Libs' fake Muslim letter roundly condemned

By Shaun Davies
ninemsn

The Liberal members and volunteers who distributed the fake pamphlet, including Gary Clark, the husband of Lindsay MP Jackie Kelly, have been roundly condemned for their clumsy attempt to discredit Labor.

And Ms Kelly has been slammed for defending her husband's actions as a "Chaser-style prank" that was "quite funny" on first read.

The Liberal team was allegedly dropping letters from a fake Islamic group into letterboxes around St Marys in Sydney's west.

One of those named as a participant in the distribution of the flyers, NSW Liberal Party executive Jeff Egan, has since issued a statement through a defamation lawyer, stating that he at no point distributed "unauthorised material".

"I categorically deny distributing any unauthorised material. I intend to clear my name," the statement said, according to Fairfax.

The letters, from the non-existent Islamic Australia Federation, said the ALP wanted forgiveness for the Bali bombers and would support construction of a mosque in the area.

The letter ended with the statement "Ala Akba", a misspelling of "Allahu Akbar", a common Muslim expression meaning "God is great".

Veteran Nine Network commentator Laurie Oakes described the fake letter as "grubby" and condemned Ms Kelly's defence of her husband.

"I thought that was extraordinary. To say that this episode, which involves exploiting race and religion to try and divide an election, (and which) also involves forgery … to compare that with a Chaser prank is just ridiculous," he said.

"It is disgusting, it is a series of lies … obviously the people who handed this out think that the good people of Lindsay are racists and bigots.

"The people of Linsday ought to be offended and Jackie Kelly, who's retiring, good riddance I think after what she said this morning."

Islamic Friendship Association president Keysar Trad described the episode as "damaging to Australian politics".

"The biggest shock to me out of this is I've been an admirer of Jackie Kelly for a very long time and as far as I'm concerned it's very sad that she's retiring on such a shameful note," Mr Trad said.

"Even though she didn't do it herself, the fact that these people met in her house before doing this is grossly disrespectful to her.

"Her statements defending them with a comparison to a Chaser-like prank is something that also makes you wonder exactly where she stands on this issue."

He said Sheik Taj Aldin Alhilali was overseas at this point and had not seen the pamphlet. The former mufti's image is used at the bottom of the fake letter.

Chaser executive producer Julian Morrow has meanwhile offered Ms Kelly a job with his comedy team, according to reports.

Kelly defends husband

Speaking on the Today show, Ms Kelly said the Liberal letterbox droppers, including Mr Clark, were a "bunch of bored drunks" who made an error of judgement.

"I think it's basically a Chaser-style prank," Ms Kelly said.

"It's a parody of Robert McClelland's gaffe in the campaign. I think your letterbox distributors get very bored ... with repetitive things we're always getting them to letterbox and they get creative, have a few drinks and think things are quite funny.

"On first read it is quite funny, but then you look at it and you think, 'no it's not very funny. You should not have done this at all.'"

Ms Kelly denied knowing about the letter's existence, even though letterbox drop teams were using her house as a base.

She accused the Labor supporters who busted the fake letter distributors of being a "goon squad" of unionists spoiling for a fight.

"A lot of altercation and roughing up and stuff went on after that," she said.

"He hates the unions with a passion, my husband."

Two of the group who were Liberal Party members have been kicked out of the party.

Howard distances himself from letter

Prime Minister John Howard also condemned the bogus election campaign leaflets.

Mr Howard has disassociated himself from the alleged activities of people connected to Liberal MP Jackie Kelly who is retiring from her western Sydney seat of Lindsay.

"The first I knew about this was yesterday morning," Mr Howard told ABC radio on Thursday.

"I was told about it by my chief of staff who'd got the information from the NSW party director.

"I said 'look, this has got to be dealt with by the (party) organisation'.

"I condemn it, I dissociate myself from it. It's no part of my campaign and the party has acted promptly to deal with it.

"As far as I'm concerned, that was the right and only response."

"This is no part of my campaign. It is no part of the Liberal Party's campaign. I don't want anything to do with it."