A secret federal government plan with instructions on how to shit talk Leader of the Opposition Bill Shorten to the media has been leaked, with fingers pointing to one of PM Tony Abbott’s own top ministers as responsible.
According to political insiders, only a handful of ministers would have seen the leaked docs, in order to prevent it becoming public knowledge (oops).
It outlines word-for-word instructions for ministers on how to speak to the media, delivering a double whammy of slamming Bill Shorten’s grip on terrorism policy, and talking up the controversial Liberal one. (FYI this isn’t exactly surprising – by all accounts most political parties would deliver similarly themed documents to their ministers.)
That policy, ICYMI, includes a proposal to give the Immigration Minister the power to strip an Australian national of their citizenship over suspected terrorist activity.
If any reporter were to ask the question “Why should this power be exercised by a minister and not the courts?”, which they well might, seeing as it is a terrifying amount of power to give to any one person, the briefing suggests the minister answer with:
“A law requiring a terrorist conviction would be toothless. The vast majority of the 50-odd Australian dual nationals fighting with terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq would retain their citizenship if a conviction were required.”“In many cases law enforcement agencies will know an Australian has been fighting with terrorist groups but will be unable to present sufficient eligible evidence to secure a conviction.”
“Australians expect us to take every reasonable step to deal with those who are a danger to the community. Does Bill Shorten want a toothless law or one that actually protects the community?”
QUICK. Someone ask a minister this exact question and watch them come up with another answer. #toothless
In another leak (someone might want to get this government a bucket), it recently emerged that at least six top ministers were vehemently opposed to this proposal, one of whom is likely responsible for leaking details of that fateful Cabinet meeting to the media.
This leads us to suspect that if this new briefing leak did indeed come from a top minister, then it might just be one of those who opposed the changes in the first place, specifically: Kevin Andrews, Julie Bishop, George Brandis, Barnaby Joyce, Christopher Pyne, or Malcolm Turnbull.
Let the #Auspol Games begin!
Photo: Daniel Munoz / Stefan Postles via Getty Images
via SMH
