{"id":31158,"date":"2015-12-23T16:04:19","date_gmt":"2015-12-23T05:04:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nofibs.com.au\/?p=31158"},"modified":"2019-04-13T23:54:19","modified_gmt":"2019-04-13T13:54:19","slug":"julie-bishop-promotes-jewellery-for-liberal-party-donor-qldaah-auspol-qldpol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/julie-bishop-promotes-jewellery-for-liberal-party-donor-qldaah-auspol-qldpol\/","title":{"rendered":"Julie Bishop promotes jewellery for Liberal Party donor: @Qldaah #auspol #qldpol"},"content":{"rendered":"
The jeweller, the retailer and the foreign minister. How a blue opal necklace\u00a0linked Julie Bishop to Liberal Party donors and sparked the\u00a0war over the abolition of Sunday penalty rates.<\/h6>\n

\"Julie<\/p>\n

Foreign minister Julie Bishop<\/a> has modelled an opal collier for one of the Liberal Party’s donors\u00a0at the launch of the taxpayer funded program, “G’Day USA”<\/a>. The Federal Government describes the program as,”the most important public diplomacy program promoting Australian capabilities in the US”.<\/p>\n

The bright blue necklace caught the eye of citizen journalists who began to investigate and share their findings over\u00a0Twitter. It wasn’t long before a number of recent events including calls for the abolition of weekend penalty rates began to fall into place.<\/p>\n

Records at the Electoral Commission of Queensland (ECQ) confirmed jeweller Margot McKinney<\/a> donated $5,000 to the Liberal Party of Australia on July 26, 2010.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Margot<\/a>

Margot McKinney’s $5000 donation to Liberal Party of Australia.<\/p><\/div>\n

The ECQ received the disclosure form on August, 20, 2012. The form was completed by Annette Ringuet<\/a>. Ringuet’s LinkedIN profile confirmed she worked in ‘Accounting & Inventory’ at\u00a0Margot McKinney Jewellery.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"<\/a>

The ECQ received the disclosure form on August, 20, 2012. The form was completed by Annette Ringuet.<\/p><\/div>\n

On December 18, 2015, Julie Bishop appeared with two models in a Newscorp\u00a0story sporting the\u00a0opal collier, “G\u2019Day USA program set to place Australia firmly on the business and innovation map”<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Foreign

Newscorp reported, “Foreign Minister Julie Bishop speaks with Australian Models Jordan and Zac Stenmark at the launch of the G\u2019Day USA program in Sydney. Picture: AAP\/Dan Himbrechts”<\/p><\/div>\n

On December 20, 2015 Margot McKinney posted a photo of Annette Ringuet with Foreign Minister Julie Bishop wearing the necklace at the G’Day USA launch.<\/p>\n

\n

Julie Bishop & Annette Ringuet at G'Day USA 2016 launch Fab Jewels worn beautifully @JulieBishopMP<\/a> @GDAYUSAofficial<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/oE05j6coae<\/a><\/p>\n

— Margot McKinney (@margotmckinney) December 19, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n