Look out, New Zealand — you’ve got a contender for the most childishly bitchy, bullying female authoritarian in power. At least our mean girl isn’t PM, though. But, as a senior minister, she’s still far too capable of embarrassing Australia on the world stage.
Anthony Albanese’s office has stepped in and directed a senior cabinet minister to delete a tweet attacking Donald Trump and his son, with foreign policy experts describing the incident as a diplomatic “own goal”.
This is what happens, though, when you get infantile cretins who try to govern by social media.
Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil accused Donald Trump Jr of attempting to blame the Albanese government for delays in his Australia tour, calling him a “sore loser” and a “big baby”.
She also attacked the former US president over his election fraud claims, saying he “lost an election fair and square”.
The attacks were so embarrassing and childish that even “Photo Op Albo” had to step in and give his minister a sharp clip over the ear.
The Australian understands Ms O’Neil deleted the tweets at the direction of the Prime Minister’s office.
Foreign policy mavens are burying their faces in their hands at our government’s behaviour.
Australian Strategic Policy Institute national security director Michael Shoebridge said Ms O’Neil’s comments were “an unnecessary own goal” that lacked foresight given Mr Trump may be the Republican nominee for the White House at next year’s election. Mr Shoebridge said the election of Mr Trump for a second term was “absolutely a credible scenario”.
“My view is that it would not be wise to turn an issue into a personal issue about somebody,” Mr Shoebridge said.
“The right focus for a minister is policy and substance, and personalising issues is normally not productive, and people remember personal things more than they do big policy things.
“Policy and substance” are not words usually associated with the Albanese government, though.
O’Neil is also obviously trying to distract attention from the petty bastardry of her own bureaucracy.
Ms O’Neil’s attack came after Mr Trump Jr delayed his planned visit to Australia for promotional tours in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
Tour organiser Turning Point Australia says his visa was granted only 24 hours before he was to leave for Sydney, claiming the process was deliberately delayed by the government […]
CPAC director Andrew Cooper claimed the organisers had had no problems selling tickets and had been forced to make a last-minute call to delay the tour as Mr Trump Jr did not have a visa on Wednesday.
The Australian
Rumour has it that, failing that, the government were planning to force Mr Trump Jr to take a character exam in Gaelic.