Amal Clooney’s star power wows MPs

The internationally renowned human rights lawyer will be boomed onto TV screens in Parliament House on Friday.

Amal Clooney is coming to the Canberra Bubble™. Well, sort of. The internationally renowned lawyer will be beamed on to TV screens at Parliament House at 9.20am on Friday to give evidence to a committee investigating possible new powers to seize assets of human rights offenders and ban them from entering the country. “Fingers crossed George will wander past in the background,” one MP (who refused to be named) told Strewth. Committee chairman Kevin Andrews says he’s “delighted” Clooney and Geoffrey Robertson QC will be calling in, and is thrilled by the public attention Clooney’s appearance has prompted.

Teflon Taylor

Thought the case of the allegedly doctored travel docs from federal Energy Minister Angus Taylor’s office was over? Think again. On Tuesday the Australian Federal Police finally provided some answers on why it dropped its investigation quicker than Andrew Constance’s candidacy for Eden-Monaro. “Did the AFP form a view that the documents Minister Taylor or his office provided to The Daily Telegraph were a forgery?” Labor asked at Senate estimates on March 2. “No. The AFP formed no concluded view,” commissioner Reece Kershaw responded. The AFP also has “no concluded view” on whether the document was doctored or altered, who may have done it or even if Taylor’s office downloaded it at all. And it “did not seek to resolve” the conflicting claims about when the doc was accessed. Or look at the IP addresses of the 13 downloads of the doc. Curious, given Taylor repeated again on Wednesday that “the document was accessed from the City of Sydney website”. The AFP said it reached its grand conclusion without interviewing Taylor or staff (including Josh Manuatu), City of Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore or her team, staff at the City of Sydney or the Daily Tele journos. How? It determined “the risk of ongoing harm to the Australian community or any other party, including harm caused to Lord Mayor Ms Moore by the alleged conduct … was low”. Asked by the Greens if the AFP had considered public interest and the impact on trust in politics, Kershaw said that obtaining additional evidence or information would “require investigative action using coercive powers” and “the use of such powers could have had an impact on the business of parliament and would involve a journalist and the identification of their source”. Hang on — isn’t the AFP pursuing News Corp Australia journo Annika Smethurst with that exact aim?

No closet case

“Reading through some of the recent comments made by Senator (Kristina) Keneally, I can only assume she has spent much of her time in quarantine reading through my speeches from 1996,” One Nation leader Pauline Hanson proclaimed about the opposition home affairs spokeswoman’s calls to slash immigration. “Perhaps Senator Keneally might want to make an admission today that she is a closet One Nation supporter … I know it took Mark Latham a couple of decades to come out of the One Nation closet.” Unlikely.

Fight or flight

“Dick bids for Virgin,” screamed the Courier-Mail headline about the Queensland government’s bid for a stake in the airline. Or, as deputy Nationals leader David Littleproud called it, “Nothing more than a brain fart”. It was a maroon v marron war of words. Peter Dutton tweeted: “Premier (Annastacia Palaszczuk) has almost bankrupted Queensland … it is laughable. She ‘leads’ a government which is corrupt and chaotic.” Queensland’s new Treasurer, Cameron Dick, fired back: “Look mate, just stick to cruise ships.” Dutton called Dick a “crazy person” and declared: “They can’t even run the trains! How can they run an airline?” Which Dick dismissed with: “Peter Dutton? I thought you were talking about someone who was serious and could be taken seriously.” Not that Dick needed help, but Keneally also chimed in: “I’m quite puzzled by Peter Dutton’s ongoing and somewhat obsessive commentary about what is happening in the Queensland government.” Pointing to the Ruby Princess, she concluded: “I suppose if I was Peter Dutton I wouldn’t talk about my day job either.”

Freddy the florist

Someone sent a cheeky bunch of flowers toPalaszczuk on Wednesday, after she had a change of heart and gave the green light to rugby league. “Brad Fittler, you’ve got to be kidding me!” she exclaimed as she opened the card written by the NSW Origin coach. Fittler joked: “I’m not sure if they’ve found the listening devices yet.” Call us cynical, but this seems like another excellent voter distraction move after the Trad tragedy — along with the 3000 litres of beer the Premier gave away on Wednesday.

[e-mail]