Liberal MP Bridget Archer has retweeted an article accusing opposition leader Peter Dutton of committing “a dog act”.
The Tasmanian MP retweeted Guardian Journalist Paul Karp, who shared the article titled: ‘Dog act’: NT Police Minister reacts angrily to Peter Dutton’s claims of Alice Springs child sexual abuse.
Mr Dutton has spent the past two days in Alice Springs speaking to locals about the “endemic problems plaguing the central Australian town”.
“There are stories that we’ve heard today as we’ve walked the streets about the dysfunction, the desperation of young Indigenous kids who are being sexually assaulted, still, on a regular basis – that hasn’t stopped,” Mr Dutton told reporters on Wednesday.
In response to the comments, Northern Territory Police Minister Kate Wordon accused Mr Dutton of “political game-playing” and “using the most vulnerable people” as pawns in that game.
“It’s quite frankly, a dog act,” she said.
Among the responses to the article Archer retweeted – which are now accessible from her Twitter page – were multiple tweets describing the Liberal leader as a “dog”, with one person saying the federal Liberal leader had been given “a tin of dog food as a going away present” after he resigned from Queensland Police.
Another asked if the opposition leader had “taken over Pauline Hanson as the most racist person in our country”.
This isn’t the first time Ms Archer has retweeted articles or comments critical of her party leader or Liberal Party positions.
Earlier on Thursday the member for Bass retweeted a comment from Ian Anderson where the University of Tasmania’s deputy vice-chancellor described Mr Dutton as “the undertaker for the Uluru Statement of the Heart” – which Ms Archer claimed was an “important and powerful contribution”.
And earlier this week she retweeted an article about Julian Leeser’s resignation along with the comment “Much respect for @JulianLeeser – courage and integrity.”
The member for Bass was reportedly one of just five MPs to speak in favour of the Voice to Parliament during the Liberal party’s marathon party room meeting that resulted in the party officially opposing the Voice.
As a backbencher, Ms Archer is free to support the Voice and vote against Liberal party positions, as she has done 27 times – more than any other sitting Liberal MP.
These votes have been on issues ranging from the party’s support for the cashless debit card to climate change, from the establishment of Labor’s national anti-corruption commission to the former government’s religious discrimination bill.
When ABC Radio National asked Ms Archer why she stayed in the Liberal Party, the member for Bass said she was fighting to make the Liberal Party a “credible alternative government”.
“I stay because I know I’m not the only person who thinks that way. I stay because I think the Liberal Party is at a crossroads,” she said.
“And for people like me, that means there’s a decision between either walking away and leaving them to it, or fighting for what I believe the Liberal Party used to be and should be into the future – a credible alternative government.”
Bridget Archer was contacted by SkyNews.com.au but declined to comment.
Source: skynews.com.au
