aust defence assn backs abbott decoy story, page-5

Chewy - so do you actually know more than an official defence spokesperson? Are you saying that the defence personal is lying?

This is not political. The protocal exists for security of our VIPs.

If the aircraft was shot down with the PM on board, the opposition leader would not become PM by default. It's got nothing to do with that. This has already been explained in earlier posts today.

The longstanding convention that opposition leaders and prime ministers do not visit war zones at the same time is all about risk management of our VIPs.

Can you reference any time in the past that both opposition leader and PM have travelled in the same aircraft to a war zone?

Gillard should have known about this convention and, on that basis, should not have even offered this trip to Abbott.

But she did and then tried to get a cheap shot at Abbott. Not a good look for a PM, IMO.