Tony Abbott is a dual citizen. At least that’s what the ABC appears to be desperate to suggest. Not overtly. But they just like to keep the element of doubt there as a little sop of their own to our barmy birther brigade.

The former PM — along with that other recent British-born occupant of the top job, Julia Gillard — was the original target of the bothersome barrister behind the whole dual citizenship palaver, Perth resident John Cameron.

Months ago, Abbott produced the proof his loyalties lay with Oz:

Yet the ABC has been running a graphic with its citizenship stories that creates the immediate perception there might still be a question mark over Abbott:

It certainly doesn’t indicate he’s been cleared, even though you’d probably have to pull out a Ouija board and summon the shade of Bob Ellis before you’d find anyone prepared to suggest Tones is anything other than 100 per cent dinky-di.

It’s a wonderful example of subliminal suggestion at play — and of how the supposedly national broadcaster we fund from our pockets to the tune of a billion dollars a year is entirely out of control, entirely unrepresentative and entirely a law untoward itself.

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