Dead in the water gate!
Courtesy of the Australian Federal Police, we now have the benefit of the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions’ opinion:
none of the versions of the conversations related by any of the witnesses can amount to an ‘offer to give or confer’ a benefit. Further there is no evidence in this material of Mr Maguire having conspired with any other person to make an offer to Mr Windsor.
These are pretty strong words really. This is not a case of something dodgy may have happened but we just cannot pin it. Rather, it is a case of no matter who you talk to, no crime was committed. None of the versions of the story from any of the witnesses amounted to a crime.
I said yesterday the jury should still be out on this one. Well I think it’s now time to return a “not guilty” verdict for Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson and Senator Sandy Macdonald.
It looks very much like it was all an over-reaction and poor political judgment from Tony Windsor in the face of some very frank advice from Greg McGuire. Some might say Windsor had a case of, “if you don’t like the message shoot the messenger.”
Perhaps it is now time for Windsor to say, “Opps, sorry”.