Scott Morrison slams Waleed Aly but won’t sue over ‘disgusting smear’

The PM slams Waleed Aly’s claims he once suggested using anti-Muslim sentiment for the Coalition’s advantage but he won’t sue.

Waleed Aly and Carry Bickmore on The Project.

Scott Morrison says accusations he ever suggested using anti-Muslim sentiment to the Coalition’s advantage are a “disgusting smear and appalling lie”, but he will not sue Waleed Aly or the Ten Network for raising the decade-old reports.

Since last Friday’s Christchurch terror attacks, the Prime Minister has been dogged by old reports he told a Coalition frontbench meeting in 2011 that the then-opposition should tap into anti-Muslim sentiment.

Mr Morrison, who has always denied the reports, today spectacularly attacked Mr Aly who had repeated the accusations and defended his long association with NSW’s Muslim community.

.@mjrowland68: "Did you, in a shadow cabinet meeting in 2010, urge the Coalition to capitalise on anti-Muslim sentiment for political purposes?”@ScottMorrisonMP: “Absolutely not. It is a disgraceful smear and an appalling lie.” #auspol pic.twitter.com/MJ5CtBSPhS

— News Breakfast (@BreakfastNews) March 19, 2019

“That’s a disgraceful smear and an appalling lie,” he told ABC News.

“It’s ugly and disgusting lie and I reject it absolutely.

“Over the last decade, I have spent my time as a public figure working with the Muslim community in south-western NSW.

“I have walked the Kokoda Track with my Muslim brothers and sisters … I have organised, together with my good friend (Labor frontbencher) Jason Clare, similar visits to Turkey for the centenary of ANZAC.

“That’s why I’m welcomed when I attend mosques in south-western Sydney with warm embraces.”

Fairfax reported back in 2011 that the Prime Minister, then Tony Abbott’s immigration spokesman, told a shadow cabinet meeting that the Coalition should tap into prejudice against Muslims, but Mr Morrison and other Coalition frontbenchers are consistently denied those reports.

The Project’s Waleed Aly repeated those reports in a viral monologue on the Ten Network show after the Christchurch attacks last week. It was later reported Mr Morrison threatened to sue.

“I have no intention of doing that,” the Prime Minister told ABC News today.

“I just want people to report the truth.

“Perhaps if people focused a bit more on the story they don’t want to tell about my relationship with people of all faiths in this community, then perhaps they wouldn’t make prejudiced conclusions.”