Peta Credlin: Text leaker too cowardly to tell Prime Minister what he thinks

The Minister who decided to hijack Scott Morrison’s address to the National Press Club has demeaned the political process with an act of bastardry, writes Peta Credlin.

There’s a world of difference between the text exchange about Scott Morrison that was sent by Barnaby Joyce to intermediaries on behalf of Brittany Higgins and the exchange between Gladys Berejiklian and an unnamed federal Liberal cabinet minister that was also critical of the Prime Minister.

Unlike the anonymous cabinet minister, Joyce did not himself leak the text in a deliberate attempt to damage his boss. While both leaks show the lengths some people will go to in order to damage those they see as their opponents, a text by someone who is subsequently open and apologetic about his comments, including offering his resignation, is not as corrosive of trust as a leak by an unnamed and supposedly unrepentant cabinet minister against the PM that he or she is pledged to support.

But what both exchanges highlight is the danger of sending critical texts to people you can’t rely on to respect confidentially. And a failure to understand that anything a senior person puts in writing on a smartphone is likely to spread far and wide. What both illustrate is what we all know, that sometimes all of us sound off about others, not always fairly. In their own way, both exemplify the bastardry that abounds in our public life.

The Prime Minister was the subject of two leaked text messages that hit the headlines this week. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Still, Joyce never set out to damage the PM by anonymously providing critical comment to the media that he wanted to be published, in the way that the unnamed cabinet minister has, meaning Joyce is guilty of an indiscretion rather than an act of treachery. The publication of both exchanges, which add nothing to our understanding of the important issues we should be discussing as we head to a federal poll this year, highlight the media’s role in the politics of personal destruction and the degrading of our public life.

To my mind, neither leak reflects that badly on the PM who has the most difficult job in the country and has inevitably upset people including colleagues. Instead, both leaks reflect very poorly on the leaker, and the media which insists on rewarding leaking, and in the process, encourages the sort of back-stabbing that is making good government more difficult than ever.

Let’s be clear about what must have happened to drive the spectacle that unfolded at the National Press Club last week just as the PM was making a big speech to reset his political fortunes.

There was a cabinet minister, or a mate, who leaked material to a journalist in the confident expectation that the journalist would use to it damage the PM; and there was a journalist who was happy to act as the assassin’s knife.

Peta Credlin says the leak referring to the PM as a ‘psycho’ was an act of bastardry. Picture: Sky News

Lost in all the noise was the fact that this text exchange was over two years old. It apparently occurred during the 2019-2020 bushfire crisis, where the former NSW Premier allegedly called the PM a “horrible” person and a federal Liberal Minister agreed that he’s a “fraud” and a “psycho”. Fast forward to last week, when a prominent media personality used it to ambush the PM, derail his election year re-set and once again, give Labor a free kick.

Is it any wonder that people don’t trust politicians as a class and trust the media even less?

Obviously, the first act of bastardry was the unnamed minister’s, who can’t really be blamed for an opinion (however misguided) about the PM’s character, but can certainly be damned for wanting to sledge our country’s leader without having the courage to own the criticism. In a sense, though, it’s the second act of bastardry that’s worse; because politicians only succumb to the temptation to engage in anonymous back-stabbing because they know they have ready accomplices in the media.

To me, the right response from a journalist to a Minister offering a low opinion of a PM would be: “If that’s what you really think, reveal it on the record and resign. Otherwise, by all means, give me your views on background but don’t expect me to do for you what you’re too cowardly to do for yourself: namely publicly humiliate someone you’re pledged to support”. Politicians owe the media more straight talk. But deliberately leaking information designed to damage colleagues is in an altogether different ethical league.

Barnaby Joyce apologised for the comments he made about the Prime Minister in a text that was leaked to the media. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

Regrettably, Peter van Onselen is by no means alone in filling the media with personality-based sledges rather than policy analysis which is ironically his stronger skill. Instead of regarding leakers as dishonourable scum, that our public life would be better off without, many in the Canberra press gallery eagerly cultivate them and call for them to be promoted, presumably so they can peddle even more bitchy gossip as national news. That’s how leakers get promoted to positions where they have access to more and more newsworthy information; indeed, I could write a book about the ministers I’ve caught out in the past.

I also know that for the media, after five years now doing television, this column and radio, dealing in scorn and sensation is easier than analysing contentious issues and having a credible opinion on them – but while this titillates the public, it also feeds their sense of disgust.  

Certainly, the media can hardly complain about a trivialised political culture when they’re helping to drive it. It’s feeding the dog-eat-dog, gotcha culture in our parliament that’s all about short-term political success and the advancement of one MP at the expense of another rather than better long-term policy for our country. I thought the habitual and compulsive leakers had largely left the government after the 2019 election, but there seems to be at least one left, and by putting the leak to the PM, van Onselen has effectively advertised for more.

We can’t un-invent the mobile phones that now enable MPs with an axe-to-grind to give their pet journalists a virtual live feed from supposedly confidential meetings; and I guess it’s human nature for ambitious politicians and limelight-seekers to put preferment before principle. Still, there really should be a rule that’s enforced by editors. Nothing runs if it’s not sourced.

If a senior politician wants to shaft a rival, let that person do it openly and on the record. Because if we want cleaner politics and better government, all of us have to lift our game.

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