Rachel Withers
@rachelrwithers
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Editor-in-chief @thepoliticsau Bylines @THEMONTHLY @SatPaper @Slate @voxdotcom @crikey_news
Melbourne, Victoria
Joined December 2015
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Last Seen Profiles
Pinned Tweet
Ladies, carry yourself with the confidence of John Barilaro applying for a job he's not qualified for
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PM: "I'm not a surgeon, I'm not the chief medical officer..."
No, you're the fucking prime minister, and people are asking you to condemn Deves' comments instead of vaguely endorsing them.
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Australians can't be “paid off”, says the PM who tried to pay Australians off with car parks and sporting facilities
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Journalist: Have you done any modelling on the impact your super policy is going to have on house prices?
PM: I simply don’t agree with the assertion that this is going to have any impact.
Yeah that's a no.
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"I wasn't focused on RATs back in August because I was busy scrambling to make up supply on the OTHER thing I forgot to order enough of" isn't the winning comeback Morrison thinks it is.
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That "how are you going to stand up to Xi Jinping if you can’t stand up to us?" question confirms what was already clear to many of us: that some journos consider their role to bully and test Albanese, rather than question him.
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Anti-abortion senator Amanda Stoker has lost her seat... to the Greens.
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Good fucking riddance.
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Moderator: Do you promise to tell the truth tonight?
Morrison: Yes of course
Moderator: Have you ever seen any corruption on your side of politics?
Morrison: No 🤷♂️
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Morrison says his team are looking into how they might be able to assist and progress "Ray's" issues.
That’s not how government is supposed to work. You shouldn't have to accost the PM in a pub to be able to get help. He didn't want HIS issues fixed, he wanted the system fixed.
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A business that can't afford to pay people $21 an hour probably isn't viable
#LeadersDebate
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🧵 An incomplete list of current & former journos who seemed embarrassed by today's press pack antics. No doubt heaps I've missed, no doubt many more unable to speak up.
I know it's the end of the campaign, but is the press pack listening yet? Is self-reflection possible here?
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Apparently Gina Rineheart would rather pull sponsorship than admit that genocide is bad
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Enormous thanks to
@PatsKarvelas
for asking Angus Taylor why, if inflation is the number one issue of the day, it wasn’t the number one question in
#QT
yesterday.
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Bob Hawke famously gave up alcohol when he entered parliament, only picking it back up after he retired, saying that he never wanted to be in the position of making a fool of himself in front of the country.
He certainly never got drunk and crashed his Jaguar into a fence.
Hello, what about Bob Hawke’s behaviour? Can we all accept that politicians are human, and sometimes make personal mistakes.
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Richard Colbeck is no longer the aged care minister
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All the media reports describing Grace Tame's encounter with the PM as "tense" and "awkward" because they're not allowed to write that she obviously hates his guts (with good reason).
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All day all we've heard from the Coalition is "hOw Is LaBoR gOing To pAy FoR it?" — about a pledge to offer elderly people basic dignity.
The real question is, how can we afford not to?
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If Morrison cared about Jen and the girls' privacy he would stand down. He's not a quiet Australian, he's a dodgy ex-PM who won't answer questions. They are not his shield.
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And perhaps not quite overlooked, but cannot be talked about enough: this family is going home
Tonight these children are safe for the first time since 2018.
Priya and the girls heard the news that they can return home to Queensland from the unstoppable
@HometoBilo
team.
Nades was at work until just after 9pm, he arrived home as Morrison was making his concession speech.
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Peter van Onselen: If you don't want to be torn a new one by your interviewee and co-host on national television, why go?
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Probable Liberal leader Peter Dutton, a — sigh — 🧵:
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The amount of women here on Twitter comparing Morrison's lines to the abusive boyfriend promising to redeem himself. It's an enormous red flag for so many of us.
But the sad part is that, so often, the "bad boyfriend promising to change" actually works.
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The ABC will have funding certainty for the first time in nine years
For the first time in nine years, the ABC will have funding certainty. Labor has committed to reinstate $83.7 million in funding cuts from the ABC and lock in five-year funding terms to replace the current triennial terms for both ABC and SBS.
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Phil Coorey on RN saying people were critical of Morrison for being away from the floods when he had Covid (to imply Labor took it too far).
