Latest On Lindsay From Stunt-Junkie Albanese

NOT satisfied with having promoted a disastrous and unlawful abuse of Parliament, Labor minister for something, Anthony Albanese, now wants to hold a parliamentary inquiry into the Lindsay leaflet affair. "We need to know where these leaflets were produced, who paid for it, whose printing allowance was used," Mr Albanese has told the Sydney Morning Herald. The flyers in question promoted the idea that Labor was somehow sympathetic to Islamic extremists. More on that below. President of the Federation of Islamic Councils, Ikebal Patel, backs Mr Albanese - and also tougher penalties: "This was somebody trying to play a religious and racial card and the motive was fairly serious, therefore a $1000 charge is just really a slap on the hand."

Mr Patel, of course, is the man whose organisation appointed "Sheikh" Taj El Din Al Hilali as "Mufti" of Australia. It refused to get rid of him when he praised suicide bombers as "heroes," denounced Jews as the evil cause of all wars and hailed the September 11 terrorist attacks on America as "god's work against oppressors." When the "Sheikh" likened immodestly dressed women to "meat" inviting sexual assault, Mr Patel dismissed this as a "flippant comment" and told the ABC's Eleanor Hall it was merely "ill-conceived." Abominable extremist Hilali was only in Australia at all because of the intervention of New South Wales Labor stalwarts Paul Keating and Leo McLeay. It's time for a hypocritical Mr Albanese to stop playing games and manfully face up to the religious and racial dog-whistling emanating from his own party.