4 days Ago By Tony Wright
As political figures ducked for cover rather than comment publicly about Alan Jones’ arrest and subsequent charges, an encrypted social media chatroom called “Restoring Your Liberal Party” was running hot. The former vice president of the federal Liberal Party, Teena McQueen, was vociferous in Jones’ defence. “It’s absolute bullshit,” she wrote on WhatsApp in response to a message from fellow group member George Szabo, a Sydney lawyer and active Liberal member, who had simply reported “Alan Jones arrested.
About to be charged.” McQueen – who the Herald and The Age attempted to contact for comment – was last reported partying at the weekend at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, where she and her current employer, Gina Rinehart, had celebrated the host’s US presidential election win. But from a distance, she shot off warnings to anyone in the group chat who commented on the charges.
“If anyone has any respect for AJ [Alan Jones], please do not discuss. It’s disgraceful what they’re doing to him. And I will pass on any defamatory comments, he’s been through enough.
” A WhatsApp message from former president of the federal Liberal Party Teena McQueen after Alan Jones’ arrest. Both Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and Treasurer Jim Chalmers declined to comment on the Jones charges – that include 24 offences over allegations he indecently assaulted, groped or inappropriately touched multiple young men – on the grounds it would be inappropriate given the matter was subject to legal proceedings. Two former prime ministers who were long considered close to Jones, John Howard and Tony Abbott, did not respond to calls.
It wasn’t always so. Numerous senior Australian politicians were extremely eager over decades to be seen as close to Jones, or routinely went to water when he demanded they appear on his top-rating radio show or threatened them over decisions with which he disagreed. The investigative journalist Chris Masters, author of Jonestown: the Power and the Myth of Alan Jones , the unauthorised biography of Jones published in 2006, wrote that “the sorry spectacle of politician after politician turning up at Jones’ pad and paying tribute challenged democratic principles and shames us all.
I believe they do it out of fear more than respect. The way the pollies see it, there is no real upside in opposing him.” Howard, during his long period as prime minister, was keenly aware of Jones’ reputation for using his radio show to wield political power.
Howard sent a handwritten note to inform Jones he had appointed a senior adviser to act as a special point of contact between “your people” and the prime ministerial office. The adviser became known as “the Minister for Alan Jones”. The arrangement, revealed by the Sydney Morning Herald in 2004, was established after the radio broadcaster complained that Howard’s government was ignoring his correspondence.
Abbott declared when he was prime minister that Jones was a personal friend. When Jones announced in 2020 that he was retiring from radio after 35 years, Abbott declared he “was Australia’s greatest public advocate”. On Jones’ final 2GB broadcast, Abbott reportedly walked into the broadcaster’s studio armed with champagne.
Abbott was accompanied by the former federal Labor leader Mark Latham, by then a One Nation MP in the NSW Upper House. To round things out, the then-Liberal PM, Scott Morrison, gave one last Jones interview. The relationship between Jones and Malcolm Turnbull, who replaced Abbott as PM in 2015, was much less friendly.
Turnbull once called Jones “a bomb thrower”. The relationship went rapidly downhill from there and Jones kept up his attacks on Turnbull long after his prime ministership ended. In 2019, Jones apologised for calling Turnbull a “traitor to his nation”.
But in 2020, he wrote, “When it comes to political fakes, Malcolm Turnbull is captain, for life, of the team”. The most poisonous relationship between Jones and a prime minister occurred during Julia Gillard’s period at The Lodge. Jones used the term “Ju-Liar” to Gillard’s face during a heated radio interview.
He raved later that “they should shove her and [Greens leader] Bob Brown in a chaff bag and take them as far out to sea as they can”. It got worse. At a function where Jones thought he wasn’t being recorded, he said Gillard’s just-deceased father must have “died of shame”.
He later tried to contact Gillard to apologise. She refused to take his call. But that was then, when Jones still had a warm microphone and was still considered powerful.
These years later, Jones has been arrested, political figures aren’t commenting out loud and only a WhatsApp chat room is running hot. “It is a witch hunt!” declared Teena McQueen. Very Mar-a-Lago.
A WhatsApp message from former president of the federal Liberal Party Teena McQueen after Alan Jones’ arrest. Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter .
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