Despite the ongoing drama from the Jamie Briggs scandal, the week has gone by quietly.
It turns out that Jamie Briggs sent the photo of the young female public servant who made the complaint against him to several colleagues before and during the investigation into his actions. However, Briggs denies that he leaked the image to the media, meaning that someone else who had the photo had to have leaked it. We still don’t know who this is, and the Prime Minister has been focusing on the fact that Briggs should never have sent the image out in the first place.
Malcolm Turnbull is not the only person suggesting that Briggs has made some poor decisions recently. Several commentators and Press Gallery veterans have been writing pieces suggesting that the night out in Hong Kong that started this whole scandal was one of the not-so-great decisions made by Jamie Briggs. One of these was written by Samantha Maiden, who has worked in the Press Gallery for over 15 years.
Maiden’s piece, like many suggested that Briggs had made poor choices in Hong Kong, but was a tad more brutal than some of the others. Immigration Minister Peter Dutton decided to send Briggs a consolation message after the piece was published.
Problem was, he sent it to Maiden instead of Briggs. Oops.
What makes it that little bit worse was that the text called Maiden a “mad f**king witch”. Dutton apologised and Samantha Maiden has forgiven him, but it sparked criticism on social media. Dutton is also copping criticism from the opposition, who want Turnbull to act as soon as possible, and the women in his own party who have warned other men in the Liberal Party to be considerate, especially Minister for Women Michaelia Cash and Victorian MP Sharman Stone.
Meanwhile, it has been announced that Australia will buy and refit several Gulfstream G550 jets from the US to replace their current spy plane fleet at a cost of $90 million. The planes, which are more commonly used as private jets for corporate and personal use, will be fitted out with spying equipment – which turns out to be far less rare than a lot of people thought. However, it was not the Australian Government making the announcement, but the US Government, and we may have to wait until the Defence White Paper is released later in the year before the Aussies comment at all on the decision.
Finally this week, Australia condemned the North Korean (DPRK) government for their self proclaimed “test” of a hydrogen bomb.
Tweet of the Week
Chris Gayle tried to chat up a female sports journalist from Channel 10 (which he has done before to other female journalists), offending people and he didn’t apologise very well the next day.
https://twitter.com/lucethoughts/status/684178868949782528
Things I’ve Been Looking at Online
Sexism in the workplace – ABC The Drum
Lee Lin Chin (and other media and sports stars) in the Lamb ad
Kara L 