Rita Panahi: Why Dreyfus is guilty of far more than rudeness
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has apologised to a reporter for his meltdown, but Australians are still waiting for him to apologise for his general inept performance.
Opinion
Don't miss out on the headlines from Opinion. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has apologised to Sky News reporter Olivia Caisley for his press conference meltdown but he’s failed to apologise to the Australian people for his inept performance including backing the taxpayer-funded Australian Human Rights Commission’s involvement in the NZYQ case.
The AHRC advocated for the end of indefinite immigration detention and welcomed last month’s landmark High Court decision that’s unleashed scores of criminals, including murderers and rapists, into the Australian community.
AHRC president Rosalind Croucher boasted of her organisation’s campaign to overturn the Al-Kateb ruling.
“For decades, Australia’s system of mandatory and indefinite immigration detention has imposed an enormous burden on thousands of vulnerable people and their families,” she said last month.
“It has separated families and friends … This is a truly historic decision in terms of human rights and social justice in this country.”
Shadow Attorney-General Michaelia Cash who in 2022 blocked the AHRC from intervening in another contentious High Court case has slammed Dreyfus’s actions.
“It is extraordinary that Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, personally approved a request by the Australian Human Rights Commission to spend Australians’ money arguing in support of NZYQ – a serious child sex offender who was convicted of raping a 10-year-old boy,” she told the Herald Sun.
“Mr Dreyfus personally approved the intervention within hours of receiving the brief from the department. Documents released by the Human Rights Commission reveal that, because of Mr Dreyfus’s intervention, the Commission considered that it was able to achieve what it described as ‘an amazing outcome’.
“The actual outcomes — so far — include the alleged indecent assault of a woman in South Australia and the re-arrest of a child rapist for contacting minors. The Prime Minister should apologise to the Australian people for his governments appalling decisions in handling this case.”
Together with the incompetent Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil and Immigration Minister Adam Giles, Dreyfus has overseen the Albanese government’s chaotic response to the High Court ruling that overturned a 20-year precedent on indefinite immigration detention.
Thus far five of the 148 detainees released into the community have been re-arrested for a variety of alleged offences from indecent assault to theft. It’s clear the Anthony Albanese government was caught unprepared and has been scrambling to convince the Australian public that they are serious about border protection and law and order.
We thought last week’s desperate performance was as low as these ministers would stoop after O’Neil called Opposition Leader Peter Dutton a “protector of pedophiles” in Question Time. It was a bizarre attempt at gaslighting that backfired.
Then this week we had another bizarre performance, this time from the self-delighted Attorney-General who attacked a journalist for asking a reasonable question. His hectoring, finger-pointing attempts to intimidate and humiliate Caisley were reminiscent of Daniel Andrews at his worst during the daily Covid-19 press conferences where he reserved his worst bile for young female journalists such as Gabriella Power and Julia Bradley.
Labor men behave like this because they can. The overwhelming bulk of the media give them a pass as do the sisterhood who would be absolutely apoplectic if a conservative male ever spoke to a female in the hostile manner Dreyfus employed.
Modern feminists fall over themselves to make excuses for Dreyfus’s actions with The Guardian’s Katharine Murphy calling the AG’s tantrum “an utterly reasonable riposte”. She added: “Dreyfus was right to point out responsible governments should not instruct officials to act unlawfully … thank God someone is prepared to make this point.”
One can always rely on The Guardian for unintended comedy.
While Labor ministers demonstrate their unsuitability for key portfolios, one man is quietly biding his time.
Former leader Bill Shorten has not made any catastrophic mistakes in his NDIS portfolio and he kept a low profile during Labor’s referendum.
If Albanese continues to self-implode, Shorten will step in to save Labor from the ignominy of being a one-term government after three terms in opposition. Watch this space.
Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist
Campbell: Pesutto may have survived if he’d swallowed his pride
Only four months after claiming the Liberal Party leadership prize, John Pesutto set off a series of events that ended with him being booted from the job — and there’s no escaping that he alone is responsible for it.
Bozempic, blockbusters and beauty trends: My hopes for 2025
We’re a quarter of the way through a new century that has galloped out of the blocks but it’s not too late for a little course correction, writes Angela Mollard.