No, people were critical of Morrison for failing to declare an emergency/extra support until he could be there in person. Come on Phil
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Anthony Albanese on Angus Taylor's claims that Australia has the highest inflation in the G7: "Someone should tell Angus Taylor we're not actually in the G7."
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Speers: What is your greatest regret as treasurer?
Frydenberg: Being a Victorian...
#insiders
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Albanese sparks political storm by suggesting people who work shouldn't have to live in tents
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Noel Pearson on
@RNBreakfast
:
"I couldn't sleep last night. I was haunted by dreams, and the Dutton Liberal Party's Judas betrayal of our country. They've had 11 years to work on a proper proposal... I see Peter Dutton as an undertaker, preparing the grave to bury Uluru."
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Laura Tingle, who is offering calm rational analysis on what the China debate is really about, asks Greg Sheridan to let her finish.
He pauses, lets her get a few more words in, before resuming talking over her with his alarmist war mongering.
How very
#insiders
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It’s actually baffling that Dutton and Howard aren’t calling for Morrison (who's already dead in the water) to resign. They have the chance to refute him, to make this insane manoeuvre a Morrison aberration.
Instead they’re choosing to stamp the Liberal brand all over it.
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Green senator Larissa Waters on accusations (repeated by Penny Wong this morning) that the Greens are straining Australia's social cohesion over Gaza:
"I think the activities and the murders that are occurring are what's causing tension, not people telling the truth about it."
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Independent senator David Pocock on
@RNBreakfast
on why we should increase JobSeeker:
“It doesn't make sense to have Australians living in poverty... especially when we’re busy talking about giving wealthier Australians $243 billion in tax cuts.”
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Barilaro repeatedly saying he wouldn't have applied knowing what he knows now, after the "trauma" he's been through these past weeks.
Huge "only sorry you got caught" vibes.
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The Nationals voting AGAINST amendments to ensure the bill (which is going through) explicitly considers regional communities, including appointing regional experts to the climate change authority.
An embarrassment to the very end.
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Morrison, stepping up to disappoint us one last time
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Bruce Lehrmann... you mean the same Bruce Lehrmann whose life and career prospects have been ruined by the allegations against him? That Bruce Lehrmann?
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Imagine having Megan Davis personally explain the Voice to you, and still walking out and parroting your silly 15 questions to the media
#insiders
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My question is what happened to this kid to make him do this, and why is
#QandA
platforming a 17-year-old nuclear fanboy over, I dunno, a scientist?
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Dutton, when asked whether he would support altering the tax cuts to wind them back at the top end: "This is not about tax cuts, this is about broken promises."
Translation: I don't actually give a shit about policy or the budget at all
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Coalition MPs lining up to shake Morrison's hand as they go. God this is so cringe.
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In weaponising Higgins’ leaked texts, the desperate Coalition are only confirming that they do not give a damn about Higgins, about sexual assault, about the treatment of women in politics — something which was obvious from the moment the story broke.
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Oh you're going to change are you, Scott?
Disendorse Katherine Deves.
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Would have been good if at least *one* our health ministers had taken up that early meeting with Pfizer.
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When you hold off announcing any major support until you can actually be there on the ground, but then you can't actually be on the ground because everyone fucking hates you:
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Peter Dutton: "Whether you’ve got $30,000 dollars, $300,000 dollars or $3 million in your super fund is not the point."
I think you'll find it is, actually.
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In fact, climate majority in the Senate
Climate majority in the Senate. Seems certain Labor + Greens + Pocock will be at least = 39 seats.
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A woman has died from Covid-19, in Australia, a country that has repeatedly eliminated it, months after vaccines became available. She was unvaccinated.
There needs to be an inquiry, ideally a royal commission, into the federal government's vaccine procurement and rollout.
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🧵My favourite pieces of underlooked news (lost amid a sea of good news) this morning:
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"Put your mask on,"
@Mon4Kooyong
tells a Coalition MP interjecting as she tries to ask about a serious question about the government's plans for responding to long Covid.
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Collingwood captain Darcy Moore backs the Voice on RN, defends politics in sport:
"There are people out there who just want you to shut up and play sport... Athletes are human beings and citizens of the country too so they can exercise their right and say what they want to say."
