Tensions high in estimates as Michaelia Cash threatens to name the names of Bill Shorten’s female staffers
A STOUSH has broken out in estimates today after Michaelia Cash threatened to name “every young woman” in Bill Shorten’s office, with Penny Wong firing back over the “disgraceful slur”.
National
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MICHAELIA Cash has been branded “disgraceful” after she made an extraordinary threat to name “every young woman” in Bill Shorten’s office there have been “rumours” about over “many, many years”.
The senior Turnbull Government Minister made the threat during Senate estimates today while being grilled about her own former staffer’s involvement in tipping off the media to raids on trade union offices late last year.
Senator Cash hit back after refusing to name her new chief of staff who was hired after her former adviser quit when he admitted to tipping off media about AFP raids on the Australian Workers’ Union Offices in Sydney and Melbourne.
She warned Labor’s Doug Cameron, who was asking about the raids, to be “very, very careful” if he wanted to “start discussing staff matters”.
“Because I am happy to sit here and name every young woman in Mr Shorten’s office over which rumours in this place abound,” she said.
“If you want to go down that path today, I will do it.”
RELATED: AFP confirms jail time possible for media tip off on AWU raids
RELATED: How Barnaby Joyce’s affair brought him down
Senator Cameron brushed off the claim as “nonsense”, prompting Minister Cash to fire up further.
“Do you want to start naming them,” she said.
“Do you want to start naming them for Mr Shorten to come out and deny any of the rumours that have been circulating in this building now for many, many years?
“It is a dangerous path to go down and you know it.”
Within an hour, Labor frontbencher Penny Wong fronted the committee to call on Senator Cash to withdraw her “outrageous slurs” against Mr Shorten’s staff.
In a bruising verbal smackdown, Senator Wong called the comments “disgraceful”, “sexist” and “impugning of the character of various staff”.
Senator Cash initially defended her remarks, saying Senator Cameron was “clearly maligning” her staff.
“The point I was making is that rumours circulate in this building. It does not mean they are true,” she said.
“I referred to rumours.”
Senator Wong did not accept the response, prompting Senator Cash to reply: “If anyone has been offended by my remarks, I withdraw.”
The Minister’s threat comes after the government was rocked by three weeks’ of fallout from the scandal surrounding Barnaby Joyce’s affair with his former staffer, Vikki Campion.
News Corp has contacted Mr Shorten’s office over Senator Cash’s remarks.
Senator Cameron had argued that Senator Cash’s staffer was a matter of public expenditure and, as such, was a legitimate area to ask a question.
Senator Cash said the new chief of staff had not yet commenced in her office and refused to name the person.
The questioning comes after senior AFP officers yesterday confirmed an investigation into the media tip off on the trade union raids was ongoing.
Anyone found guilty of tipping off the media with an “unauthorised disclosure of government information” faces two years’ jail.
Senator Cash has repeatedly denied she knew about the raids before they occurred.
She told an estimates’ hearing last year the first she knew about them was when she saw them on television.
Labor has continued to probe the government and Senator Cash’s office over its knowledge about the raid and the media tip off since they occurred in October.
Senator Cash denied five times in estimates last year that her office was involved in the tip off before her chief of staff at the time, David De Garis, admitted to her he had told reporters about the raid.
Mr De Garis then resigned.