Sydney, August 04: An inquiry into Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd sparked by a fake email cleared him of wrongdoing on Tuesday, with the author of the forged message unveiled as a senior civil servant.
The auditor-general’s office launched an investigation into influence peddling by Rudd and Treasurer Wayne Swan after an email surfaced allegedly showing Rudd asking staffers to lobby on behalf of a car dealer, John Grant.
This was seized on by opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull, who in June demanded Rudd’s resignation over the affair, but who now finds his own position under threat after police certified that the email was a forgery.
The Australian newspaper reported Tuesday that the public servant who was supposedly being strong-armed by Rudd’s office had admitted to making up the email and supplying it to Turnbull.
Treasury official Godwin Grech made the confession from a psychiatric ward where he was voluntarily admitted suffering depression shortly after the scandal broke, the newspaper reported.
Grech said he concocted the email because Turnbull and other members of the conservative opposition were pushing for documentary proof of his claims.
“It is at this point that I made an error of judgement,” he told the newspaper.
Grech also claimed he met opposition politicians before he appeared at a Senate inquiry to discuss his evidence and how it could be used against Rudd.
The affair has been dubbed “Utegate” in the Australian media because Grant, a neighbour of Rudd’s in Queensland state, lent Rudd a utility vehicle — or ute — for use in his constituency during the 2007 election.
The auditor-general’s report said Grech’s leaks to the opposition may have breached public service guidelines but cleared Rudd and Swan of any wrongdoing.
“There is no evidence that the prime minister … or that the treasurer or his office applied any pressure on Treasury to give this dealer more or better assistance than others,” the report said.
–Agencies