Read the dirt file image here:
https://www.news.com.au/national/pm-dodges-question-on-helen-haines-dirt-sheet-c...Anthony Albanese has declined to explain a “dirt sheet” circulated by his office
about independent MP Helen Haines just weeks before she was allegedly attacked.
The document about Dr Haines was sent from the Prime Minister’s Office to select parliamentary journalists and raised questions about her connections to recipients of government funding, according to The Daily Mail.
News24.com.au also obtained the document and published it online.
It suggested lines of inquiry for journalists, including whether she had received gifts, held business interests or had links to organisations seeking government funding, without offering evidence of any wrongdoing.
It was sent out after Dr Haines had criticised a $6 million grant allocated to the Prime Minister’s local golf course.
Asked by News24.com.au about the document on Wednesday, Mr Albanese did not deny his office created the document — but he also didn’t apologise or explain further.
One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce also weighed in on the “dirt sheet,” telling the ABC. “If you want to take the temperature down, why on Earth are you circulating something like that?”
The document’s metadata, which doesn’t conclusively show who wrote it, listed Joshua Lloyd, Mr Albanese’s deputy director of communications, as its creator and last editor.