Tuesday, August 04, 2009

In Godwin's words - his full statement to The Australian

Statement made by Godwin Grech to The Australian's Paul Maley:

"Shortly after having giving my evidence to the Senate Estimates Committee on the OzCar program on Thursday 4 June at around 3.00pm, I received an urgent message from the Treasurer’s Chief of Staff, Mr Chris Barrett, to see Mr Barrett in the Treasurer’s Office.

Although I had refused to name any particular car dealer in my evidence to the Senate, Mr Barrett, who was with staffers Amanda Robbins and Andrew Thomas, asked me if I thought that there had been any contact from the PMO to Treasury regarding John Grant.

I told Mr Barrett, in front of Ms Robbins and Mr Thomas, that it was my belief that the first time I had heard of John Grant was through a short e mail from Andrew Charlton in mid to late February 2009. I told Barrett what I recollected the e mail contained in very broad terms.

Barrett said that he would speak with Andrew Charlton and that they would be in touch.

I heard nothing from either Barrett or Charlton – until two weeks later on 18 June 2009 when I called Barrett to follow up on the issue at which point I was told that I must have confused the Grant representation with someone else....


The full thing's here.