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Increase to the number of women in parliament, but perhaps more importantly, improved ethnic diversity in the ALP caucus:
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Bruce Lehrmann defamed himself so hard that even The Australian turned on him.
A self-own for the ages.
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Press pack absolutely losing their minds over Albanese "ditching them" today (leaving them with his shadow treasurer), declaring it "not OK".
Why is it not OK? Do they have a question or twelve they need to ask him about dot points or costings due for release on another day?
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A system so brutal that to pursue a claim could pose an unacceptable risk to an accuser's mental health.
The system is broken.
BREAKING New medical evidence detailing the impact of a second trial on Brittany Higgins’ mental health is expected to result in the charge being dropped and the trial not proceeding
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The people of Warringah voted Tony Abbott out of office. If the people's vote is to be respected, it should mean abandoning, or at least scaling back, hearing from Tony Abbott in any format, and removing his portrait from Parliament House.
The vote must be respected.
This is what Tony Abbott has written in The Australian newspaper today about the referendum. This is what he argues is respecting the no vote.
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Australians didn't vote against reconciliation, says Marles.
Hate to say it, but they did. They voted for "don't know" "don't care" "get over it" "colonisation was good for Indigenous Australians actually". They voted for assimilation - the opposite of reconciliation
#insiders
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Morrison now being confronted with breaking news showing he was sworn into Social Services, just minutes after denying he was sworn into Social Services
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Really strong, clear consensus here on
#insiders
on the importance of an inquiry into Morrison's secret ministries. It's a shame that message isn't coming through so clearly in general reporting and coverage.
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Anthony Albanese at the
#NPC
on people struggling with cost-of-living:
"I'm the prime minister. I am in a position to do something about it. I am doing something about it."
By George, I think he's got it!
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"The footage of Peter van Onselen being ripped to shreds by Carrie Bickmore and Amy Remeikis tonight was embarrassing, for him that is.
He didn’t have to say anything smarmy. Just be a decent human being, that’s all. If that wasn’t possible, why bother to attend at all?"
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Not a great day to be Dave Sharma or Josh Frydenberg!
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Hope trashing whatever was left of your credibility with women so that Christian Porter could spend an extra 12 months as an MP was worth it,
@ScottMorrisonMP
!
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Why has he been testing himself daily since Sunday? And if he had reason to believe he might have Covid, why wasn't he wearing a mask while hanging around the emergency response command pointing at maps for photos?
Tonight I tested positive to COVID-19.
I am experiencing flu-like symptoms and will be recovering over the next week.
I had tested myself daily since Sunday, including this morning, with all tests returning a negative result.
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Coorey says "how are we going to pay for it?" starting to have resonance again... Ok so why don't we ask it about submarines? Stage 3 tax cuts?
#insiders
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This is perhaps the most savage part of the Ben Roberts-Smith verdict: that he was such a reprehensible fuckwit that he couldn't be defamed.
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Lidia Thorpe wants to be the “voice” of a particular strain of Indigenous activism, and she is well within her rights to do so. But the majority of First Nations Australians have asked for a different sort of voice, and they are still waiting to be heard.
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The one good thing about having James Campbell on
#Insiders
today was the possibility of directly questioning him on the Herald Sun's cooked coverage. Opportunity missed.
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The gall of Frydenberg referencing the Guide Dogs CEO who lost her role over him
#ausvotes
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What is wrong with the Liberal Party? Even if they feel genuinely aggrieved about Gallagher being tipped off, how can they not see how this looks? How can they keep attacking Gallagher, KNOWING who is sitting on their backbench, KNOWING the gaping holes in their own stories?
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Have you noticed that since the teals got elected, this man has only grown stupider?
Have you noticed that since the teals got elected your grocery and energy bills have gone through the roof!
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According to Stuart Robert on
@RNBreakfast
, any suggestion that Morrison should face ANY consequences for fundamentally undermining the principles of responsible government constitutes a "witch hunt".
The Trumpian echoes continue.
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Speaking against Labor's climate bill, former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce invokes conspiracy theorists, religious fervour, paranoia, the four horsemen of the apocalypse, virtue signalling, and "a wind drought" in the first minute.
