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May 11th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda <!–
Peter Costello has hit back after a public attack by the former Victorian Liberal Party powerbroker, Michael Kroger.
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EDMOND ROY: First we got to what can only be described as one of the more extraordinary political sprays of our time.
The former Liberal Party heavyweight from Victoria, Michael Kroger, has unleased a remarkable attack against the former federal treasurer, Peter Costello.
In a public airing of bitter tensions within the Victorian branch of the Liberal Party, Mr Kroger has attacked Mr Costello and his treatment of his former parliamentary colleagues.
He accuses Peter Costello of petty mindedness and outlines details of what he says was a pitch by Mr Costello to return to federal politics.
Mr Costello has hit back, denying those allegations.
From Canberra Samantha Hawley reports.
SAMANTHA HAWLEY: It was 16 minutes of extraordinary morning radio.
MICHAEL KROGER: Even I’ve had enough. Even I’m at my wit’s end with Peter.
SAMANTHA HAWLEY: The former Victorian Liberal Party powerbroker, Michael Kroger was Peter Costello’s friend and right hand man for three decades.
Not any more.
MICHAEL KROGER: For five years he’s been like a bear with a terribly sore head, with a migraine headache attacking everyone and sundry.
SAMANTHA HAWLEY: Speaking to John Fain on ABC Radio in Melbourne, Mr Kroger unleashed a political spray rarely seen.
MICHAEL KROGER: Peter’s got to stop criticising Tony Abbott. He is not an economic illiterate. He’s a Rhode scholar for God’s sake. This man was a Rhode scholar, Abbott.
He’s got to stop criticising Alan Stockdale and Malcolm Turnbull and Robert Doyle and Michael Ronaldson and John Hewson and Andrew Peacock and party people like Jason Aldworth and Helen Kroger the list goes on and on, the Kemp brothers, the list goes on and on.
Peter has to move on. He’s got to move on and stop bagging everybody, including me.
SAMANTHA HAWLEY: Mr Kroger did two interviews, the other with commercial radio in Melbourne. He delivered the same message.
MICHAEL KROGER: Peter’s petty mindedness, small mindedness. Lunch with Peter is an agony. It’s a nightmare. You sit there and listen to him unload on Howard.
Alexander Downer was a great foreign minister; you know he’s got to make up with Alexander. I mean he’s got to move on and repair these relationships with people that were part of one of the great governments of our time.
SAMANTHA HAWLEY: As for his attack motives, Michael Kroger insists it’s not payback for his ex wife Senator Helen Kroger being demoted on the Victorian Senate ticket, or an attempt this week to have her removed as the party’s whip.
MICHAEL KROGER: So is this about, is this about payback for the Senate? No, it’s got, what has happened, this has arisen because of that but it’s time to stop this campaign against all these other great figures in the Liberal Party.
SAMANTHA HAWLEY: Mr Kroger explains it was over lunch in Melbourne in October last year, that the friendship with Peter Costello began to sour.
He says it was there that Mr Costello had asked for his help to make a political comeback by getting a Liberal MP like Josh Frydenberg, Dan Tehan or Alan Tudge to step aside.
MICHAEL KROGER: I don’t drink, and I’m not suggesting he drank too much at that lunch, but I’ve got a very clear focus. I know what happened. I know the date. I know where it was, it was in Melbourne, it was in late October.
JON FAINE: But there was a serious proposal to tap them on the shoulder and say give way for Costello to make a comeback?
MICHAEL KROGER: Correct.
SAMANTHA HAWLEY: Peter Costello issued a one-and-a-half page statement this afternoon.
In it he says he has not sought a return to Parliament or Mr Kroger’s assistance to do so.
He says in the lead up to the Victorian Senate pre-selection, Mr Kroger contacted him a number of times asking him to intervene to preserve Helen Kroger’s position and he declined to do so.
He says I will not reply to the attacks on my character other than to say they are false.
The former foreign minister, Alexander Downer.
ALEXANDER DOWNER: They have been very great friends for a very long period of time so I mean my sense is it’s always very sad when friends fall out.
SAMANTHA HAWLEY: It’s not just about friends falling out, is it? It’s more to do with the party? Isn’t it damaging for the Liberal Party and for Tony Abbott that this sort of information is being aired publicly.
ALEXANDER DOWNER: Actually I’m not sure I agree with that. I don’t think it’s damaging to the, I mean the Liberal Party’s made up of people and I mean obviously sometimes people do fall out with each other. The public understand that.
SAMANTHA HAWLEY: Do you think that Michael Kroger is right or Peter Costello on this one? I mean who’s telling the truth?
ALEXANDER DOWNER: Well how would I know? I’ve had lunch with them both on occasions and most recently with Peter Costello but I have no idea what was said at a lunch.
SAMANTHA HAWLEY: What about Michael Kroger’s suggestions that Peter Costello has been I guess badmouthing any number of people, including yourself?
ALEXANDER DOWNER: Well, he wouldn’t be the first person to badmouth me if he had been badmouthing me. I mean I haven’t heard him doing it but if he did he wouldn’t be Robinson Crusoe.
It’s one of those things that strikes me a little bit in life, when two good friends fall out with each other and these two weren’t just good friends, these two were best friends, when they fall out with each other it’s always very sad.
SAMANTHA HAWLEY: The former Howard government minister, Nick Minchin has backed Peter Costello’s version of events as has the current Liberal finance spokesman, Andrew Robb.
ANDREW ROBB: Well I’ve just spoken with Peter who’s just said it’s a figment of his imagination.
SAMANTHA HAWLEY: The Opposition leader, Tony Abbott has tried to shrug of episode saying neither man is a Member of Parliament or his political team.
EDMOND ROY: Samantha Hawley.
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