Wong v Cash: ALP senator slays Jobs Minister in estimates, pours blood into her chalice
You’ve read Michaelia Cash’s extraordinary comments at Senate estimates, yesterday:
I am happy to name every young woman in Mr (Bill) Shorten’s office about whom rumours in this place abound. If you want to go down this path today, I will do it.
But just who got her to apologise? Penny Wong appears at estimates, like a nightmare, a few hours later:
I’ve been in foreign policy meetings with various heads of mission. And it’s just come to my attention that some outrageous slurs were made from the table by the minister … you chose instead to make what were frankly disgraceful remarks impugning the character of staff working for the Leader of the Opposition. You should withdraw that.
Is Wong back in the sisterhood now? Cash speaking in the Senate after the fall of Julia Gillard, June 27, 2013:
I wonder how loud prime minister Gillard screamed as the sisterhood knifed her in the back and took her. Minister Wong, who is now reaping the spoils of victory after drinking from the chalice of blood.
Wong may have drunk from a chalice of blood, but she has made Cash drink from a can of whoop-ass. The Jobs and Innovation Minister in estimates, yesterday:
If anyone has been offended by my remarks, I withdraw.
Bill Shorten certainly drank from a chalice of blood. The Opposition Leader talks about his ex-boss, Gillard , in GQ Australia, Tuesday:
I’ve always been a bit of a supporter of hers.
“Bit” being the operative word. Shorten in Canberra, June 27, 2013:
I have now come to the view that Labor stands the best chance … if Kevin Rudd is our leader.
And what an attempt at self-reflection he makes. Shorten in GQ Australia, Tuesday:
GQ: So personalities and egos got out of whack during that leadership coup (against Gillard)?
Shorten: Yes.
GQ: Did yours?
Shorten: I wasn’t the most senior player in the government …
Talking of “senior” players, Emma Alberici’s CV is again under the spotlight. The ABC News reporter’s bio at Claxton Speakers:
Emma worked at the Nine Network for ten years … and ultimately helped create The Small Business Show.
Most would say the ultimate creation of The Small Business Show was down to three people. Alberici wasn’t one of them. Errol Simper in The Australian, August 22, 2002:
(Sky News’s Janine) Perrett … one of three main driving forces behind the program’s birth. Another was Nine’s well-regarded director of current affairs, Peter Meakin. The other was Stephen Rice, the founding executive producer …
Weeks ago, this newspaper confirmed how Janine Perrett and Peter Meakin came up with the nine-year-long program. The Australian, January 29:
Stephen Brook: Is it true your Small Business Show … was born in the infamous Channel Nine bar during a late-night chat with Peter Meakin?
Perrett: Yes.
Alberici? She was a junior producer for six months. The ABC reporter speaking to the Walkley Foundation, August 17, 2016:
I met the executive producers … and I asked them how on earth they were going to make the fluctuation of the dollar appealing to the audience.