Labor Colludes With Bureaucracy To Target Conservatives

A Freedom of Information request submitted by the Institute of Public Affairs has revealed the that Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott and President of LibertyWorks and organiser of the 2019 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Andrew Cooper were investigated by the Attorney-General’s Department at the instigation of Shadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus.

The FOI reveals that on 22 July 2019, eight days before Senator Keneally’s speech to the Senate condemning CPAC, Shadow Attorney-General, the Hon Mark Dreyfus QC MP, met with senior representatives from the Integrity and Security Division of the Attorney-General’s Department for a briefing on the Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme, and “specifically raised the upcoming CPAC conference to be held in Sydney on 9-11August 2019 and asked what the Department planned to do about it.”

“Senior bureaucrats have been caught conspiring in secret with the Labor Party to intimidate and harass the ALP’s political opponents,” said Evan Mulholland, Director of Communications at the IPA.

“This conspiracy between Mr Dreyfus and powerful public officials has threatened Australia’s democracy and national security.”

“There must be an independent and public inquiry into this scandal to establish how far and deep this conspiracy has spread.”

“This absolutely disgraceful scandal shows why this law needs to be completely recast so this can never happen again.”

“Using the power of the state to target political opponents is something that occurs in the authoritarian regimes, not a liberal democracy like Australia,” said Mr Mulholland.

Download the FOI.