Extract from The Guardian
Immigration minister confirms he apologised to
News Corp writer Samantha Maiden after sending her message intended
for dumped colleague Jamie Briggs
Peter Dutton reportedly texted Jamie Briggs to
call the author of a weekend column about him a ‘mad fucking
witch’. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP
Monday 4 January 2016 06.19 AEDT
The immigration minister, Peter
Dutton, has apologised for calling the political editor of The
Daily Telegraph an offensive name in a text message that he
accidentally sent to the journalist herself, News Corp has reported.
Dutton labelled veteran political reporter,
Samantha Maiden, a “mad fucking witch” in a text message intended
for a colleague but mistakenly sent to Maiden.
News
Corp has reported that the text was intended for ousted former
minister, Jamie Briggs, who last
week resigned from the ministry over allegedly inappropriate
conduct with a female diplomatic staffer while on official business
in Hong Kong.
On Sunday, Maiden reported that Briggs had
circulated a photo of himself with the public servant, after
declaring that he would not reveal her identity in order to protect
her privacy.
Dutton fessed up to sending the offensive message
and downplayed its impacts.
“I apologised to her straight away, which she
took in good faith,’’ he told News Ltd. “Sam and I have
exchanged some robust language over the years, so we had a laugh
after this. I’m expecting a tough time in her next column.”
Briggs stood down due to his failure to uphold
ministerial standards, with the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull,
labelling his indiscretion a “serious matter”.
“As Mr Briggs has noted in his public statement,
ministers are expected to uphold high standards of behaviour as set
out in the ministerial standards,” Turnbull said in a statement
issued on Tuesday. “On this occasion his conduct fell short of that
standard. After being invited to reflect on his position, he offered
his resignation which I have accepted.”
Turnbull’s office did not immediately reply to
Guardian Australia’s inquiries about whether the prime minister
deemed Dutton’s text message blunder a serious enough issue to seek
his resignation.
The immigration minister was a loyal supporter of
the former prime minister, Tony Abbott, and offered to resign from
the ministry after Turnbull took the reigns. Turnbull was urged by
now treasurer, Scott Morrison, to keep Dutton in the immigration
portfolio.
Sunday’s text message error was the latest gaffe
by the immigration minister.
In September, Dutton shared an awkward
open mic moment with the then prime minister about rising sea
levels in the Pacific. The comments were condemned by the leadership
of neighbouring islands.
Just days earlier, Guardian Australia had revealed
that Dutton’s office
had twice been asked to review a press release for border force’s
operation fortitude in Melbourne. The release appeared to threaten
random visa checks, and the operation was cancelled following huge
community outcry.
In 2010, he defended telling then health minister,
Nicola Roxon, to get on her broomstick, at a time when senior female
figures in the then Labor government – including prime minister
Julia Gillard – faced frequent “witch” comparisons.
Dutton had demanded that the former speaker, Peter
Slipper, resign over sexist comments made in private text messages.
“People are very concerned about the conduct of
the speaker and these outrageous and shocking texts that appeared in
the newspapers over the last 48 hours,” Dutton told reporters in
October 2012. “I think it’s now up to Julia Gillard to show some
leadership and say what she’s going to do with Mr Slipper.”
Dutton has not indicated whether he will stand
down as immigration minister over the text message incident.
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