But in a statement later, she denied having told The Age online that Australian intelligence agencies had forged the passports of other nations.

''My responses were referring to the fact that forged Australian passports have been used previously … I have no knowledge of any Australian authority forging any passports of any nation.''

The government this week announced its investigations had found Israel had forged the passports. But Ms Bishop said it had not been proved. She called the expulsion an overreaction designed to curry favour with Arab nations as Australia chases a seat on the United Nations Security Council.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/passport-gaffe-trips-liberals-deputy-leader-20100525-wb0z.html

from the ABC

The Federal Government says Opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Julie Bishop is unfit to serve in her portfolio after breaching a protocol on commenting about the possible use of forged passports by Australian spies.

Ms Bishop has been strongly critical of the Government's decision to expel an Israeli diplomat in retaliation for the use of forged Australian passports in the assassination of a Hamas leader.

When asked yesterday if she thought Australian intelligence agencies used fake passports she replied, "Yes", but later issued a statement in which she backed away from the comments.

from Crikey .....

Greg Sheridan was right! About Julie Bishop that is...

Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane writes:

FOREIGN POLICY, JULIE BISHOP

What's the point of Julie Bishop's political existence?

Anyone?

Scroll back 15 months, to February last year, when she gracefully exited the shadow Treasurership under pressure from some less-than-graceful male colleagues. Admittedly, she'd made a hash of the position, and in record time, but she was still deputy leader, so she needed a senior portfolio. So she was hidden in Foreign Affairs, where usually only Greg Sheridan actually notices if you stuff up.

In fact the principle task of a Coalition foreign affairs spokesperson, either in Government or Opposition, is simple: keep The Australian happy, which means pretty much keeping Greg Sheridan and Paul Kelly happy.

Problem was, she did stuff up, and Greg Sheridan noticed. In August, in the sort of language Sheridan usually reserved for the limp-wristed shillyshalling foreign policy Leftariat, he excoriated her over the Opposition's handling of the Stern Hu matter, saying of the Coalition "it has probably for the moment definitively forfeited the right to be taken seriously as an alternative government."

In case you were left wondering, Sheridan emphasised the point, calling Bishop's response "internally contradictory, unprincipled, amoral beyond even the exigencies of parliamentary hypocrisy and profoundly stupid. Bishop was a dud shadow treasurer and is now a dud foreign affairs spokeswoman."

Bishop had followed first Andrew Robb, and then Helen Coonan, in the role. Robb was the only frontbencher to lay a glove on Rudd early in the term, but then was moved to climate change by Malcolm Turnbull. Coonan barely had time to get her feet under the desk before she was moved to make way for Bishop.

Now not merely has Bishop managed to reveal confidential information about national security matters, she's made herself look a prize goose. Her defence is that she didn't understand the question. The exchange went:

Bishop: "It would be naive to think that Israel was the only country in the world that has used forged passports, including Australian passports, for security operations."

Tim Lester: "What - we do?"

Bishop: "Yes."

Quite what part of "What - we do?" isn't clear is something of a mystery.

A defence along the lines of "I was a prize dill overplaying my hand as always and I'll try to exercise better judgement in the future" might at least have earned her some Abbott-style "hey at least I admit I lie under pressure" points.

It was a red-letter day for the Coalition on foreign policy because Tony Abbott addressed the Asialink National Forum here in Canberra yesterday, along with the Prime Minister. Asialink is a Melbourne-based centre for promoting Asian engagement.

While Rudd offered his usual foreign policy boilerplate, Abbott chose to use the forum to tear into Labor, assailing Paul Keating's focus on Asia, celebrating John Howard's foreign policy skills, and attacking Rudd over people smuggling, refusing to sell uranium to India and Rudd's Asia Pacific Community proposal. Abbott accused Rudd of "unilaterally-conceived utopian visions", "giving up" on APEC, and blamed him for failing to reverse the trend of fewer Australian schoolchildren learning a second language.

It's not the first time Abbott has felt the need to launch partisan attacks over foreign policy. He used President Yudhoyono's address to Federal Parliament in March to talk about the increase in people smuggling and damn with faint praise Rudd's engagement with Indonesia "rather than nebulous new communities."

It doesn't matter a great deal in the scheme of things, really, but it's a subtle indicator both of Tony Abbott's view of foreign policy and what sort of foreign policy focus he'd have if he ever became Prime Minister.

