Daily News Roundup

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4

Liberal senator Lucy Gichuhi has threatened to use parliamentary privilege to name those inside the Liberal Party she says have bullied and intimidated her.

In an exclusive interview with RN Drive, Senator Gichuhi said she knew bullying happened to other MPs in the Parliament during the spill because she witnessed it.

“Absolutely, I had senators and ministers in tears, that’s how bad it was. One of my colleagues was in tears the whole day,” she said.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, whose leadership challenge failed, was asked on Channel Seven if his supporters intimidated and bullied people as they tried to boost his numbers.

“I wouldn’t condone it if it happened,” Mr Dutton said.

“I think in these times you get robust conversations between people, I am not aware of any facts where people have done that,” he said.

“As I say I wouldn’t condone it.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the Government would continue to deal with the issues “inside our team”.

He said he looked to Minister for Women Kelly O’Dwyer and Chief Whip Nola Marino for advice.

But Mr Morrison also indicated he wanted to move on from the leadership turmoil.

“The events of a couple of weeks ago, I have described as a Muppet Show and the curtain comes down on that and Australians expect us to get on with our jobs,” he said.

Senator Gichuhi rejected claims that it was just part of the rough and tumble of politics and said this was beyond anything acceptable.

“Absolutely not, I’m talking about senators and ministers who were in tears because they were at the crossroads where they could not choose, especially the ones from Victoria went through a very, very rough time because they were holding a carrot … like this is your preselection — ‘hey you do this, we do that’,” she said.

“One senator had to be told that on your marking the ballot paper you show another senator. What kind of workplace is that?”

Senator Gichuhi also said the political execution of former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull was a factor in her preselection battle.

She revealed one Liberal Party figure in South Australia asked her during her preselection battle as far back as June whether she wanted Mr Turnbull to lead the Liberal Party to the election.

###

You might have seen reports that former Top Gear host Richard Hammond and his family were “gassed and robbed” at a holiday villa in St Tropez, France, last month.

They’re not the first celebrities to claim they have had gas used against them in a robbery attempt, but medical experts are sceptical about claims of burglars using gas, reports Rebeka Powell on ABC news.

This is what the family says happened and why an increasing number of celebrities think burglars are using gas on unsuspecting tourists.

Richard’s wife Mindy Etheridge said the couple’s teenage daughter Willow and a group of friends woke up one morning to discover cash had been stolen from their wallets and purses, and a watch swiped from Willow’s room.

Writing in the UK’s Sunday Express, Mindy says she is “pretty convinced” the family were gassed in their sleep because the robbers allegedly spent time rummaging through every room and drawer in the house.

It wasn’t until the next morning, when Willow couldn’t find her watch, that the family realised they had been robbed.

Mindy said she suspected they were “gassed” because the family, and the 15 other guests staying in the villa, slept through the ordeal and late into the following morning.

The burglars were caught on CCTV and arrested several days after the incident.

Thieves are reported to have previously pumped anaesthetic gas through air conditioning systems in a series of raids on luxury villas in France.

In 2015, British ex-Formula One driver Jenson Button and his wife Jessica were robbed while staying on the French Riviera.

According to Button’s spokesman, French police said air-vent gassing was familiar to them in the wealthy holiday region.

Prior to that, former Arsenal footballer Patrick Vieira, said an anaesthetic gas was pumped through the air-conditioning system while his family slept in a holiday villa in Cannes.

And in 2002, British television stars Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine said they were gassed while attending the Cannes Film Festival.

There have also been many stories of tourists in campervans being gassed and robbed at service stations in France and neighbouring countries.

In response, the British Foreign Office and US Embassy in France issued statements warning travellers to be alert and ensure their windows and doors were locked at night.

But in 2014, in response to the campervan incidents, the British Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCOA) said it was the college’s view that gassing was “a myth”.

“It is the view of the College that it would not be possible to render someone unconscious by blowing ether, chloroform or any of the currently used volatile anaesthetic agents, through the window … without their knowledge, even if they were sleeping at the time,” the College said in a statement.

“[Also] these drugs would be too expensive for the average thief to use.”

General anaesthetics are either inhaled or administered from pressure tanks and they have odours and health risks associated with them.

The college says there is no anaesthetic in existence that is “safe, odourless, potent [and] cheap enough” for the average person obtain or handle.

If there was one, the College says, it would “know about it and be investigating its use in anaesthetic practice”.

###

The Royal Adelaide Show has withdrawn three golliwogs from public display in response to accusations of racism, saying the dolls were unlikely to feature at the show in future, the ABC reports.

Photos of the dolls were shared on Facebook by Indigenous community group Deadly Yarning from South Australian Aboriginal Communities.

One of the group’s administrators Janette Milera said the toys were “very racist”, adding it was even more hurtful that they appeared to have won prizes.

She said the photos of the dolls, which were on display in the arts and crafts hall, were taken by a friend of hers who was “disgusted these dolls were still around”.

“I couldn’t believe that in 2018 we’re still having to discuss such things as golliwog dolls, and why people do not understand why they are so offensive to people of colour,” Ms Milera said.

“They are not acceptable … I didn’t think that people would still sit down and make these dolls, so I was a bit shocked that these dolls had been accepted.”

PHOTO: The show has apologised for the offence caused by the dolls. (Facebook)

The toys were submitted in the “children’s soft toy” and “cloth doll” categories in the handicrafts competition of the show, which opened on Friday.

Golliwogs first appeared in popular culture in the late 1800s and were the creation of American-born cartoonist Florence Kate Upton.

This daily news roundup is curated with stories by ABC News.