Attorney-General George Brandis has labelled the citizenship drama a “witch hunt” as he joined other senior cabinet MPs in using Josh Frydenberg’s troubles to argue against an audit of parliamentarians.
Senator Brandis said “this is not Salem in the 1690s” as he slapped down growing calls for an audit and defended his “friend” Mr Frydenberg, who received urgent advice yesterday to find out if he was Hungarian.
“This should not become a witch hunt and that is what it is now becoming, this is not Salem in the 1690s where we go around whispering allegations about other people on the basis of no facts whatsoever and then demanding they prove that they are constitutionally entitled,” Senator Brandis told Sky News.
“The suggestion for example, in relation to my friend Josh Frydenberg, that somehow because his mother was a Holocaust survivor and stateless, that he might have to prove he is an Australian citizen is frankly revolting.”
Read the report by Rachel Blaxendale, Rosie Lewis and Greg Brown in The Australian.