Is there no lie too big or too small that Liberal party ministers, candidates or supporters will not utter in the 2016 Australian federal election campaign?

This was Australian Attorney-General and Liberal Senator for Queensland George Brandis as reported by ABC News on 15 May 2016:

In 2009 Peta Murphy was among a group of lawyers who made a submission to parliament urging the Government to deny police and the domestic spy agency ASIO stronger powers to detain terror suspects without charge.

Attorney General George Brandis said he was "very alarmed" at Ms Murphy's stance and demanded Mr Shorten immediately dump her as Labor's candidate.

"That submission was made a matter of weeks after it was disclosed that the Al-Shabaab terrorist group had been engaged in a plan to attack the Holsworthy Barracks in Sydney," he told reporters.

"It is shocking that the Labor candidate … should be a person who, within weeks of people being charged for an attempted terrorist strike against an Australian military base, should be calling into question both whether or not Al-Shabaab should be listed as a terrorist organisation, which she did, and whether we should have specific anti-terrorism laws, which she also did."

The Australian Financial Review added further detail:

In 2009, Ms Murphy was a signatory on a submission by Liberty Victoria sent to then Labor attorney-general Robert McClelland calling on him to deny the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation and the police stronger powers to detain ­terror suspects without charge.

So what did Ms. Murphy sign that was supposedly so shocking?

On 25 June 2009 the Senate referred the private member’s bill Anti-Terrorism Laws Reform Bill 2009 for inquiry and report.

In August 2009 three men were arrested and charged with terrorism offences committed between 1 February and 4 August that year. At that time Al-Shabaab was not listed as a terrorist organisation by the Australian Government [See Fattal & Ors v The Queen [2013] VSCA 276]. These men were not brought to trial until mid-2010.

The submission to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Committee George Brandis was referring to appears to be one submitted by the 77 year-old advocacy group Liberty Victoria (Victorian Council of Civil Liberties Inc.) on 9 September 2009 which was co-signed by Peta Murphy as a council committee member.

It was the only submission made by Liberty Victoria to the Inquiry into the Anti-Terrorism Laws Reform Bill 2009 and it comprised two pages in length.

None of the other 2009 archived submissions* listed on the Liberty Victoria website which address national anti-terrorism legislation carry her name as a specific co-signatory.

Currently Ms.Murphy is a Labor candidate in the Dunkley electorate and is a barrister who has worked at the Victorian Law Reform Commission, as a Senior Public Defender for Legal Aid and as an adviser in the Australian Parliament. 

To understand what an incredible distortion of fact the accusations made by George Brandis are, here is that Liberty Victoria submission in full:

Victorian Council of Civil Liberties Inc. submission on Anti-Terrorism Laws Reform Bill 2009, dated 9 Septe... by clarencegirl

* One other 2009 submission by Liberty Victoria sent on 25 September to the Assistant Secretary, Security Law Branch, Attorney-General’s Department referred in part to the same private member's bill and was signed not by Ms.Murphy, but solely by the then president of the Victorian Council of Civil Liberties. It can be viewed here.

Setting the record straight on one of Tony Abbott's phantasies in 2016

Malcolm Turnbull’s first official visit to the U.S. since becoming Australian Prime Minister occurred this year. He met with President Barack Obama at the White House in Washington DC on 19 January 2016.

The occasion was attended by an obligatory White House press release and photo opportunities:

At the end of January sacked former prime minister Tony Abbott hotfooted it to Washington and then briefed News Corp to the effect that on 30 January he attended an exclusive banquet and had a private meeting with President Obama.

There was no official White House media release and the only photo opportunities with the president were outside the lunch venue and did not feature Abbott:

The casual shot above of lunch guests leaving the venue does show Tony Abbott at the top of the stairs, but the only other image that was offered to backup Tony Abbott's bae phantasy was file video of he and Peta Credlin wandering forlornly in what appears to be a park in the UK:

The real facts are that Tony Abbott attended a 100-seat lunch as a guest of one of the members of what is essentially a powerful old fogey’s group, the Alfalfa Club, which meets one day a year.

That club member was newspaper mogul Rupert Murdoch.

This year President Obama attended the lunch. Knowing the pattern of such gatherings it is safe to assume that Tony Abbott would have been lucky to speak with Obama for 10 minutes before the president’s skillful aides separated him from Abbott.

Abbott also attended the club’s annual dinner that night which Obama had politely declined to attend. Obama has only ever attended two of these annual dinners during his presidency.

When Abbott was finally sprung fibbing and it was revealed that there were no private meetings with Obama at that lunch, this was the response from a member of Tony's staff on 8 February 2016:

Mr Abbott was pleased to have the opportunity to speak with President Obama privately at a lunch on Saturday 30 January, 2016. 

It seem that he will not give up his pork pie without a fight.

NOTE: Photographs were found at The Guardian, The Malay Mail Online, Twitter, UPI, Sky News.

About those Coalition promises

       

A Clarence valley resident's view of the Coalition's promises

Work Choices: "Dead buried and cremated?" This has now become Tony Abbott's biggest lie yet. SPC were offered $25 million if they would put their workers back on the minimum wage only, which is $16.90 per hour, meaning a loss of $15,000 to $20,000 per year, which would send these workers who are paying off home and car loans bankrupt. Another proposal that Abbott is making is that the workers can trade off their penalty rates if they wish to change their hours of work. This is the start of the smashing of the conditions that we the unionists fought for over the years so that our children and grandchildren will be entitled to a decent day's pay for a fair day's work. This could eventuate into being the demise of all workers' rights.

Promises that were made before the election seem to mean nothing to this Coalition. What they told the electorate to get elected is completely different to what they are doing since they were elected.

Charles Lincoln Gulmarrad

Source: SMH, 22/2/14