Mark Arbib: his downfall at last?

The BBQ Pit
1

I met Mark Arbib for the first and only time about 20 years ago, when he was an up-and-coming activist in the Australian Labor Party, and I was the returning officer conducting a pre-selection ballot for a federal seat within the ALP. He turned up at my branch’s ballot, demanding that members show their party membership cards. (The branch, like most ALP branches, is small enough that everyone knows everyone else.) I asked Mr Arbib if he had his membership card – and the idiot didn’t have it on him! Fortunately, that quietened him up for the rest of the day.

Since then I’ve watched his career with interest as he progressed through the ranks, including his election as senator and ascent to the federal ministry, and he always struck me as a slimeball – something which was confirmed when he switched from supporting Rudd to supporting Gillard earlier this year.

And now we have even more confirmation: he’s been working as a spy within the ALP and within the Australian Government, feeding information to the US Embassy. This is one of the good things to come out of Wikileaks, and hopefully it will put an end to his nasty career.

Oh, and for those who don’t read the Australian papers, some cites:
Sydney Herald
The Australian

2

An informant is not a spy. And, if you’d really being paying attention to his political career you’d know about this already. He hasn’t exactly tried to hide his associations with US contacts.

So to answer your question: no.

3

Arbib is one of those political operator who follow you into a revolving door and walk out in front of you , with your watch.

He’s safe a houses as Julia’s numbers man … until he thinks she’s a feather duster. Then he’ll crunch the numbers for someone else. It’s unlikely he’ll go much higher than ALP senate leader. He likes factional appointments, not a chance in hell he’ll actually seek a lower house seat even if he had loftier ambitions.