labor police minister from the Wran years known for his strident, even maverick approach, was drawn into the Husar debacle last October. He had several ­direct contacts with NSW Labor to express his dismay over what he saw as no action taken to support his son Jeremy, one of Husar’s ousted staff. Anderson’s involvement became semi-public at ALP Christmas drinks in December when he was seen having a heated conversation with Murnain, the NSW general secretary. He demanded she “do something”.

Frustrations among former staff were building at this point. They had concluded, rightly or wrongly, that Husar was a “protected species” because of her perceived closeness to Shorten and his office. They believed the party wanted to bury the issue.

Whelan was recruited by NSW ALP head office in March to investigate but only because of persistent pressure from ex-staff. Even then the group had doubts, despite confidence in Whelan, that his report would be received and forgotten. It was this fear that prompted one or more to go to BuzzFeed. When Husar lashed out, alleging she was the victim of a campaign by the Andersons, one ex-staffer, Angela Hadchiti, decided enough was more than enough, speaking out to The Weekend Australian and confirming she was one of 22. Later that day, Husar pulled the pin on her career.

Whelan’s report findings, released in summary yesterday, show him concluding there was “merit” in allegations Husar ­required staff to perform non-work personal duties, and subjected them to unreasonable management. The longer-term benefit of Whelan’s report, apart from putting all MPs on notice about how they treat staff, is how it could lead to protection guidelines that currently don’t exist.

Malcolm Turnbull, meanwhile, no doubt will exploit the politics in parliament next week, as he did yesterday, claiming “the real question” was when Shorten knew about Husar’s troubles. Other senior party figures knew, such as Anthony Albanese and Tony Burke. Murnain knew. Dastyari knew. The list goes on. Turnbull taunted Shorten: “If you accept what he says, he was the last person in the Labor Party to know what was going on.”

A party leader cannot know everything, but former Julia Gillard adviser and Victorian party boss Nicholas Reece was candid on Paul Murray’s Sky News show this week: “I’m just going to call it for what it is. Of course Bill Shorten would have known which ­direction this was going in. It beggars belief that anything else could have been possible.”

When Husar eventually returns from self-imposed leave, it’s a fair bet she will not be sitting behind Shorten in parliament for the cameras. There are risks for Labor in the next 12 months that Husar may not remain in the Shorten camp, appreciative of his support. There is a lot Husar could say with parliamentary privilege, and many have reason to be nervous.

Labor are saying their independent report clears her.
But they are just being selective and disingenuous.

They should publish the whole report so we can judge if it is a complete whitewash or not.

She's not going to stand at the next election... they should boot her out now if she's guilty, not pay her till next May.

God help Australia if he becomes PM.

Put simply he's a liar.
On so many things.

Bull Shitten has a selective memory!

What do you expect from the Guardian...
Meanwhile 22 people are very upset with Labor.

Emma Husar: Staffers ‘talked to Bill Shorten’s office for months’
ByRachel Baxendale,
August 8, 2018

Bill Shorten maintains he did not learn of staff bullying and intimidation allegations against Emma Husar until his office was contacted by the media, despite a former staff member of the embattled NSW Labor MP saying complainants have been speaking to the Labor leader’s office “for months”.

Mr Shorten’s claim that he was not aware of the allegations against Ms Husar until shortly before they were published by BuzzFeed News on July 18, contradicts a claim from single mother of three Angela Hadchiti.

Ms Hadchiti has told The Australian, she received “insensitive and brutal” treatment during six months working in Ms Husar’s office, and alleges that her ex-boss was involved in “bizarre events” that led to the sudden month-long disappearance of her daughter.

The Australian this morning put a series of questions to Mr Shorten’s office, asking whether he still stands by his claim that he did not know of the allegations until July 18, whether he disputes Ms Hadchiti’s claim that complainants have been in contact with his office “for months”, or whether it is possible his office knew about the allegations and he did not.

Ms Hadchiti’s claims were also put to Mr Shorten’s office yesterday.

A spokesman for Mr Shorten responded by referring us to his office’s previous statement that: “NSW ALP informed the Opposition Leader of the independent investigation on 18 July, following a media enquiry.”

Ms Hadchiti said she had approached The Australian to speak out because she was infuriated that Ms Husar was publicly dismissing allegations of alleged ­office bullying and harassment by blaming disgruntled ex-staffer Jeremy Anderson for a political “stitch-up”.

“There is not one staffer ­involved in this,” said Ms Hadchiti, who is the first former employee of Ms Husar to speak publicly about working for the federal MP for Lindsay in Sydney’s west.

“I want to take the burden off Jeremy Anderson and his father. There are 22 of us, and we are in this together. We have been speaking to Bill Shorten’s office, to NSW Labor and to the union for months.”

Ms Husar has today accused a state Labor parliamentary colleague — understood to be shadow minister Prue Car — of deliberately “isolating” her and excluding her from media events within her own electorate, Fairfax Media is reporting.

The allegations are reportedly detailed in a supplementary response to barrister John Whelan, who was appointed by the NSW ALP in March to investigate the alleged bullying in Ms Husar’s office.

Mr Whelan’s report is due to be presented to party bosses this week, ahead of parliament returning on Monday.

The Guardian had something recently.  I don't read that rag.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/aug/07/nsw-labor-rejects-emma-husars-claim-bullying-inquiry-hopelessly-compromised

So far its been very quiet re Husar this week.

Veritas wrote:

Apparently the ALP have initiated Operation Dump Husar...

Good. Do you really think it will happen?

Apparently the ALP have initiated Operation Dump Husar...

