When sending a text message or email to someone, always double check you’re sending it to the right person.
It’s a lesson no doubt Immigration Minister Peter Dutton is wishing he’d embarked on before flicking off a text message about a News Corp journalist calling her a “mad fucking witch” but accidentally sending to to the journalist, Samantha Maiden, herself.
The Sydney Morning Herald report the message had actually been intended for colleague and minister Jamie Briggs – who had recently stepped down following a late-night incident with a female public servant in Hong Kong. The message was allegedly in response to Maiden’s column about Briggs and his departure.
Dutton has since apologised, reports The Australian this morning, and Maiden has accepted.
Maiden had mentioned the incident on Nine’s Today Show on Sunday morning, but hadn’t named Dutton as the sender, just a “liberal MP”.
Watch the video here. The reference is about two minutes in, near the end.
The Australian report it had been Dutton’s decision himself to own-up as the sender.
