More of the same from News Corruption Ltd or was it a joke? Ms Ecuyer doesn't seem to think so.
Claws out over Turnbull preferences claims Posted 56 minutes ago Updated 16 minutes ago
High-profile Wentworth independent candidate Danielle Ecuyer says a senior journalist tried to pressure her to give her election preferences to sitting Liberal Member and Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
Ms Ecuyer, who is running on an anti-pulp mill platform in the eastern Sydney seat, says she will lodge a complaint with the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) today.
She has released an email exchange with The Australian newspaper journalist Caroline Overington, in which the reporter writes "Please preference Malcolm. It would be such a good front page story."
Ms Ecuyer told ABC TV's Lateline that she was amazed a journalist would try to sway her.
"I could not believe that a senior journalist at The Australian would actually come forth so prominently and put it down in an email," she said.
"It was not only trying to bias me, in terms of who I preference, but [also implied] 'OK we'll make you really famous and it will make such a good front page story'."
But Ms Overington says Ms Ecuyer is just trying to get more publicity.
She told ABC Radio's AM program the email was a continuation of a joke the two women had shared in a previous interview and pertained to Ms Ecuyer's former relationship with Wentworth's Labor candidate, George Newhouse.
"It was a couple of girls joking about her broken love affair with George Newhouse when I had joked with her, that 'wouldn't it be hilarious if she ended up sending her preferences to Malcolm?'" she said.
"She had joked about the same thing, the joke has continued in the series of emails, and now because she is such a fantastic promoter of herself she is getting a little bit more mileage out of it."
