Scott Ryan (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business and Fair Competition) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Evans, the Minister representing the Prime Minister. I refer the minister to his government's caucus committee support and training unit, which has produced a manual called, 'Shadow watch: every flower must grow through dirt', which advises ministerial staffers how to secretly monitor shadow ministers, sift through their financial interest statements and neutralise opponents using various techniques. It ends with the maxim: one can bury a lot of one's own troubles by digging in the dirt. I appreciate that you have a lot of troubles to dig through, Minister. Why is the government turning to dirt digging and playing dirty tricks?