I would like to point out that no matter what I think personally, the Corporation's funding and support for the Abbott/Bishop rabble has long passed a joke.

I cannot understand or condone the behavior of Mz Bishop and I really believe that if Abbott and his rabble are to be considered as a viable alternative to a Rudd Government, which has piloted us through the worst recession since 1929, it has to be a lie that only Murdoch could sell. 

What was John Laws’ claim “when you are on a good thing stick to it”.  I have never liked that bloke.

Sometimes the optimist, I find it hard to come to terms with the Australian public being so stupid as to ignore the enormous and cancerous interference in our nation and its economy by the alliance between the Liberal Party and their sponsors, the multinational Corporations.

For goodness sakes, these Coalition people are really traitors.  We pay them to betray us? 

Let’s face it, the behavior of the Abbott/Bishop rabble would be considered as traitorous in most independent nations.

As a simple man, I have been aware of the periods of many Prime Ministers and governments in my lifetime but, one thing is certain – when Australians are in trouble they vote Labor.  Check it.

We Australians are in trouble. 

When the information of a so-called democracy is controlled by a foreign monopoly of supply and there is no “opposition” powerful enough to provide an alternative opinion, what must the people believe? What can they believe?

Finally, I hope that the Murdochracy is identified for what it is and that the Australian people will rise above this traitorous con, as did our forbears in the English industrial revolution.

God Bless Australia and may we eventually exercise the right to control our own resources. NE OUBLIE.

The Irish Republic is to expel an Israeli diplomat over the use of fake passports in the killing of a Hamas official in Dubai.

Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said an investigation had proved that eight Irish passports used in the operation were forgeries.

Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was found dead in a Dubai hotel in January.

Dubai police have said they are 99% sure Israeli agents were involved, though Israel says there is no proof.

Mr Martin said Israel had been "requested to withdraw a designated member of staff of its embassy" and that he expected the request would "be quickly acceded to".

"The misuse of Irish passports by a state with which Ireland enjoys friendly, if sometimes frank, bilateral relations is clearly unacceptable and requires a firm response," he said.

Forged British, French, Australian, and German passports were also used in the Dubai operation.

The UK and Australia have already expelled Israeli nationals over the forgeries.

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see toon at top...

After having stared a garden gnome to breaking point on the Chaser's Yes We CANberra, Julie Bishop is kissing toads to make sure the bile is up and running...

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Politicians are renowned for holding babies during election campaigns, but in Darwin today it was a large cane toad named Rabbit that Julie Bishop had in her hands.

The deputy leader of the Opposition did her best to hold the pest, which weighed almost a kilogram, but when it started to puff up in size she became rattled.

"Oh, he's blowing up," Ms Bishop said, quickly handing it over to the Country Liberal's candidate for Solomon, Natasha Griggs.

"Why is it that most politicians get to hold babies and I get to hold a cane toad?" Ms Bishop joked.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/08/09/2977555.htm

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see toon there too...

Opposition finance spokesman Andrew Robb is considering a challenge to deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop.

The Liberal Party, due to meet tomorrow morning to regroup over its narrow election defeat, has been alive with rumour today about the possibility of a leadership rearrangement.

Leader Tony Abbott's unifying influence over the course of the recent campaign renders him beyond challenge at tomorrow's meeting, but Mr Robb has been talking to colleagues today about the feasibility of a run for the deputy's position.

"Following the decision yesterday, Andrew has naturally been speaking to his colleagues about a range of issues," a spokesman for Mr Robb said late this afternoon when contacted by ABC News Online.

It is understood Mr Robb has called a number of MPs and senators today but is yet to reach a decision about whether to run.

Mr Abbott warmly endorsed his deputy at yesterday's concession press conference, and has signalled he does not plan major changes to the Coalition's frontbench in the weeks ahead.

While there has been longstanding hostility to Ms Bishop in some quarters of the party, it is understood Mr Abbott's desire for the Coalition to present a model of stability may militate against a change at this time.

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Yep... Tony and the "cockroach" suit each other... See toon at top.

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Latest: Federal Opposition finance spokesman Andrew Robb has decided not to challenge deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop when the party meets in Canberra tomorrow.

Mr Robb had been considering a run for the deputy's job and was sounding out his colleagues, but the signs were that there was strong backing for Ms Bishop to keep her position.