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Attorney-General Tara Cheyne has apologised to the Liberals’ Elizabeth Lee after sending an anonymous text message to ABC Radio Canberra which accused the former opposition leader of effectively flipping the bird at her successor.
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Chief Minister Andrew Barr indicated he thought the text message was not acceptable behaviour for a minister and told the Legislative Assembly he directed Ms Cheyne to apologise directly to Ms Lee.
Before 8am on Thursday, ABC presenter Ross Solly read a text message on air, which he attributed only to a Labor MLA. Solly said he “wouldn’t normally read this out but [would] because the Libs are not sticking their head up to explain what’s going on”.
“I won’t claim to be an expert on Liberal strategies or tactics but here are some obversations. Elizabeth was given a free run at the leadership over four years. Despite Elizabeth’s known issues with her first deputy, Giulia [Jones] left quietly,” the text message attributed to the Labor MLA said.
“When Jeremy [Hanson] was dumped from the leadership, he didn’t white ant Elizabeth from the backbench. Elizabeth not affording Leanne a clear 12 months just seems like a continuation of the gesture she gave the journalist in this election. Petulant.”
That comment was a reference to Ms Lee being caught on camera raising her middle finger at a Region Media reporter after a fraught press conference exchange in the days before the election. Ms Lee apologised publicly “for [her] poor behaviour” at the time.
The text message in part continued: “My own observation is Elizabeth was absent from the Assembly for half of the year. She’s only spoken a handful of times since. She openly says she doesn’t want to participate in shadow cabinet, but she wants to have an equal say on the issues her colleagues have spent a lot of effort formulating positions on.
“Finally, if this is how Elizabeth and Peter [Cain] speak about their party to the media, I can’t imagine how they speak to their colleagues in the party room.”
Ms Lee took a period of leave from the Assembly, granted with the support of other members, after the October 2024 election and her loss of the Liberal leadership.
Greens leader Shane Rattenbury used question time on Tuesday to ask Chief Minister Andrew Barr whether he considered the anonymous text message to be an acceptable standard of conduct for sitting members with reflections about another member taking personal leave.
“No, I don’t and I’ve asked the member concerned to issue a direct apology to Ms Lee. That has occurred and been accepted,” Mr Barr said.
The Chief Minister went on to name Ms Cheyne as the Labor member who had sent the text message.
The Greens’ Andrew Braddock asked whether it was Mr Barr’s preferred strategy to not require a public apology in an effort to sweep the issue under the carpet.
“I think that’s a very perjorative question from Mr Braddock,” Mr Barr said.
“I received an approach from Ms Lee asking for the identification of the member and for an apology, and I undertook to find out and to ask for that apology to be given.
“It was within a matter of hours, and I’ve subsequently contacted Ms Lee to be assured that the apology was received, and it was.”
Mr Barr subsequently told The Canberra Times in a statement he had confidence in Ms Cheyne to stay in cabinet and that she had not breached the ministerial code of conduct.
“Ministers are accountable for their behaviour. Ms Cheyne apologised to Ms Lee directly. That apology has been acknowledged,” Mr Barr said.
Ms Cheyne’s text message was prompted by Ms Lee’s public comments about the Canberra Liberals’ shadow cabinet stripping backbenchers of the right to contribute to key decisions, first reported in The Canberra Times on Wednesday afternoon.
“By stripping backbenchers of this role, the Canberra Liberals have created a dangerous precedent that diminishes democratic representation, silences local voices, and erodes the integrity of the party room as a deliberative body,” Ms Lee said.
Opposition Leader Leanne Castley’s shadow cabinet on Monday last week endorsed a set of written principles, which say it is responsible for developing and coordinating opposition policies, strategy and parliamentary business.
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