Iguanas bar staff to dish the dirt on TV
Stapleton, John. Lex Hall. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 30 June 2008: 3.
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Abstract
“They are very plausible,” ACA reporter Ben Fordham said yesterday. “[Belinda Neal] said at a press conference she did not swear at anyone, did not threaten anyone’s job and did not use her position as an MP. All of those claims will be contradicted.
According to statements by Iguanas staff, Ms Neal said “Don’t you know who I am” and “I’ll have your f..king (liquor) licence” in a dispute over being asked to move tables.
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THE “Iguanagate” affair returns to the nation’s television screens tonight with staff from a NSW central coast restaurant expected to appear on the Nine Network and make explosive statements contradicting MP Belinda Neal’s version of an argument between them.
The interviews with four Iguanas staff members, to screen on A Current Affair, are likely to be used by the Liberal Party to further threaten the political career of Ms Neal, the member for the NSW central coast seat of Robertson.
“They are very plausible,” ACA reporter Ben Fordham said yesterday. “Belinda Neal said at a press conference she did not swear at anyone, did not threaten anyone’s job and did not use her position as an MP. All of those claims will be contradicted.
“The staff are 100 per cent certain of what they heard.
“They maintain their jobs were threatened, their livelihoods were threatened and they were threatened.”
According to statements by Iguanas staff, Ms Neal said “Don’t you know who I am” and “I’ll have your f..king (liquor) licence” in a dispute over being asked to move tables.
Conflicting stories over the conduct of Ms Neal and her husband, stood-aside NSW Education Minister John Della Bosca, at theIguanas nightclub on June 6 have caused a political headache for the power couple, as well as for Kevin Rudd and Morris Iemma.
The Prime Minister has refused to impose sanctions on Ms Neal beyond asking her to attend anger counselling, but she has been stood aside from a communications committee. The NSW Premier stood Mr Della Bosca aside from the education portfolio pending a police investigation into conflicting statutory declarations about the night.
Neither Ms Neal nor Mr Della Bosca has spoken to the police.
Credit: John Stapleton, Lex Hall
John Stapleton
Lex Hall
BOTH the Federal and NSW governments face further humiliation today over the “Iguanagate” affair, with a police inquiry about to wind up and staff from the Central Coast restaurant spilling the beans in an explosive contradiction of MP Belinda Neal’s version of events.
The television interviews with four staff members, to screen on A Current Affair tonight, seriously threaten the political careers of both Belinda Neal and her husband John Della Bosca. They back up last week’s interview with former Belinda Neal staffer Melissa Batten, who claimed she was coerced into writing a statutory declaration she did not believe in.
It is the first time the four staff members have told their story in full.
“These guys are straight up and down hard working boys caught up in an extraodinary situation,” ACA reporter Ben Fordham said. “They are very plausible. All of them say it was the most shocking situation they have had to deal with in the workplace.
“These guys are straight up and down hard working boys caught up in an extraodinary situation,” ACA reporter Ben Fordham said. “They are very plausible. All of them say it was the most shocking situation they have had to deal with in the workplace.
“Belinda Neal said at a press conference she did not swear at anyone, did not threaten anyone’s job and did not use her position as an MP. All of those claims will be contradicted.
“The staff are 100% certain of what they heard. They maintain their jobs were threatened, their livelihoods were threatened and they were threatened.”
Neither MP Belinda Neale or her husband, former NSW Education Minister John Della Bosca, have spoken to the police despite a police investigation almost three weeks old.
Central Coast MP Chris Hartcher said Ms Neal’s staff had refused to be interviewed by the police over her alleged abuse of staff during a birthday celebration. He said they had received legal advice to remain silent.
The Federal Government is continuing to stonewall on the issue, with a spokesman for Ms Neale refused to say whether her staff had ignored police requests for interviews, instead repeating the mantra that “a police investigation is ongoing”.
With the police investigation close to being finalised, Mr Hartcher said if Belinda Neal and John Della Bosca did not present to police this week this would raise serious questions.
With Federal and state parliament not sitting this week, the pair have little excuse not to make an appearance.
A spokesman for the NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione said “everyone has the right to silence if they choose”.
He said while both Belinda Neal and John Della Bosca had not yet spoken to police, it was not possible to say they had ignored requests – “yet”.
A spokesman for the NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione said “everyone has the right to silence if they choose”.
He said while both Belinda Neal and John Della Bosca had not yet spoken to police, it was not possible to say they had ignored requests – “yet”.
Mr Hartcher will himself be interviewed by Gosford police tomorrow by virtue of the fact that one of his staff members, Chris Spence, witnessed the statutory declarations by Iguana staff. The bar and restaurant has now become a tourist mecca courtesy of the controversy.
Only an ICAC enquiry can force John Della Bosca and Belinda Neal to come clean on what really happened at the Iguanas night club three weeks ago, Barry O’Farrell said yesterday. The NSW Opposition leader said although the two Labor MPs were not legally obliged to co-operate with a police investigation, as minsters of the Crown, they were under a “moral obligation” to explain their behaviour to both police and parliament.
“While Della Bosca and Neal are within their legal entitlements not to co-operate with a police enquiry the only way to get to the bottom of Iguana Gate is to have a corruption enquiry by the Independent Commission Against Corruption. The police inquiry is a narrow investigation hamstrung by the legal entitlements of anyone to refuse to make a statement that might incriminate them. Only an ICAC enquiry can force Belinda Neal and John Della Bosca to make statements.”