January 29, 2012
Aboriginal activist Barbara Shaw during a press conference at the tent embassy in Canberra. Photo: Andrew Sheargold
What ignited the PM's security scare last week? Stephanie Peatling explores who said what to whom.
JULIA GILLARD was due to arrive at The Lobby restaurant about lunchtime on Australia Day. Having presided over a citizenship ceremony on the other side of Lake Burley Griffin earlier in the day, the Prime Minister was looking forward to presenting medals for emergency services workers.
Four of her staff, including 28-year-old press secretary Tony Hodges, arrived well before her to make sure everything was running smoothly, according to an account of the day given by Gillard yesterday.
Hodges, an affable bloke, well liked by the Canberra press gallery, shot the breeze with journalists waiting for Gillard to arrive.
They discussed the comments of the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, earlier that day. Abbott had been asked about the future of the Aboriginal tent embassy, which was marking its 40th anniversary at the Old Parliament House. He had said it was time to ''move on'' from that debate, comments which were interpreted by some as a call for the tent embassy to be shut down. Hodges took it upon himself to find some indigenous people to respond to the comments, Gillard said.
What some might call his initiative triggered a chain of events that led to angry protesters descending on the restaurant, the evacuation of the Prime Minister and Abbott, and finally Hodges resigning from his job.
On Friday morning a tweet popped up that suggested one of Gillard's staffers had alerted the tent embassy protesters to Abbott's presence at the restaurant, barely 100 metres away. Gillard looked genuinely surprised when asked about this on the same morning, as she attended a community event at Flowerdale, one of the Victorian towns devastated by the 2009 bushfires. She denied all knowledge of it. But her staff took the allegation seriously enough to launch an investigation. Her director of communications, John McTernan, and senior press secretary, Sean Kelly, attempted to piece together who said what to whom and when.
When Gillard returned to her Melbourne office on Friday afternoon she was told of what had happened - and presented with Hodges' resignation. ''Mr Hodges, in having received this information from journalists waiting at The Lobby restaurant, formed the view that these comments should be responded to,'' Gillard said yesterday.
He first called the office of the ACT Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Chris Bourke, but was referred to Kim Sattler, the secretary of UnionsACT. Sattler is a Murri woman from Queensland.
''Mr Hodges accurately conveyed to her the statement made by Mr Abbott,'' Gillard said. ''At no point did Mr Hodges say to Ms Sattler that Mr Abbott had suggested that the tent embassy be torn down or removed in any way.'' Gillard said Hodges had suggested an Aboriginal response to Abbott was required, and that the Opposition Leader was at The Lobby.
Sattler then spoke to at least two people at the tent embassy - Michael Anderson, the only surviving founder of the site, and Barbara Shaw, from Central Australia.
At a news conference at the tent embassy yesterday, Anderson and Shaw said they were not aware of Sattler's identity until after their conversations with her. Anderson said Sattler told him she was from the Prime Minister's office and that his initial reaction was that it was a joke.
''I was hoping it was good news - maybe she wanted to come down and say hello,'' Anderson said.
But he also said: ''Someone set us up; they set the Prime Minister up. They set Abbott up. I think they knew that reaction would occur.''
Shaw said Sattler did not mention the Prime Minister in their conversation but that Abbott was nearby ''talking to the press about closing down the Aboriginal tent embassy''.
Sattler did not return The Sun-Herald's calls yesterday - before or after Gillard, Anderson and Shaw identified her. But when The Sunday Canberra Times reached Sattler earlier in the day, she denied being the go-between for the PM's office in tipping off the Aboriginal tent embassy. She denied even having a conversation with Hodges and claimed she learnt about Abbott's presence from people at the tent embassy. ''I heard it from people on the ground,'' Sattler said. ''I did not talk to Tony Hodges.''
She said the Liberal Party would be ''hunting'' for somebody to blame.
Her Facebook profile was taken down yesterday.
Shaw did say that the crowd gathered for the tent embassy anniversary had already had Abbott's comments read out to them. And she said people were aware that Abbott was nearby and had headed towards the restaurant, although she also suggested people go to The Lobby.
By that point the situation had escalated, angry protesters had surrounded the small, glass-sided building and made sufficient fuss to halt the medal presentation service and force the evacuation of Gillard and Abbott.
It was, Gillard said, ''grossly unacceptable conduct'' on the part of her press secretary. Just a little more than 24 hours later and Hodges was gone. As Gillard put it: ''[Hodges] is a hard-working person, he is a decent person, he has recognised that he has made an error of judgment and he has paid a very big price for that error of judgment.''
with Julieanne Strachan
