Loose cannons

Wednesday, November 17, 1993 - 11:00

Helps them put up a better defence

"It's very depressing because we don't want an intimidated judiciary." — Pauline Popp-Madsen, described as "a justice adviser from Denmark", quoted in an August 27 London Daily Telegraph article reporting that in the southern Iraqi city of Basra "defendants [are] coming to court armed with rifles and grenade launchers and threatening to kill judges".

From the horse's mouth

"Patriotic capitalism is about serving elites. It does not have the wherewithal to lift the country out of poverty." — South African Business Report, August 28.

Entrepreneur

"Conrad Black, the former CEO of Hollinger International, boldly and methodically abused his power to pocket millions of dollars that should have gone to the company, an internal investigation revealed.... The investigation was sparked by shareholder concerns about payments Black and others received, and the probe revealed that they looted 95% of the company's earnings from 1997 to 2003, or more than $400 million." — Associated Press, September 1.

Ratted out

"While referring to . . . hearings of this committee, Senator [George] Brandis made the following two remarks: 'He is a lying rodent' and 'we've got to go off and cover his arse again on this'." — From a statutory declaration signed on August 31 by Russell Galt, a former senior official in the Queensland division of the Liberal Party, referring to comments allegedly made in May by Brandis about the Senate committee of inquiry into the children overboard affair.

King rat

"Liberal Senator George Brandis does not deny routinely referring to the prime minister as 'the rodent'. He does, however, deny ever calling the prime minister 'a lying rodent'. He believes John Howard is a truthful rodent... But remember, George Brandis calls Howard 'the rodent'. He privately says a lot of people in the government regularly refer to Howard in the same way." — Sydney Morning Herald, September 2.

From Green Left Weekly, September 8, 2004.

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