Husar case is whiffy and voters expect it to be dealt with
ByJanet Albrechtsen,
August 1, 2018

Like the image of Bronwyn Bishop emerging from a sleek and expensive helicopter at taxpayers’ expense, one similarly grating image will dog Labor MP Emma Husar until she leaves parliament: the photo of one of her employees leaning over to pick up the excrement of Husar’s dog reeks of a publicly funded boss who has lost sight of what’s acceptable in the real world.

Bishop was in parliament for almost 30 years, so maybe that’s her excuse for failing the pub test. It’s no excuse, of course, but it happens. Husar is a rookie Labor MP who won the marginal NSW seat of Lindsay at the 2016 election. What explains her snout seemingly being so deep in the trough of entitlement that she thought it appropriate to expect her staff to pick up her dog’s excrement?

It’s bad enough that MPs misuse taxpayer-funded entitlements. Husar is being investigated for misusing employees. So far, the claims against Husar are unproven and the ALP has appointed Jack Whelan to investigate the allegations internally. While Whelan’s report may be referred to the state party’s administrative committee, all eyes are on how Bill Shorten will deal with this.

In the lead-up to the Super Saturday by-elections, the Opposition Leader did everything to deflect Husar’s troubles so she wouldn’t interfere with saving Labor MPs in Longman, Braddon, Perth and Fremantle. In a case of out of sight, out of mind, Husar went on leave. But with Shorten’s win behind him, will he now try to save Husar, too?

That will surely depend on whether serious claims against her are found to be proven. In an office that has seen staff turnover of more than 20 in just two years, one former staff member claims “everyone had a turn in being her slave”. There are claims Husar called staff members “f..kwits” and “c…s”. One ex-staff member said people in her office were afraid to go to work. Husar reportedly instructed one male staff member to do the dishes so he could learn about “white male privilege”. It is also claimed that staff members were expected to babysit her children, perform other household chores and pick up after her dog. Another staff member described Husar as “rude and aggressive and intimidating and just cruel”. A Labor volunteer claims that as a direct result of “constant verbal abuse” by Husar, he spent a month in a psychiatric hospital.

Husar says many of the claims are “lies”. But if serious allegations of bullying are proven, she should be sacked because the voters of Lindsay deserve better than her. At the workers’ party in particular, misusing and abusing your staff ought to be a heinous crime that attracts heinous penalties.

So far, Labor’s defence of Husar has been riddled with nonsense and hypocrisy. Labor MP Mike Kelly said he has no problem with a single mother of three using staff with taxpayer-funded salaries to help her juggle life as a federal politician. “It’s a small price to pay for having a truly representative democracy and facilitating the ability of women to participate in our parliament,” Kelly told Sky News last week.

It is an insult to single mothers doing it tough to suggest they would do what Husar, who earns about $200,000, is claimed to have done to her staff. Single mum or not, employers should not expect staff to clean up after the boss’s dog, or bully their staff.

Kelly’s defence of Husar is also an insult to representative democracy. If allegations against the Lindsay MP are proven, and we follow Kelly’s argument about representative democracy to its logical conclusion, does that mean we must fill parliament with a representative sample of bullies and crooks?

The Opposition Leader’s defence of Husar was equally dopey. True to form, Slippery Bill stretched credulity by claiming he knew nothing about this political train wreck until 10 days ago. And then Shorten asked voters to remember that this involves a “therapy” dog for her son, as if the mention of therapy makes Husar the bigger victim.

And on the weekend Husar took victimhood to another level. She told The Daily Telegraph that we needed more women in parliament and that she was “deeply concerned that the pile-on we’ve seen over the last week will scare off some young women from political careers”. Husar is right that we need more women in parliament. But her attempt to be the victim of a “pile-on” and then to turn this into an issue for other women is low-rent politics. If Husar wants to make this about gender, let’s turn it around. If a male MP were accused of bullying his staff and treating them like slaves, he would be cut adrift. A therapy dog would not save him. Gender aside, an employer has been accused of bullying staff and it deserves scrutiny. End of story.

If Husar’s predicament scares off some people from political ­careers, then it’s a safe bet those people — men or women — shouldn’t be in parliament.

Unfortunately, the Husar mess may have further to go yet. Questions are being raised quietly about whether her alleged abuse of staff started only when she became an MP or whether it occurred in her previous jobs. Her ex-husband, whom she has accused of domestic violence, doesn’t want to discuss family issues. “My priority is protecting my children and their mental wellbeing but I’m sure the truth will one day come out,” he said.

The prospect of more sordid details makes one wish this was just another routine story of an MP misusing taxpayer-funded entitlements. Husar has been accused of that, too: there are claims she used parliamentary entitlements to buy household groceries and charged taxpayers more than $2000 for limousine travel outside of the Comcar rules.

At least we’re used to this kind of vanilla — and very bipartisan — abuse of entitlements, if proven. It earns an eye-roll until news of the next rort, like reports this week that the Victorian Labor government has asked Victoria Police to investigate whether the Victorian Liberal Party misused taxpayer-funded entitlements by using government staff as campaigners in the lead-up to the 2014 election. That comes just days after we learned that Victoria Police’s fraud squad is investigating whether Victorian Labor MPs or staff misused parliamentary allowances heading into the same election.

Or news last month of another newbie MP, senator Lucy Gichuhi, who repaid taxpayers because she billed us thousands of dollars to fly a few members of her family for her “50th birthday plus GST” party last October. Would an ordinary worker think it appropriate to bill their employer to fly some family members to their birthday? Would it cross your mind? Cue another eye-roll. Maybe some in the class of 2016 missed the induction program about keeping snouts out of troughs.

Husar’s dilemma is altogether different. If claims of her abusing staff are proven, her political ­career should be over.

Even the most diverse and inclusive kind of representative democracy should not include this.