In an awkward case of foot-and-mouth on Twitter, a Liberal MP has mistakenly broken ranks and declared the recent Free Trade Agreement with China bad for Australian jobs.
On Thursday evening, Northern Territory MP Natasha Griggs chimed into a Twitter conversation with the Australian Council of Trade Unions and the Maritime Union of Australia, much to their delight.
"The FTA does enable cheap Chinese workers as being claimed by unions" she wrote in a tweet which has since been deleted.
Presumably a typing error of some sort, the tweet was immediately seized by the social media accounts of unions, who declared she should now take her new cause up with the Prime Minister.
.@NatashaGriggsMP should get the facts on #ChAFTA >> http://t.co/GuZAAKRRuC #auspol #ausunions pic.twitter.com/QtL3v8HDKM— Australian Unions (@unionsaustralia)
August 27, 2015
The Australian Council of Trade Unions replied to her tweet: "that's a startling admission."
Ms Griggs, the Liberals member for Solomon, later cleared up her position, tweeting that the "FTA does NOT enable cheap Chinese workers as unions claim".
The FTA with China has come under fire as unions claim it could allow Chinese companies to exclude Australian workers.
