Gladys Liu’s office set for post-Bolt interview overhaul

Liberal member for Chisholm Gladys Liu arriving for Question Time in the House of Representatives at Parliament House in Canberra on Wednesday. Picture: AAP

The highest ranks of the Morrison government have embarked on “Operation Gladys Liu 2.0”.

Margin Call has learned senior operatives from Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s office and the office of Treasurer Josh Frydenberg are involved in a total rebuild of the new Member for Chisholm’s office.

Frydenberg’s assistant minister (and Liu’s electorate neighbour) Michael Sukkar is also offering counsel.

After Liu’s Tuesday night encounter with Andrew Bolt on Sky News, a reboot seems a good idea - if a little late in coming.

“Why was she on there?” one of her stunned Liberal colleagues asked Margin Call.

Good question.

“Someone decided Gladys, a Padawan learner, should take on a Jedi Master,” said another more Star Wars-minded Liberal.

We gather that “someone” was Liu herself. She was looking for an outlet to respond to an ABC story about her links to overseas Chinese associations and chose Bolt’s show, on which she’d previously had a hearing that was as sympathetic as Tuesday’s was bullying.

Clearly that TV show won’t continue to be the chosen media vehicle for our first elected Chinese-Australian woman in the House of Representatives.

“Someone decided Gladys, a Padawan learner, should take on a Jedi Master."

“He was almost McCarthyist,” said one of Liu’s appalled colleagues.

Senior members of the Morrison government had advised Liu not to respond to the ABC story.

But somehow - despite that advice - by that evening Bolt had her on-air.

Clearly she needs some guidance on how to handle the stingier sections of the Australian media, especially while the diplomatic relationship between Australia and the People’s Republic of China is so fraught.

Interestingly, we’ve learned her most senior staff member, former state MP Graham Watt, wasn’t even in Canberra on the day of the ABC-Bolt crises. Watt’s former electorate officer Ralph Krein is also on Liu’s staff - for now - and was also away from Canberra on “Bolt Tuesday”.

Watt was summoned to Canberra on Wednesday by senior members of the Morrison government.

Imagine how that debrief went.