Arthur Sinodinos goes down the gurgler
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Arthur Sinodinos' political career disintegrated at the
ICAC hearings this week, but the ramifications may be far more severe
for him than that, reports Sydney bureau chief Ross Jones, who in the courtroom on Thursday.
ON THURSDAY, 3 April 2014, the golden dreams of Senator Arthur Sinodinos, AO, were strewn to the four winds in a mist of green fairy dust — the colour of greed, jealousy and money.
Newspaper reports are one thing, the transcripts better, but
witnessing the senator’s discomfort live was discomforting in itself.
Beautiful body control, calm hands, a flash of irresistible smile,
perfect manners. AO badge.
Fairfax’s Kate McClymont and News’ Andrew Clennell both noted the Senator was constantly drinking water through his day-long grilling by Geoffrey Watson SC,
what they didn’t note was that, while the senator constantly lifted his
glass to his mouth, most of the time the glass was practically empty,
the senator rarely lifting the glass high enough for the shallow water
to reach his lips. Had he been constantly drinking water he would have
been squirming with bladder pressure.
(Daily Telegraph cartoonist Warren Morris, predictably, penned a cartoon of Arthur being ‘tapped’ on the head. It was a memory/water joke.)
But it was a tic Arthur couldn’t conceal. He even ran his finger
around the inside of his collar a few times. Smooth operators on their
game do not do that.
He gave every sign of being overwhelmingly tense.
ICAC
is not a court. Court rules do not apply. It is an enquiry where all
the players – witnesses, counsel, the commissioner – speak into mikes,
the transcripts to be pored over at the commissions’ leisure. And pored
over they will be, the inconsistencies explored for possible DPP
referral. When I say possible, I mean really possible. Big time.
That’s why so many witnesses had apparent memory failure. There is no law against forgetting.
Arthur’s apparent loss of his upstairs facilities has been well
documented and is, by now, widely known. Several times the audience
guffawed into laughter in sheer disbelief; Arthur pressed on, sipping
air and trying to beam at the commissioner.
Obfuscation. Denial. Memory loss.
These things go to the heart of the Liberal National Coalition.
Peta Credlin, whose political nose cannot be denied, made sure Sinodinos only cracked assistant finance minister to Mathias Cormann even though he can smile more readily, knew John Howard and is, according to Tony Abbott, an "honourable man".
But they knew this guy was off when they hired him.
He was hanging with Nick Di Girolamo and Paul Nicolaou,
both former Liberal Party fundraisers. Everyone knew them and what they
did for a quid. And who they doled out the quids to; the North Sydney Forum,
a Liberal fundraising operation in Joe Hockey’s electorate, which
accepted $33,0000 from AWH before the stench became so strong they
sheepishly returned the tainted funds.
Sinodinos was hired by Abbott for the same reasons AWH hired him — as a door opener. He’d been Howard’s Cardinal Richelieu and was seen as an electoral asset in the restoration of the ancien regime.
But no more.
The ordeal of Arthur will be long and mediaeval. Blackadder to
Baldrick, not in one fell swoop, but exquisitely drawn out. If he was
telling the truth to the commission – and let’s hope he was – then he
falls a little behind the desired standard of your modern chairman, what
with the diligence responsibilities and all.
So, you would think, that’s it for a serious, heavy-duty business
career. Maybe a trucking company in Bargo, but Collins Street probably
not.
Politics? Hard to see with the Obeid taint. Ride out his term maybe, then bye bye if worse hasn’t happened in the meantime.
Back in February 2013 Arthur made a mea culpa speech in the
Senate for failing to disclose five – count them – directorships in what
he described as an administrative oversight.
In the same speech, he claimed he had no knowledge of the Obeid’s involvement in AWH:
I became non-executive chairman of AWH on 3 November 2010. I was
not aware that, at around this time, the CEO of the company had
negotiated what has been reported as a personal loan agreement with
members of the Obeid family, secured against shares in Australian Water
Holdings. I believe that there should have been such a disclosure made
to me.
It might have been reported as a personal loan agreement secured
against shares, but in the Obeid’s accounts it was booked as a direct
loan to AWH. Moses Obeid swore blind this was a ‘typo’.
Let’s hope Arthur didn’t mislead the house.
There’s an awful lot of information presented to ICAC and, frankly,
I’m not sure where the reporting boundaries lie, but based on what’s
happened so far you’d be shocked if criminal prosecutions with
meaningful gaol time didn’t follow.
Good luck Senator, AO. Et al.
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