Danby slams Carr
MICHAEL Danby launched a stunning attack on Foreign Minister Bob Car this week, accusing him of “acting like Tiberius on the telephone” to stop Australia voting against the United Nations resolution on Palestinian statehood.
MICHAEL Danby launched a stunning attack on Foreign Minister Bob Car this week, accusing him of “acting like Tiberius on the telephone” to stop Australia voting against the United Nations resolution on Palestinian statehood.
Danby, who launched his first attack in The AJN two weeks ago against Simon Crean and Stephen Smith because they sided with Carr, said the minister worked behind the Prime Minister’s back to roll her in caucus.
Julia Gillard reportedly told cabinet that she wanted to vote against a resolution at the UN granting the Palestinian territories observer status. However, she backed down under pressure from her cabinet and parliamentary colleagues.
“When Carr was premier, he would never have permitted treasurer Michael Egan ringing around trying to get the numbers to sell NSW power stations,” Danby said in an opinion piece published in News Limited newspapers on Wednesday.
“Such action would not have been tolerable – even if Egan was right.
“It is unacceptable in a cabinet for a minister to act – to use Gough Whitlam’s immortal description – like Tiberius on the telephone, organising numbers against his or her leader.”
Carr rejected the claims, saying that Danby’s allegation was “absolutely wrong”.
“I made very few phone calls,” Carr said. “Michael Danby is a passionate supporter of Israel – Israel right or wrong. I describe Michael, who’s a great friend of mine, as being a stronger Labor Zionist than Ben-Gurion, the founder of the State of Israel himself.
“Michael has got passionate views that I respect. But I’ve got a very different concept of how a friend of Israel should behave.”
Danby’s views have been echoed on the other side of the political spectrum. Writing exclusively in The AJN this week, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said, “I deplore this weakening in what has been, up until now, a 60-year record of staunch bipartisan support for Israel.”
Fellow Liberals Alexander Downer and Josh Frydenberg have also slammed the government’s decision on the UN vote in recent days. “This is a new benchmark; our foreign policy objective is to be in the middle and not be lonely,” Downer wrote in The Advertiser.
Meanwhile, in Tuesday’s Daily Telegraph, Frydenberg claimed Carr’s “record as Foreign Minister has been full of fumbles, missteps and indulgent personal detours”.
JOSHUA LEVI
Melbourne Ports MP Michael Danby.
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