Whoops.
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has learnt a very important lesson – always double check a message before you press send.
(Oh, and maybe lay off the sledges…)
The Senior Minister is desperately backpedalling after “accidentally” sending a female journalist a message calling her a “witch”. Well, actually to be clear, he called her a “mad f***ing witch.”
The minister says he intended to send the message, received by Samantha Maiden, the political editor for News Limited Sunday papers, to former colleague Jamie Briggs who has stepped down after acting inappropriately towards a colleague while on an overseas trip.
Instead he got a little trigger-happy and sent the message to the “witch” herself.
The message was assumably prompted by a column Ms Maiden wrote yesterday on Mr Briggs’ behaviour in a Hong Kong bar.
Briggs, the Minister for Cities and the Built Environment, was forced to resign last week following a late-night incident involving a female public servant in a bar in Hong Kong during an official overseas visit in November.
The South Australian MP called a press conference to say the public servant took offence at his actions in the bar. On Saturday, an image of the public servant was printed in The Australian – an image taken from Mr. Briggs’ phone.
Ms Maiden wrote in her column yesterday:
Ms Maiden may be having some fun with her new witchcraft status, even changing her Twitter background to that of another famous witch.
The Prime Minister wasn’t as impressed, with The Australian reporting: “Malcolm Turnbull is understood to regard the derogatory comment more seriously, describing it privately as ‘completely inappropriate’.”
In a statement Mr Dutton confirmed he had apologised to Ms Maiden.
“Sam and I have exchanged some robust language over the years so we had a laugh after this and I apologised to her straight away, which she took in good faith.
“I’m expecting a tough time in her next column.”
Let’s just hope she doesn’t set upon him an Imperius Curse or turn him into a toad. Now that would be unfortunate.
Top Comments
I dont think Samantha took it far enough.I reckon that she was told by her bosses to lay off dutton
I wonder if it had of been a "male" journalist being called a "mad bastard" would we have had the same reaction? I think not.
Not a mad bastard - a "Mad Fucking Bastard."
There's an extra level of vitriol there you've missed in your comparison which I believe would have definitely caused a stir.