Excerpt:
ASIO chief Duncan Lewis telephoned just two MPs about the tenor of the political debate around Islam, and neither of those has complained about being pressured to conform, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has said.
The revelation, which is corroborated by Fairfax Media's own investigations, flatley contradicts media reports that Mr Lewis had rung around conservative MPs in order to whip them into line with Mr Turnbull's position.
It also suggests that those forces opposed to Mr Turnbull's leadership have been prepared to put at risk not just the independence of the nation's top intelligence bureaucrat, but the very consensus on which Australia's national security relies, in the quest to damage the Prime Minister's standing.