{"id":29564,"date":"2015-08-24T12:25:38","date_gmt":"2015-08-24T02:25:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nofibs.com.au\/?p=29564"},"modified":"2019-04-13T23:54:27","modified_gmt":"2019-04-13T13:54:27","slug":"commonwealth-ombudsman-investigating-afpmedias-handling-of-choppergate-affair-jansant-reports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/commonwealth-ombudsman-investigating-afpmedias-handling-of-choppergate-affair-jansant-reports\/","title":{"rendered":"Commonwealth Ombudsman investigating @AFPmedia&#8217;s handling of #Choppergate affair: @Jansant reports"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_29575\" style=\"width: 467px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-29575\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-29575 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nofibs.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/bronwyn-bishop-choppergate.jpg?resize=457%2C337\" alt=\"Bronwyn Bishop chopper\" width=\"457\" height=\"337\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/bronwyn-bishop-choppergate.jpg?w=457&amp;ssl=1 457w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/bronwyn-bishop-choppergate.jpg?resize=300%2C221&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 457px) 100vw, 457px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-29575\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bronwyn Bishop MP, arrives at Clifton Springs Golf Club. Photo: @NeilRemeeus (Twitter)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The <span lang=\"EN-US\">Commonwealth Ombudsman<\/span> is investigating the Australian Federal Police (AFP) (<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/AFPmedia\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@AFPmedia<\/a>) over their handling of the Bronwyn Bishop MP, #Choppergate affair, after a complaint was lodged by <em>No Fibs<\/em> co-publisher, Tony Yegles (<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/geeksrulz\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@geeksrulz<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>The Ombudsman probe will include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;the AFP\u2019s use of discretion in relation to its application of the Minchin Protocol&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;the AFP\u2019s explanation to you of the reasons why your complaint has not been accepted as a complaint&#8221;.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In November last year, the former Federal Parliamentary Speaker, Bronwyn Bishop MP, chartered a helicopter to fly from Melbourne to Geelong to attend a Liberal Party fund-raiser, claiming the $5000 trip as official parliamentary business.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The Hon. Bronwyn Bishop MP, ade a spectacular arrival at Clifton Springs Golf Club on Wednesday November 5th. <a href=\"http:\/\/t.co\/t5Nqv53HKx\">pic.twitter.com\/t5Nqv53HKx<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Neil Remeeus (@NeilRemeeus) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NeilRemeeus\/status\/530203176113160193\">November 6, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>Mr Yegles, originally made a complaint to the AFP Standards Division, stating:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Serious criminal matters of this nature need to be investigated not by internal review but by the proper authorities that have exactly this duty and statutory responsibility. The Australian Federal Police is one such body. The Department of Finance is no such body.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The AFP did not accept the complaint, stating:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\" lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">AFP refuse to accept <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/geeksrulz\">@geeksrulz<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/choppergate?src=hash\">#choppergate<\/a> complaint &#8211; next step Ombudsman. Minchin Protocol  doesn&#8217;t apply to AFP! <a href=\"http:\/\/t.co\/jZjEQ8dgIH\">pic.twitter.com\/jZjEQ8dgIH<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Margo Kingston (@margokingston1) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/margokingston1\/status\/624131700218396672\">July 23, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Central to the complaint made to AFP by Yegles, was the AFP&#8217;s referral of allegations against Bishop, to Finance and their internal <a href=\"http:\/\/nofibs.com.au\/2013\/01\/11\/what-is-the-minchin-protocol-that-was-denied-to-mr-peter-slipper\/\">Minchin Protocol<\/a>, rather than launching their own investigation. The so called Minchin Protocol is an internal audit:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>When an allegation of or other event which suggests misuse of entitlement occurs, the Department undertakes an internal investigation to ascertain whether the allegations are credible (rather than being only malicious or vexatious). If the matter is relatively minor, the Member or Senator will be invited to provide an explanation to the Department.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The AFP received a number of requests to investigate the allegations against Bishop, from members of the public and Members of Parliament, forcing them to make a statement via Twitter.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Factcheck?src=hash\">#Factcheck<\/a> we have NOT refused to investigate allegations about Speaker of the House Bronwyn Bishop. Waiting assessment by Dept of Finance. \u2014 AFP National Media (@AFPmedia) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AFPmedia\/status\/623021914009698305\">July 20, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Bishop also made an entitlements claim to travel to the 2006 wedding of the then Member for Indi, Sophie Mirabella, stating on the declaration form the travel was for &#8220;committee chair business&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>A number of other politicans, including the current Prime Minister, Tony Abbott (<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/TonyAbbottMHR\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@TonyAbbottMHR<\/a>), repaid claims under the Minchin Protocol for attending Mirabella&#8217;s wedding, but Bishop did not.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-29573 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nofibs.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/mirabellawedding.jpg?resize=599%2C423\" alt=\"mirabellawedding\" width=\"599\" height=\"423\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/mirabellawedding.jpg?w=599&amp;ssl=1 599w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/mirabellawedding.jpg?resize=300%2C212&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 599px) 100vw, 599px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p>When questioned about this, Bishop said she attended secret meetings in Albury on the same weekend.<\/p>\n<p>Kate Ellis MP (<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/KateEllisMP\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@KateEllisMP<\/a>), who was also on The Standing Committee of Family and Human Services told <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/2015\/jul\/28\/bronwyn-bishop-under-pressure-over-expense-claim-for-mirabella-wedding\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Guardian<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cI can\u2019t recall any reason Bronwyn Bishop would need to be in Albury that weekend but I do absolutely say if there was a reason, if she did go through the proper processes, then there would be documentation and we wouldn\u2019t need to be here speculating about it.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><em>Read Margo Kingston&#8217;s (<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/margokingston1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@margokingston1<\/a>) <a href=\"http:\/\/nofibs.com.au\/2015\/07\/25\/choppergate-investigation-fact-check-by-margokingston1\/\">#Choppergate Fact Check<\/a> for more information.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Other media about this story via Bevan Shields (<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/BevanShields\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@BevanShields<\/a>) at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/federal-politics\/political-news\/afp-to-be-investigated-over-its-refusal-to-examine-whether-bronwyn-bishop-broke-the-law-20150824-gj6crb.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fairfax<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Did you make a #ChopperGate complaint to the AFP? If you did, tell us what their response was.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Commonwealth Ombudsman is investigating the Australian Federal Police (AFP) (@AFPmedia) over their handling of the Bronwyn Bishop MP, #Choppergate affair, after a complaint was lodged by No Fibs co-publisher, Tony Yegles (@geeksrulz). The Ombudsman probe will include: &#8220;the AFP\u2019s use of discretion in relation to its application of the Minchin Protocol&#8221; &#8220;the AFP\u2019s explanation [&hellip;]<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":29574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3434,2531,585,822,1033],"tags":[2532,96,125,2533,2699,325,655],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/bronwyn-bishop-choppergate-fp.jpg?fit=800%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3t0mw-7GQ","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29564"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}