Liberal pollster Mark Textor denies offensive tweets referred to Indonesian leaders

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Liberal pollster Mark Textor denies offensive tweets referred to Indonesian leaders
Date
November 21, 2013 - 4:07PM

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Jonathan Swan
National political reporter
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Mark Textor appears unrepentant
Liberal pollster Mark Textor says he can't apologise for what people imagine, putting Tony Abbott under pressure in question time.


Liberal Party pollster Mark Textor says he does not know who he was referring to when he said Australia should not apologise to a “bloke who looks like a 1970s Pilipino [sic] **** star”.

In a new tweet on Thursday Mr Textor also offered "apologies to my Indonesian friends", and indicated that blamed potential offence taken in Indonesia on "media-driven divisions".

Marty Natalegawa: compared to a 70s **** star. Photo: AFP

The original tweet by one of Tony Abbott's most senior advisers, which followed a series of racially loaded remarks about top Indonesian government figures, made the front page of one of Indonesia's most prominent media outlets, the Indonesian-language Kompas newspaper.

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But when an ABC journalist interviewed Mr Textor in a courtyard of Parliament House, Canberra, on Thursday, the pollster said he could not help that people imagined his offensive comments related to Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa.

Mr Textor also denied deleting the offending tweet, which has since disappeared from his Twitter feed. The entire message – which has been republished in the Indonesian press – read: “Apology demanded from Australia by a bloke who looks like a 1970s Pilipino [sic] **** star and has ethics to match”.

Mark Textor's tweet that has made the front page of Indonesia's main newspaper

The comments threatened to inflame sensitive relations between Canberra and Jakarta at a time when Prime Minister Tony Abbott was moving to reassure President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, also known as SBY, that Australia regrets any offence caused by the reports of unauthorised phone tapping.

Apologies to my Indonesian friends - frustrated by media-driven divisions - Twitter is indeed no place for diplomacy.

— Mark Textor (@markatextor) November 21, 2013
Asked whether he was sorry for causing offence at a delicate moment in Indonesian-Australian relations, Mr Textor told the ABC: “I can't apologise for what people imagine.”

Mark Textor Photo: Domino Postiglione

Mr Textor said “I don't know” when asked who the **** star reference was aimed at. “I was not referring to anyone in particular but if you want to imagine someone that's fine by me.”

Mr Textor said nobody in the Abbott government had mentioned the offensive tweet nor had anyone told him to delete it.

It followed a stream of aggressive messages in which the Liberal insider asked: "What sort of head of state communicates with a head of a neighbouring government by twitter FFS? SBY". FFS is shorthand for "for f---'s sake".

In a further tweet, Mr Textor said the phone-tapping incident revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden was in 2009 and said: "Maybe SBY uses some sort of weird-*** ancient calendar."

But he also appeared to justifying the phone tapping of the Indonesian President and his wife as well as eight other senior figures with the tweet: "Last time I looked no Indonesians were ever bombed in Australia." He published pictures of the Bali bombers under the tweet "Nothing to see here."

Mr Abbott was asked in question time on Thursday whether he would review his contracts with Mr Textor in light of the racially offensive comments.

"They were tacky comments and they've been withdrawn and apologised for," Mr Abbott said.

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I wonder how does he remember that so well.

 

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