The Prime Minister Mr Rudd should immediately step in and show decisive leadership by standing down Mr Joel Fitzgibbon pending investigations into Ms Helen Liu’s relationship with the People’s Liberation Army and the People’s Republic of China and her association with our Minister for Defence, said Senator Barnaby Joyce, the Leader of the Nationals in the Senate.
“It is proven that Mr Fitzgibbon has been evasive when asked direct questions and it is unbelievable he didn’t know the answers to questions about trips to China paid for by Ms Liu,” Senator Joyce said.
“The problem is no longer Mr Fitzgibbon, the problem is Mr Rudd’s management. The question is not one of whether there is an impropriety but whether there could be deemed to be an impropriety. The question is one of confidence of the Australian people and Mr Rudd’s capacity to be decisive in the management of this issue.
“Quite clearly he is lacking that decisiveness and he himself has been evasive in dealing with the whole issue. If Mr Rudd cannot manage his ministry how can he possibly manage the country?
“I don’t want to see my nation managed through a newspaper but I am getting more information through that. I imagine that Mr Rudd knew all this information from the start and it is completely self-evident that he lacks the decisiveness and the strength to properly manage this situation. So while he does not provide the answers the question still remains: Mr Rudd what is going on?”