The Sauce: AFP examines ‘defamatory, disgusting and vile’ letter sent to One Nation staffer
The Sauce: AFP officers have been called in to investigate who sent a nasty, anonymous letter to One Nation staffer James Ashby; and which two former pollies continue to haunt Canberra?
It’s a question for not just political insiders but for the Australian Federal Police — who is responsible for a particularly nasty letter sent to high-profile One Nation staffer James Ashby?
Special Sauce correspondent Natalie O’Brien reports the AFP have been called in and are understood to be testing the letter and envelope for both fingerprints and DNA.
The official stamp on the back of the vitriolic letter claimed the sender was former politician and NSW solicitor Peter Breen.
There’s no suggestion Mr Breen was involved, and when Mr Ashby called him he denied all knowledge of the letter and said someone else must have used his letter stamp without his knowledge or authority and cut and pasted his business letterhead.
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Mr Ashby said he was shocked and outraged. “Only a coward would do something like this, hiding behind someone else’s identity,” he said.
The contents of the letter are so “defamatory, disgusting and vile,” according to Mr Ashby, they cannot be published.
But Sauce can divulge a snippet. It begins: “Dear Arsewipe, Re: F … you.” It finishes: “If (sic) continue on your destructive path against others then I will have no option but to release all the shit I have on you.”
Mr Breen has already been interviewed by the AFP. He said the last time he saw his letter stamp it was in his desk in the office of the now deposed One Nation Senator Brian Burston. Sauce is not suggesting that Mr Burston or other staff in the office are responsible for the letter.
At the time, Senator Pauline Hanson had removed Senator Burston as the deputy registered officer of the NSW party in a bitter dispute. Senator Burston then sacked Mr Breen as his chief of staff, in an escalating feud inside One Nation.
Mr Breen said he was sacked by email and as such was unable to clear out his desk and collect his belongings. He doesn’t know what happened to them.
Interestingly, the sender used an address within Parliament House that is known only to those who work in the building and is not available to the public.
Mr Ashby has called for anyone with information to come forward. If the writer can be identified, then it is likely they could be charged with a string of offences.
HINCH PLOTS RETURN
Weeks after he was dumped by voters, Derryn Hinch wants to become the oldest Australian elected to the Senate.
Hinch, who has overcome a liver transplant, sackings, two stints in jail and several divorces, will embark on what he hopes will be another big career comeback over the next 36 months as he campaigns for a return to Canberra.
The 75-year-old said he was “hurt’’ by his narrow defeat in the May election but hadn’t been turned off politics.
On the night his Senate term came to an end, Hinch said he placed the red pin — which identifies members of the Senate — in a safe place so he can wear it again when he returns in 2022.
“I was surprised I lost and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t hurt,” he said.
“But I am not done, I will run again.”
If successful in 2022, Hinch will be 78 and become the oldest person elected to the Senate, taking the title from Labor senator Frederick Ward who was 75 years and one month when he began his senate term in 1947.
The Human Headline, who has returned to TV with a Sky News show, denied his bid for re-election was a vanity project.
PYNE’S CANBERRA COMEBACK
He may have left Canberra, but former defence minister Christopher Pyne is still making life difficult for Labor MPs.
Politicians dining at cosy Kingston’s Chinese restaurant China Plate on Tuesday night — including Labor’s Tanya Plibersek, Jo Ryan, Milton Dick and Michelle Rowland — were told there were no dumplings available as Mr Pyne had ordered them all.
Pyne had booked out most of the restaurant for a party in honour of his replacement in Canberra James Stevens, who delivered his maiden speech last week.
KEEPING IT IN THE FAMILY
It is often said that you can choose your friends but you can’t choose your family. And now The Sauce has uncovered an awkward family connection that proves that point.
Newly elected federal MP Celia Hammond, who replaced Julie Bishop with the support of conservative powerbrokers in WA, has joined her sister-in-law in Canberra.
The only problem is, she sits on the other side of the chamber.
Labor’s Madeleine King and Celia Hammond are married to brothers Jamie and Simon King. To further complicate matters, The Sauce understands Celia is also a cousin of ex-Labor MP Tim Hammond who resigned as the member for Perth last year.
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