Leaked John McTernan emails reveal aggressive approach of Julia Gillard's spin doctor

Updated

Thousands of emails from Julia Gillard's powerful media adviser John McTernan have been leaked to the ABC, revealing the aggressive approach adopted by the former prime minister's communications director and the inner workings of the media team.

The British spin doctor cultivated his image among Australian journalists as a real-life Malcolm Tucker - the political operative from the BBC political satire The Thick of It - but the bad language was not just reserved for venting at journalists over the phone or in writing.

The emails show he frequently used vulgar language in professional communications with junior staff, with Mr McTernan employing obscene language to describe journalists, critics and even US president Barack Obama's digital strategist, Harper Reed, over his prediction that Labor would lose the 2013 election.

When Ms Gillard's chief of staff declared a "war on crap'" and ordered staff to tidy their workstations to make the office one befitting a prime minister, a colleague jokingly referred to "McTernan's office" as one needing attention.

Mr McTernan replied: "C***, you will be c**ted too" in a reply-all email to the office.

The emails also show Ms Gillard's office helped research a column for former Labor leader Mark Latham as a thankyou for publicly excoriating her rival Kevin Rudd.

Mr McTernan was hired on a 457 skilled worker visa as Ms Gillard's chief spin doctor in late 2011 after former communications director Russell Mahoney stood down earlier that year.

He was a controversial figure who acquired more enemies as Ms Gillard's prospects waned and her communications errors mounted.

The emails show he encouraged Labor staffers to mobilise so called "Twitter armies"' to ridicule the Tony Abbott-led opposition and attack individual Coalition MPs online, which he would later point out to journalists as proof of public opinion.

He would forward flattering articles, pictures and memes about himself to staff but lacked basic knowledge of some of Labor's key policies and attacks, and regularly responded to media and stakeholder criticism with ridicule and abuse.

McTernan a fan of Latham despite his public criticism of Gillard

Mr McTernan was a big fan of Mr Latham and agreed to use the prime minister's staff to help do research for him, even though the former Labor leader was a harsh and at times brutal critic of Ms Gillard and her personal life choices when she first became prime minister.

Mr Latham posed as a journalist during the 2010 campaign and gatecrashed Ms Gillard's election campaign during an event at Brisbane's Ekka, confronting her in front of the media over the Labor Party's complaint about his role with Channel Nine.

Three days later, Ms Gillard appeared on the ABC's Q&A program and was asked, on a scale of one to 10, how "big of a tool is Mark Latham?"

Ms Gillard responded: "There are some things that can't be measured."

A year later in a radio interview with Radio National, Mr Latham criticised Ms Gillard's "wooden" performance during the Queensland floods and linked it with her decision to not have children, which he claimed resulted in her lacking empathy.

But his personal attacks on Ms Gillard appeared not to worry Mr McTernan, who emailed Mr Latham to say "thank you, thank you, thank you," for a radio interview he had given in which he described Labor MP Joel Fitzgibbon, a key Rudd supporter, as the "dregs of the Labor movement".

Ms Gillard's media team distributed a transcript of the interview internally, which Mr McTernan forwarded to Mr Latham expressing his gratitude.

Mr Latham replied it was a famous day as "the Ruddites routed, the media discredited and Richo looking like a goose".

The emails were sent following the March leadership challenge that Simon Crean requested and Ms Gillard brought on, but which Mr Rudd ultimately did not contest.

Four days later, Mr Latham sent an email to Mr McTernan asking him to use the Parliamentary Library to find an archived newspaper article he wanted to reference for his upcoming column for the Australian Financial Review.

"Could someone look at this in the Parl library, please, please," he asked on March 26.

Mr McTernan obliged and forwarded it to taxpayer-funded staff in the prime minister's office, asking them: "Can someone please check this for me?"

Former Members and Senators are allowed to use the Parliamentary Library in person, but when not in Canberra are only entitled to access newspaper clippings through the publicly available online search function.

Gillard supporters privately blame McTernan for her downfall

Later that year, Mr Latham continued his attacks on former prime ministers, calling Mr Rudd a "lunatic" who should have been expelled years ago.

Mr McTernan emailed his staff saying he wanted a personal transcript of the interview for Mr Latham to autograph.

The emails and their revelations are certain to contribute to the legacies both former prime ministers are shaping now they have left Parliament.

It was not just Rudd supporters who disagreed with Mr McTernan's aggressive style, class-war politics and gender-focused strategies.

Many of Ms Gillard's closest supporters also privately partly blame him for her downfall.

Mr McTernan has not responded to the ABC's questions.

McTernan blacklisted ABC political journalist

One of the leaked emails shows Mr McTernan telling all staff in Ms Gillard's office not to respond to ABC political reporter Simon Cullen.

Cullen says he believes the order came after he wrote an online story about the Coalition's attack on Mr McTernan.

Topics: government-and-politics, federal-government, alp, political-parties, gillard-julia, information-and-communication, australia

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