Camera-shy Michaelia Cash refuses to apologise for ‘smear’

The Liberal frontbencher has advice after his fellow minister Michaelia Cash’s bizarre entrance yesterday.

Michaelia Cash, right, behind the whiteboard as she arrives at Senate estimates at Parliament House yesterday.

Liberal frontbencher Christopher Pyne says people should “put the whiteboards away”, after fellow minister Michaelia Cash’s shielded entrance to a Senate estimates hearing.

Senator Cash yesterday refused to apologise for threatening to name women in Bill Shorten’s office who had been the subject of “rumours”, amid bizarre scenes with the ­embattled Jobs Minister seeking to avoid television cameras by walking in behind a whiteboard.

Security guards held the whiteboard to shield Senator Cash from journalists as she entered the Senate estimates hearing, a day after threatening to target Labor staffers.

Asked if Senator Cash was hiding, Mr Pyne said he didn’t know whose idea it was to use a whiteboard.

“People should put their whiteboards away and go through the normal process,” he told Nine Network this morning. “There is nothing to see here, just keep moving.”

Senator Cash made an official complaint to parliamentary authorities over conduct of television crews who captured footage of her from a restricted area, and filmed a mobile phone text message advising her on how to avoid waiting media.

The Sketch: Cash makes a hash of whiteboard entry

The whiteboard entrance was widely broadcast on media yesterday.

Sky News broadcaster Paul Murray opened his show last night from behind a whiteboard, saying: “Welcome to PM Live, brought to you in 16 by 9 widescreen and presented this evening behind a Parliament House security-approved whiteboard.

“Seriously, this was Australian politics today.”

.@PMOnAir has channelled his inner @SenatorCash to host #pmlive behind a whiteboard this evening.

LIVE NOW channel 601
MORE: https://t.co/g6R2NepsEc pic.twitter.com/EdShdqeLUZ

— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) March 1, 2018

Nothing to see here

— Parliament House Whiteboard (@PH_Whiteboard) March 1, 2018

-with AAP

Cash refuses to apologise for ‘smear’

The Opposition Leader said he was shocked at Senator Cash’s comments about members of his staff, and demanded Mr Turnbull force her to apologise.

But Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton declared Coalition MPs would not be lectured to by Mr Shorten, who had a “history of problems” in his personal life.

Senator Cash yesterday defended her conduct, telling Senate estimates she was reacting to comments by Labor’s Doug Cameron, who she labelled a “bully”.

She said she was “more than happy to withdraw, unreservedly”. But she stopped short of the apol­ogy Labor had demanded.

The Prime Minister said Senator Cash made the comments during “a very heated exchange” in Senate estimates, and “she has withdrawn those remarks”.

“If members opposite want to mitigate any offence they would treat this matter as having being dealt with,” Mr Turnbull told parliament.

Mr Shorten said he was furious at the Jobs Minister’s comments, saying she had “smeared” hard-working professionals in his office.

“I’m honestly shocked she hasn’t said sorry. I’ve been waiting for her to ring up my office and ­organise it,” he said. “It’s this sort of nonsense that turns people off politics. We should be focusing on the things that matter to Australians, not hurling insults and making up stories about people who can’t defend themselves.”

Labor frontbenchers lined up to attack Senator Cash yesterday, saying her conduct was outrageous.

“I think Michaelia Cash, if she had any decency, she would walk down to Bill Shorten’s office and face these young women and say ‘Look (I’m) really sorry I’ve made doing your jobs harder. Sorry, (I) didn’t mean to’,” deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek told Nova radio. Opposition employment spokesman Brendan O’Connor said Senator Cash should apologise for the “slanderous slur”.

But Mr Dutton said government MPs would not be lectured to by Labor’s “morals police”.

“There is a frustration on the Coalition side at the moment, if I am being honest about it,” he told Sydney radio 2GB.

“We have sat there taking a morals lecture from Bill Shorten in relation to Barnaby Joyce over the last few weeks and people know there are a history of problems in Bill Shorten’s personal life, in (Labor frontbencher) Tony Burke’s personal life, and to be lectured by the Labor Party really sticks in the craw.”

Senator Cash’s office has been in a state of upheaval since it emerged one of her staffers tipped off the media ahead of a police raid on the Australian Workers Union.