The Prime Minister has ridiculed the former government in a scathing assessment after a report revealed the Coalition pressured the Australian Border Force to announce it intercepted an asylum seeker boat on the day of the Federal Election.
A report by The Department of Home Affairs found the Morrison government demanded Australian Border Force release a statement it stopped a Sri Lanka vessel.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese slammed the Coalition for pressuring the Australian Border Force to release a statement on a boat intercept before the operation had concluded. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy Piper A draft release was sent to Ms Andrews' office at 12:34pm but an amendment had to be made to say the boat had likely arrived"illegally" from Sri Lanka.
An official statement was the posted onto the Border Force website at 1pm prior to his press conference at Lilli Pilli Public School at 1:03pm. Then-prime minister Scott Morrison was asked about the boat intercept by a reporter at a press conference after he voted at Lilli Pilli Public School. Picture: Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images
"This was the final act of the Morrison government and it was one that trashed convention and sought to abuse the relationship with the public service.Gilbert the posed whether he would consider amendments to the caretaker convention to ensure sensitive information was only released if it was a threat to life or an urgency to that magnitude that Australians had to know about.
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