By
Chris Merrit, The Australian, 17 December 2010:
MEMO Andrew Wilkie: As one of the nation's best-known whistleblowers, you know what it is like to be persecuted for revealing wrongdoing.
Before you entered parliament, one of the few politicians who shared this insight was independent senator Nick Xenophon.
He had been waging a lonely campaign to right the terrible wrong inflicted on another whistleblower, Allan Kessing.
Now that your support is keeping the Gillard government in office, you have the ability to help Xenophon force an inquiry into the Kessing affair.
It won't be easy. Just enough detail has come to light about the grubby shenanigans at the heart of the Kessing affair to give the Coalition and the Labor Party a strong incentive to look the other way.
Until that changes, Kessing carries around a criminal conviction over actions that should be rewarded with the Order of Australia.
But this week, Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor received a long-delayed letter from Kessing that could provide all the ammunition you need.
The letter contains information about the circumstantial evidence that was used against him that, if true, must raise doubts about his conviction.