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Imagine spending years campaigning for a Voice, holding your tongue as people make up racist shit (so as not to offend), only to be piled on for daring to call it out, having your comments intentionally misconstrued by the very people making up racist shit
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It seems the Alan Jones allegations are a bit of an "everybody knew" moment.
How curious that conservative politicians are so concerned about the release of very small number of refugees, but were more than happy to sit with a man who had (allegedly) offended again and again
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The Mark Dreyfus exchange, and the ensuing beat-up, sums up everything that is wrong with our politics and media.
It is this nonsense that has stopped us having a serious conversation about immigration, or Stage Three, or any matter of public importance.
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Just occurred to me that we may have seen the last of Andrew Wallace as speaker
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"I wouldn't let him near the till either," says Morrison, a man who has spent the last few years raiding the national till for rorts and mates
#LeadersDebate
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Liberal candidate for Cook Simon Kennedy says he's never heard anyone raise concerns about the gender imbalance in the Liberal Party.
Not only does he not live in the electorate, he lives under a rock.
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This is embarrassing for Ally Langdon
She says voters are confused by the Voice, but rather than trying to inform viewers as to what it is, she spends the interviewing haranguing Ray Martin for saying people who choose to remain ignorant are dinosaurs.
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People at the SMH/Age who can write about the war: Staff who have been on a paid junket to Israel
People at the SMH/Age who cannot write about the war: Staff who signed a letter calling for integrity, transparency & rigour, noting at least 53 journos have been killed
Seems fine
SMH/Age executive editor Tory Maguire has posted a message in their Slack on behalf of the papers' leadership saying that staff who signed a letter about Australia's Israel-Palestine media coverage will be "unable to participate in any reporting or production related to the war"
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Jim Chalmers on
@RNBreakfast
claiming "there's a view out there in the community that the stage 3 tax cuts aren't legislated, that they still need to be."
What rubbish. There's a view in the community that you should UNlegislate them, which is exactly what you were just asked.
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That’s a strange way to spell “I condemn the riots and all those who stoke anti-vax sentiments”
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Congrats to the governor-general for coming off as an even weirder unit than Scott Morrison in Niki Savva's extract:
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Great
@RNBreakfast
interview with Human Rights Watch former executive director Kenneth Roth on the sacking of Antoinette Lattouf: "I would encourage ABC management to admit they made a mistake... There was nothing wrong with sharing a Human Rights Watch video sharing facts."
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Imagine if we had an Opposition that just said, you know what, Labor didn't say they would do this, but it's a very reasonable tweak, we've done similar in the past, it will only affect a small few who can afford it, and the budget is in huge structural deficit. IMAGINE.
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Dutton on French "bollard man" being offered a permanent visa: "I support the PM's generous offer... he embodies the Anzac spirit."
Dutton on the injured Pakistani security guard being offered the same: "That's obviously an issue for the PM..."
Can't make this shit up 🙃
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It has long been clear conservatives care more about using Anzac Day to make themselves look patriotic than about honouring the fallen. Tim Wilson took this to the nth degree, attempting to play a childish political game, but ending up with egg on his face.
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Waiting for someone on the panel to acknowledge what a shitshow that was. To not acknowledge how farcical it was is to imply that this went as intended.
And if this is what Channel 9 intended, they should never be allowed to hold a
#leadersdebate
again.
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In a vox pop on
@RNBreakfast
, a "No" voter says he thinks Indigenous people should get to speak for themselves. When told that's what the vote is about, he seems surprised.
What did you think it was about?
I heard it was some kind of land grab.
Where did you hear that?
TikTok
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Every time you think Peter Dutton cannot possibly get any smaller or uglier, he outdoes himself.
A babushka doll of shit.
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It has now been 18 hours since the police withdrew the assault charges against the man released from indefinite detention, following a case of mistaken identity.
Sussan Ley still hasn't deleted this racist tweet.
Shameless beyond belief.
If you live in Frankston and you’ve got a problem with Victorian women being assaulted by foreign criminals, vote against Labor.
If you do not want to see Australian women being assaulted by foreign criminals, vote against Labor.
Send Labor a message.
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Brittany Higgins has put out a statement disputing suggestions that the cops who mishandled her case had their careers "destroyed" by Shane Drumgold.
"I do not celebrate the misfortune of others. However, these officers were disgraced by their conduct not by the DPP."
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