Peter Dutton has strongly denied he is the unnamed politician who called Prime Minister Scott Morrison a “complete psycho” in leaked texts.
The spotlight turned to the defence minister on Sunday night when former NSW Premier Bob Carr sensationally claimed on social media that he was the man behind the message.
“The minister who shared the text with van Onselen and gave permission to use it was Peter Dutton,’’ Mr Carr claimed on Twitter.
“If PM Morrison has one more week in free fall the prospect of a leadership change pre-election is real. Party rules don’t count if most MPs think you will lead them to defeat.”
Mr Dutton quickly hit back, saying on Twitter Mr Carr’s tweet is “baseless, untrue and should be deleted”.
The text exchange between a mystery federal cabinet minister and former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian, in which the prime minister was labelled a “horrible, horrible person” and a “complete psycho” was made public last week.
Ms Berejiklian has not denied taking part in the conversation, which is understood to have taken place during the 2019-20 bushfire crisis.
However, last week the former premier issued a statement saying she “does not recall” sending or receiving any of the texts.
According to reports, Ms Berejiklian labelled the prime minister a “horrible, horrible person” who was “actively spreading lies” during the text exchange with an unnamed cabinet minister.
“Lives are at stake today and he’s just obsessed with petty political point scoring,” she reportedly said in the texts exchanged during the Black Summer bushfires.
The unnamed minister called Mr Morrison a “complete psycho” and also described him as “desperate and jealous”.
“The mob have worked him out and think he’s a fraud.”
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, the prime minister said he “could not care less” about what the texting scandals and that he’s focused on leading the country through the pandemic.
“Frankly, Australians are far more interested in their jobs and their lives than what people are sending in text messages to each other.”