Conservative think tank Menzies House has withdrawn a swingeing attack on Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey by a “senior Coalition staffer” that was published on its website last night.
The piece was described by Menzies House in a postscript as “written by a Liberal Party staffer who requested their name not be revealed. Menzies House can confirm, however, that we have verified that the author does indeed work as a senior adviser for a member of the Shadow Ministry.”
It was a savage attack on Hockey over his statements yesterday on the funeral of asylum seekers, which implicitly criticised both Scott Morrison and Tony Abbott, who had supported the shadow Immigration minister. Morrison has since admitted that the “timing” of his comments was “insensitive and inappropriate”.
The piece accused Hockey of undermining his colleagues, breaching party policy and attempting to “manipulate this and grandstand for his own personal advantage. And that is unacceptable… Proof that Hockey is completely ill-eqipped to ever be a member of the leadership team of the Liberal Party” The “Joe Hockey circus” needed to come to an end, in the unnamed author’s opinion.
“It is no secret that many Liberal MP’s desire a new Shadow Treasurer who does not activly attack the Party line; Someone who does not seek personal attention at every waking turn; Someone who can stay true to Liberal values of small government when formulating policy. We are beyond the point of backbencher despair — we are at the point of open revolt.
“While Shadow Cabinet can continue to put on a brave face, there can be no denying the panic that is spreading through the ranks as members view the destruction Hockey is causing. There can be no doubt that there needs to be a mechanism found quickly within the party to replace Hockey as Shadow Treasurer without resulting in a wider bloodbath… After all, we have a far safer pair of hands ready in Andrew Robb.”
This morning Menzies House pulled the piece from its site.
Its reasoning: “Unfortunately in this case the editorial team has decided to remove this post as it unfairly places suspicion on a very small number of people who were not responsible for writing the article.”
Or the author could have attached his/her name to the article. Then no one else would be under suspicion. When you have a political party that has a philosophy built around selfishness you are going to attract some nasty types.
Yes, signing it would have been good. I see Menzies house are with it enough to remove the google cache copy. (damn them) But not to remove the hover-over preview.
My opinion of Joe Hockey has risen 100%.
If only I could really trust Joe. A little voice inside me is saying, Liberal jackup. Over the last 36 hours the heat has been taken off Abbott, both Hockey and the low life Morrison are having a spat, but one quickly backs down, Menzies House has a scathing attack on Hockey written by an author with no name, which is quickly removed. Starting to smell like a well orchestrated plan to spread some headlines and then hope everything will quickly blow over as the dust settles.
All too damned convenient. Trust the deranged Monk and his mate Morrison? Never.
I trust The Australian newspaper – which abhors anyone writing anything anonymously ever (unless in its own pages) – is on the case and will reveal who wrote the piece soon.