From the normally execrable Cut&Paste in The Australian on Monday 13 January.

‘Opposition foreign affairs spokesperson Tanya Plibersek, [and deputy Labor Party leader] the other day:

‘Ariel Sharon embodied fearless leadership through trying times and spent his life serving Israel and its people. In his final years as prime minister, Sharon made great strides in the Israel-Palestine peace process, representing a courageous shift in his politics in favour of a two-state solution.‘

Plibersek, 2002:

‘I can think of a rogue state which consistently ignores UN resolutions whose ruler is a war criminal – it is called Israel and the war criminal is Ariel Sharon.’

A couple of years as a senior Labor Minister and now as Opposition spokesperson on Foreign Affairs and deputy leader of the Labor Party sees Plibersek keep to the grand ALP tradition of abandoning principle.

Plibersek Dumps Principles, Continuing Labor’s Fine Tradition