Strewth: Eric aids and abets

GetUp! donors have been getting shock emails from that dark lord of the Liberal Right, Eric Abetz.

GetUp! donors have been getting shock emails from that dark lord of the Liberal Right, Eric Abetz, but it may be their own fault. The leftie activist group ran a recent campaign to “stop Abetz and the hard Right’s attacks”. “Chip in and we’ll send an email and tweet to Senator Abetz thanking him for his contribution to GetUp!,” its website says. “If he sees that his incessant and baseless attacks only make us stronger, he might think twice.” It didn’t make him think twice. Every GetUp! email sent to Abetz’s office included the donor’s full name and email address, so his office collated them all into a database. “I have added you to my email list so you can keep up with all of my work on ensuring that GetUp! complies with the law,” the Tasmanian senator wrote to his enemies. GetUp! says it will continue to send similar emails to MPs from the group’s donors and that Abetz’s emails haven’t had quite the effect he may have desired. “A number of members have responded to Abetz’s email by increasing their weekly donation,” a GetUp! spokeswoman told Strewth.

Taylor made for Libs

The Liberals have turned to a celebrity to sell their message on job figures: Taylor Swift. “1989 — the year Taylor Swift was born, and the last time we saw youth employment figures as high as they are today,” reads an email from Malcolm Turnbull, to Liberal Party subscribers. Included is a GIF of Swift doing a “wow” face. Wow, indeed. The figures are great for the government and Tay-Tay is very popular. Though we’re not sure most Liberals (who, let’s be honest, are generally very old) would even know who Tay-Tay is. Maybe the Prime Minister’s digital team need to work on some Vera Lynn GIFs.

Cutting out Kelly

The nation is still baffled Liberal MP Craig Kelly said the grief of parents who lost children on flight MH17 couldn’t get in the way of good relations between the US and Russia. He has apologised but Malcolm Turnbullcouldn’t quite bring himself to say the maverick MP’s name in Sydney yesterday. “Have you spoken to Craig Kelly?” reporters asked. “No,” the Prime Minister replied. “No? And what do you think of his comments?” reporters asked. “Well, let me be very clear about what the government’s position is on the downing of MH17,” he said, an explanation he gave without using the words Craig or Kelly. “What did you make of Kelly’s comments?” reporters said (again). “Well, I’ve stated very clearly what the government’s position is,” Turnbull said, while (again) not stating clearly the name Craig Kelly. OK, everyone, let’s give it another go. “Look, his remarks do not reflect, obviously, the policy of the government. They certainly warranted an apology, which I understand he has made,” the Prime Minister said on the third question about Kelly. Better but still no mention of his actual name.

Potter lacks magic

Christopher Pyne, a grown man, used a Harry Potter reference yesterday. “Well, Bill Shorten is as about as popular as Voldemort at the Hogwarts Christmas party,” he told Adelaide’s 5AA radio. First of all, Shorten may be Voldemort, but his Death Eaters still are leading the polls. But we expect better pop culture references from the refined, educated, not-a-child-who-reads-children’s-books Pyne. Remember when the Liberal frontbencher compared Julia Gillard to the villainous Madame Defarge from Charles Dickens’sclassic novel A Tale of Two Cities in 2013? OK, maybe that one was too oblique.

Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort, or is it really Bill Shorten under there?

Wee problem

Victorian politics turned into a piss-fight yesterday when Labor powerbroker Adem Somyurek and ABC Melbourne radio’s Rafael Epstein argued over a urine-themed tweet. Somyurek was appearing at a committee into an alleged rort-for-votes scheme run by Labor at the 2014 state election, when he said he did feel uncomfortable about the set-up. He just happens to be a sworn enemy of Premier Daniel Andrews, whose government is under potential police investigation over the alleged rort. “Nothing like a factional rival to piss all over what everyone else is saying in Govt,” Epstein tweeted about Somyurek’s confession. Somyurek then came on the show to tell Epstein to delete the tweet. “‘I’ve got thick skin, I’m impervious … but when you tweet that I am pissing all over the government then that is offensive,” Somyurek told Epstein. Epstein may not have told Somyurek to piss off but he did not delete the tweet.

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