Australia’s ambassador to the US has blamed hackers for taking control of his Twitter account and liking a Tweet that blasted Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
The former treasurer liked a tweet from the economist Stephen Koukoulas, who said Mr Turnbull’s appearance on the ABC’s Q&A program on Monday night showed he was the “cranky prick everyone who has worked with him says he is”.
Mr Hockey posted again on Tuesday morning.
“Don’t get too excited,” he wrote.
“It looks like I have been hacked. AFP now investigating.”
SBS World News has contacted the Australian Federal Police to verify the claim.
Mr Turnbull appointed Mr Hockey to the ambassadorship in the United States, but only after dumping him from the cabinet when he replaced Tony Abbott as Liberal leader.
It comes a number of weeks after Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne’s Twitter account liked an explicit porn image on the night of the ‘Yes’ vote in the postal survey on same-sex marriage.
Mr Pyne also claimed he was hacked.
Labor originally threatened to support a motion to have the Pyne hack investigated, but later dropped its support after Labor’s Anthony Albanese confirmed there was no link to Mr Pyne’s ministerial accounts.
