Lies, corruption and lies--today's police blotter such as it is

You have to travel through massive amounts of socialist-grand-criminal-enterprise stuff to get to the quote below. For example: gambling is bad but massive union corruption is OK. But this is interesting only because it is true. You can Google: "Burbage", "Australia" and "JSF" (at the jump go backwards on the link page order 59..58...57 etc.) and what you come up with are a pack of lies.

4.33pm AEST
The Victorian hearing is now on a break.

Forgive my short break in transmission - I've just been chasing up a couple of loose ends from our day in politics.

The first of these was a statement from the Liberal MP Dennis Jensen at the conclusion of Question Time today.

Mr Jensen is seeking to refer a matter to parliament's powerful Privileges Committee concerning evidence given to a parliamentary committee by an executive of the firm Lockheed Martin.

Mr Jensen's statement was as follows:

Speaker, in accordance with standing order 51 I wish to raise a matter of privilege.

The matter concerns the possible giving of false or misleading evidence to a committee, in this case the Defence subcommittee of the Joint Standing Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade.

The giving of false or misleading evidence to a committee is a long recognised category of contempt. The success of parliamentary committees depends on their ability to receive truthful evidence.

On 10 March 2012, Mr. Tom Burbage, representing Lockheed Martin on the Joint Strike Fighter program gave evidence in connection with the aircraft. There were a number of areas where he gave false and misleading evidence, including relating to the performance of the aircraft and in relation to its weight. These statements are directly contradicted by reports from the US Department of Defense’s the independent Director of Operational Test and Evaluation, appointed by the US President, confirmed by the US Congress.

I present papers in connection with this matter and ask you to consider giving precedence to a motion in connection with the matter.

Updated at 5.13pm AEST
4.42pm AEST
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Anna Burke, took Mr Jensen's request on board.

Some context: the Gillard Government recently confirmed in the Defence White Paper that it would be sticking with the JSF. (The aquisition is contentious).

Mr Jensen is obviously unhappy with some representations that Lockheed Martin made to the defence committee.

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And where did Burbage mislead Parliament? Well yes, the above and the Google thing; but also this.