Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am accustomed to kids getting caught and making the error of doubling down. I have even seen best mates go into bat for their mates to get their detention softened, make some excuses and see if they can get something overturned. But nothing prepared me for this week in the federal parliament. James Campbell put together an article today in the Herald Sun, and I think it best sums up the situation. It says some great things:

ONE of the great mysteries of Australian politics in recent years has been the survival of the belief—among people who should know better—that Julie Bishop—

that is, the Foreign Minister—

might be up to the job of Prime Minister.

He goes on:

Everyone in politics has their bad weeks. But Bishop’s—

that is, the Foreign Minister's—

performance over the past few days has been look-away awful.

She, he said:

… has demonstrated this week that even a Rolls-Royce can be wrapped around a tree if the driver doesn’t know what they are doing. To be fair to Bishop, it wasn’t her fault that the National Party, like the Greens, appears to have no processes in place to make sure its parliamentarians aren’t unknowingly citizens of a foreign power.

…      …   …

But her attack on the New Zealand Labour Party … was all her own work.

…      …   …

For her to stare at the cameras with a straight face—

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