Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan yesterday faced calls to resign immediately over allegations that he and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd abused their power and misled parliament.
But Swan hit back, dismissing them as a “smear campaign” by the opposition, while Rudd said he had asked police to investigate whether someone concocted a fake e-mail purporting to show misuse of their positions.
As the government’s political crisis snowballed, opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull called for Swan to quit over his alleged role in trying to secure a government loan for a car dealer friend of Rudd.
“Mr Swan has offered no explanation for any of this and today should tender his resignation,” Turnbull said in a statement as the allegations snowballed into a potentially catastrophic political scandal for the government.
“He has misled the parliament and used the enormous influence of the commonwealth government to seek to secure an advantage for a mate and benefactor of the prime minister,” he said.
Turnbull had on Friday called on Rudd and Swan to either explain their roles in helping car dealer John Grant seek a loan and to justify their denials of wrongdoing to parliament, or resign.
Rudd told parliament this month that neither he nor his office had lobbied the treasury on behalf of Grant, a former neighbor of the prime minister who also provided a van for use by Rudd’s campaign.
Swan told parliament his office had simply passed on representations on behalf of Grant but said he did not know the outcome of the correspondence and denied trying to influence any decision.
But a senior treasury official told a parliamentary committee on Friday he thought he had received an e-mail from Rudd’s office asking him to look into funding for Grant, but could not be sure.
The Daily Telegraph yesterday published an e-mail allegedly showing Rudd’s office tried to secure a taxpayer-funded loan to Grant from the US$1.6 billion OzCar vehicle financing scheme.
Rudd said his government had asked police to investigate whether someone impersonating a public servant had composed a “fake” e-mail to smear him.
Seventy percent of middle and elementary schools now conduct English classes entirely in English, the Ministry of Education said, as it encourages schools nationwide to adopt this practice Minister of Education (MOE) Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) is scheduled to present a report on the government’s bilingual education policy to the Legislative Yuan’s Education and Culture Committee today. The report would outline strategies aimed at expanding access to education, reducing regional disparities and improving talent cultivation. Implementation of bilingual education policies has varied across local governments, occasionally drawing public criticism. For example, some schools have required teachers of non-English subjects to pass English proficiency
‘FORM OF PROTEST’: The German Institute Taipei said it was ‘shocked’ to see Nazi symbolism used in connection with political aims as it condemned the incident Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 yesterday amid an outcry over a Nazi armband he wore to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case on Tuesday night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and apparently covering the book with a coat. This is a serious international scandal and Chinese
PERSONAL DATA: The implicated KMT members allegedly compiled their petitions by copying names from party lists without the consent of the people concerned Judicial authorities searched six locations yesterday and questioned six people, including one elderly Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) member and five KMT Youth League associates, about alleged signature forgery and fraud relating to their recall efforts against two Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators. After launching a probe into alleged signature forgery and related fraud in the KMT’s recall effort, prosecutors received a number of complaints, including about one petition that had 1,748 signatures of voters whose family members said they had already passed away, and also voters who said they did not approve the use of their name, Taipei Deputy Chief Prosecutor
TRADE: The premier pledged safeguards on ‘Made in Taiwan’ labeling, anti-dumping measures and stricter export controls to strengthen its position in trade talks Products labeled “made in Taiwan” must be genuinely made in Taiwan, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday, vowing to enforce strict safeguards against “origin laundering” and initiate anti-dumping investigations to prevent China dumping its products in Taiwan. Cho made the remarks in a discussion session with representatives from industries in Kaohsiung. In response to the US government’s recent announcement of “reciprocal” tariffs on its trading partners, President William Lai (賴清德) and Cho last week began a series of consultations with industry leaders nationwide to gather feedback and address concerns. Taiwanese and US officials held a videoconference on Friday evening to discuss the
RSS