Is it any wonder Hanson could be elected?
Cartoon: by Zeg.
There is a bit of shock and awe in the Australian political camp today with news that the ever controversial Pauline Hanson, after jumping in late, stands a good chance of being elected to the NSW upper house. Recriminations have already started.
For overseas readers, Hanson has had a chequered career here, starting as a disendorsed Liberal candidate who won a safe Labor seat in the 1996 federal election. She went on to found One Nation, which won 11 seats in the 1998 Queensland election before imploding. She has been accused of racism and a number of other things although most are based on political correctness rather than reality.
She was jailed for fraud over electoral funding but was exonerated on appeal. The appeal court was scathing over the conviction, as well as a number of politicians including Howard.
So why did she get to the brink of being elected?
A couple of posts ago I mentioned that the first of many anti carbon tax rallies was held in Canberra and a number of other cities.
The leader of the opposition Tony Abbott addressed them, which sent the Gillard government into conniptions. It is of course to Labor, not about the deceitful manner in which Gillard promised prior to the election, that there would not be a carbon tax, the lie that carried her across the line. No, it has to be that they are dangerous, extreme, racist,tea baggersright wing nut jobs, and climate deniers.
That was just the politicians, their left wing creatures of the state that support them were less articulate. Generally the left has made numerous attempts to vilify average decent Australians for daring to disagree with Gillard and her Green masters.
Since this GetUp, the bastard son of US based MoveOn has at the behest of Media Watch has launched proceedings with the government regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority, to take action against broadcaster Allan Jones and others for favoring the skeptic side of the climate debate.
Today there is a report on respected columnist, Andrew Bolt being charged with racial vilification over an article he wrote which questioned the motives of light or white-skinned people who identified themselves as Aboriginal, implying they did so for personal gain. Several years ago a prominent Aboriginal activist raised some hackles when he referred to blond haired blue-eyed ‘Aboriginals.’
Hanson is among other things the absolute antithesis to political correctness and the heroine of many who see her as, “one of us.” Given the politically correct nonsense above it is little wonder she was able to grab a solid vote.
I was amazed when I read about Andrew Bolt. He is actually facing criminal prosecution for a blog post?!
ReplyDeleteDisgraceful. We need a bill of rights that guarantees freedom of speech (amongst other things).
Unfortunately its true. Expect things to get worse.
ReplyDeleteThe zealots who set up the circumstances under which this occurred are always on the advance and they probably have wet dreams about Canada where the Human Rights Commission operates as a star chamber denying any rights to anyone unlucky enough to incur their wrath.
In my local area a couple of years back a guy was successfully sued for displaying homophobic bumper stickers on his car. Doing so was stupid and puerile, but hardly the sort of thing he should have to compensate people for.
Probably one of the most idiotic things about it was that one of the plaintiffs admitted to not actually seeing it, but "was offended when told about it."