Labor tells Michaelia Cash to apologise and resign over Bill Shorten rumours threat
PETER Dutton has weighed in on the controversy surrounding Michaelia Cash’s threat to reveal rumours regarding female staffers in Bill Shorten’s office, accusing Labor of living in glass houses.
NSW
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PETER Dutton has weighed in on the controversy surrounding Michaela Cash, accusing Labor of living in glass houses.
Senator Cash erupted during a fiery Senate hearing yesterday with a pointed warning she would “name every young woman” in Bill Shorten’s office about whom rumours had circulated.
Speaking to 2GB, Mr Dutton said: “I think there’s a frustration on the Coalition side at the moment, if I’m being honest about it.”
“I think we’ve sat here taking a morals lecture from Bill Shorten in relation to Barnaby Joyce over the last few weeks and people know that there’s a history of problems in Bill Shorten’s personal life, Tony Burke’s personal life. And to be lectured by the Labor Party really sticks in the craw.”
It comes as Labor called for Ms Cash to do two things apologise and resign.
“Minister Cash must do two things today — apologise and then resign,” Labor frontbencher Brendan O’Connor said today.
“She needs to apologise for the slanderous slur she made yesterday towards young women working in parliament.” But she also needed to resign for refusing to reveal the extent of her office’s involvement in leaking the raids on Australian Workers Union offices last year.
Liberal frontbenchers said Senator Cash was responding to “robust questioning” about her own staff and noted she had withdrawn her remarks. Deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek is demanding she make a full and personal apology to the women involved.
“Look them in the eye and say ‘I’m really sorry, I didn’t mean to make life harder for you, I slipped up and I’m sorry’,” Ms Plibersek told ABC radio today.
Ms Plibersek said the outburst undermined the prime minister’s stated efforts to instil a respectful workplace culture in Parliament House, particularly for women.
Cabinet minister Peter Dutton appeared to add fuel to the fire by saying it “was a bit rich” for Labor to be “moralising” on the coalition.
“I think Mr Shorten has demonstrated on a number of occasions in relation to many issues that he is not a genuine person and he shouldn’t be taken at face value,” Mr Dutton said.
Mr Dutton declined to expand on what he meant by his remarks about Mr Shorten. “All I am saying is over the course of the last couple of weeks, I think we have been lectured to and moralised on by people that really should check their own situation first.” Education Minister Simon Birmingham said he didn’t witness Senator Cash’s response to Labor frontbencher Doug Cameron’s line of questioning about her staff arrangements.
“I know that that was a pretty robust lot of questioning and a lot of things being thrown at her by Labor senators at the time,” he told Nine Network. Senator Cash withdrew the comments under pressure from Labor Senate leader Penny Wong, who went to the hearing room to challenge her about the threat. “I think the point she was making was ‘keep staff out of it. Stop asking questions about individual staff’,” assistant minister to the treasurer Michael Sukkar told ABC radio.
But Labor frontbencher Tony Burke said Mr Shorten’s staff were upset at the implications of Senator Cash’s threat and want an apology.
Former prime minister Tony Abbott believes the minister’s “brain snap” warrants an apology.
The heated exchange occurred as Labor continued to pressure Senator Cash over raids at Australian Workers Union offices last October.
Details of the police raids were leaked to TV network by one of her media advisers, who later quit.
Workplace Minister Craig Laundy has attacked Labor’s “faux outrage” over Senator Cash’s comments
Mr Laundy said the opposition was “selectively” focusing on Senator Cash’s comments during a long exchange with Senator Cameron.
“The part that has been missed here — and faux outrage from Labor — the part that has been missed is you look at the whole transcript of what has gone on and you had Senator Cameron asking pretty probing and far-reaching questions about Michaelia’s staff,” Mr Laundy told Sky News.
“What Michaelia was saying in the end was: is this really where you want to go? She was throwing that out there and saying this is where it would go if you were.
“You can paraphrase and take selective snippets and become outraged by it but if you look at the whole exchange you will see it in a completely different light. It was a hypothetical at the end of Dough Cameron going there first.”
Mr Laundy said Senator Cameron was using innuendo in its grilling Senator Cash on staff moves in the Liberal Party.
“There were implied innuendo the whole way along about staff movements between Liberal staffers’ offices and the unspoken reality was they were attempting to sling mud looking back a couple of weeks linking it to the movement of staffers around the Nationals’ office,” Mr Laundy said. “That was what was going on here and that is the part that has been broadly missed as part of this discussion.”
Former prime minister Tony Abbott believes an apology is warranted over Ms Cash’s “brain snap”.
“It is bad when it comes from the Labor Party, it is bad when it comes from the Liberal Party and it is particularly bad when it comes from a minister of the crown,” Mr Abbott told 2GB.
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, however, said Labor had orchestrated a “targeted attack”.
“The Labor Party doesn’t like Michaelia because Michaelia is a very effective operator, the unions don’t like her because she’s been successful in passing very important reforms,” He told 2GB.
“She’s been fighting union corruption and the Labor Party is an agent for the union movement and some of the worst elements of the union movement clearly don’t like her.”
Liberal frontbencher Michael Sukkar, meanwhile, defended Ms Cash, saying his colleague shouldn’t have to apologise. He dug in behind Senator Cash, who he believes was right to retaliate Senator’s Cameron’s line of questioning about her staffing arrangements.
“I think the point she was making was keep staff out of it. Stop asking questions about individual staff,” Mr Sukkar told ABC radio. “In some respects I can understand her frustration.” Labor has demanded a formal apology over the extraordinary threat, with deputy leader Tanya Plibersek slamming her “mealy-mouthed weasel” retraction. “Senator Cash’s comments where ghastly, they were sexist, they were a 1950s style throwback,” Ms Plibersek told parliament.
But Mr Sukkar said Senator Cash shouldn’t have to apologise. He blamed Senator Cameron’s “inappropriate” line of questioning for exacerbating the situation.
“He was asking her to name individual staff and I think that was her way of saying cease and desist,” Mr Sukkar said.
The heated exchange came as Labor continued to pressure Senator Cash over raids at Australian Workers’ Union offices last October.
Details of the police raids were leaked to TV network by one of her media advisers, who later quit.