Stephen Conroy says Peter Dutton and Julie Bishop are positioning themselves for PM’s job

Stephen Conroy says Peter Dutton and Julie Bishop are positioning themselves in case Malcolm Turnbull “falls under the proverbial bus”.

Stephen Conroy says Peter Dutton and Julie Bishop are engaged in a “running battle” to position themselves in case Malcolm Turnbull “falls under the proverbial bus”.

Peter Dutton claims there is “no difference” between him and Julie Bishop over the need to expand the powers of Australian cyber spies, despite the pair making contradictory statements in recent days.

The latest in a series of clashes between the home affairs and foreign ministers has prompted former Labor senator Stephen Conroy to describe their relationship as a “running battle” to position themselves for the top job in case Malcolm Turnbull “falls under the proverbial bus”.

Yesterday Ms Bishop said she was “not aware of any need” to expand the powers of the Australian Signals Directorate, a day after Mr Dutton said there was a “case to be made” for the move.

The ASD’s current mandate does not focus on monitoring Australian citizens, while the Australian Federal Police and ASIO need warrants to investigate Australians.

However, Department of Home Affairs secretary Mike Pezzullo outlined a plan to Defence Secretary Greg Moriarty in a February letter, published in part by The Sunday Telegraph, to allow ASD personnel to “proactively disrupt and covertly remove” onshore cyber threats — which would potentially involve Australian citizens.

Mr Dutton today denied that Ms Bishop had been attempting to undermine him.

“I think people are sort of adding two and two together here and getting something different than four,” he told 2GB.

“There is no difference between us. The suggestion in the papers last weekend that somehow we were going to spy on Australians or collect data is a complete nonsense.”

However, Mr Dutton reiterated his belief that the ASD could be used to monitor paedophiles in Australia.

“I’m very serious for example in ramping up our effort to expose child exploitation, to make sure that we can stamp that out, and in the modern world where you’ve got people who are conveying images including images of sexual acts against children in live streaming on the internet, we’ve got to deal with that threat, and we have the ability potentially to disrupt some of those servers,” Mr Dutton said.

“At the moment the ASD, for example, which is a government agency, could disrupt that server if it was in operation offshore, but not if it was operating out of Sydney or Melbourne, so there are different ways in which we need to look at the cyber threat.

“There’s not only that. The threat to our banking system, to our electricity grid, all of those threats we’re looking at at the moment.”

Mr Dutton said Ms Bishop was “exactly right” that there was no proposal on the table.

“But we are looking at ways in which we can deal with that threat of particularly child exploitation online as well as some of the other threats, state and non-state,” he said.

He said he had “no doubt” that Ms Bishop recognised the potential for ASD to monitor Australian paedophiles.

“I’m sure she does. I have no doubt about it, but we’re looking at options at the moment and if we have a proposal to put forward we’ll put it forward,” he said.

‘Running battle’ in case Turnbull falls: Conroy

Mr Dutton and Ms Bishop’s differences over the ASD issue are the latest in a series of clashes over issues including the treatment of South African farmers and the establishment of Mr Dutton’s Home Affairs superportfolio.

“What you’re seeing here at the political level is this running battle that’s been going on now for six months at least between Julie Bishop and Peter Dutton who are just taking potshots at each other over a string of issues,” former Labor senator Stephen Conroy told Sky News.

“Clearly everyone understands in the political game, this is really about positioning if Malcolm Turnbull falls under the proverbial bus or gets pushed under the proverbial bus.

“It’s just extraordinary to see two very senior cabinet ministers taking shots at each other like this continuously.

“Malcolm Turnbull should be hauling them both in and saying, ‘for God’s sake, for the good of the government, can you two just pull your heads in and actually behave like professionals?’,” he said.

Mr Conroy was sceptical about Mr Dutton’s claim that commentators were “putting two and two together and getting four” in concluding that he and Ms Bishop were at odds.

“We all know Julie Bishop and George Brandis bitterly opposed in cabinet the creation of the home affairs portfolio,” he said.

“They fought it for 12 or 18 months. Peter Dutton ultimately prevailed, and a whole bunch of responsibilities that George Brandis as A-G had and Julie Bishop as foreign affairs, her wider remit, have been transferred over to Peter. This is a running thing.

“They can’t keep pretending that there is not both a departmental turf war going on, as well as the subtext, which is that Julie Bishop keeps contradicting Peter Dutton and vice versa, and everybody really knows what it’s really about is them positioning just in case something happens to the boss.”