“Abbot Point adds nothing to Australia’s carbon dioxide emissions. To state the bleeding obvious the coal is being exported out of Abbott point coal terminal it’s not being burnt at Abbott point, it’s being burnt by another country – India. We’re not responsible for Australian goods that are exported overseas and that are then used to produce carbon dioxide emissions.”
After reading the above quote from George Christensen I decided to pop over to his Facebook page to see what he was actually telling his constituents. It proved revealing, and disturbing.
When I asked if he had been misquoted, he replied
“Well, apart from being factual, what they left out of my statement was that the coal was needed in Indian (sic) and would come from somewhere so ultimately sending it from Australia doesn’t add to emissions.”
An interesting view.
When I pointed out that the government report on the Abbott Point expansion showed that it would only create “between 82 and 164 FTE positions, comprising 39 to 78 direct FTEs and 43 to 86 indirect FTEs, during the less than one year construction phase” (mainly going to construction workers who were already employed and finishing current projects) and that “After the construction phase, operational employment benefits would manifest for approximately five years in the order of one FTE,” and asked why we would put at risk the tourism revenue and jobs created by the Reef, George called me a liar.
“George Christensen: I think Dave Westman has proven you a liar or uninformed. Take your pick.”
I was rather taken aback by this aggressive response to what I considered a reasonable question but I quickly found out this is George’s approach.
When asked about 457 visa workers being brought in George said
“George Christensen: More green lies. No 457 will be allowed to work on the project unless an Australian can’t do the job and, let me tell you, we have plenty of Aussies in places like Mackay, the Whitsundays, Bowen, the Burdekin and Townsville ready to do the job.”
I wonder then about Gina Rinehart bringing in 1700 457 visa workers to work on her Roy Hill mine. Are there no Australians who were willing to work on that job or did they just want a compliant workforce who could be forced to work long hours for less than the minimum wage?
When someone suggested that George should stop blaming the Greens for bringing court actions due to the Minister’s stuff up, he replied
“George Christensen: Good on ya, Ron. The greens are the ones who take job-creating project after job-creating project to court to needlessly hold it up and they aren’t to blame? With that logic, the drunk driver isn’t to blame for his crash but the bar man who served him and the car manufacturer are! That, I have to say, makes you look really stupid.”
Another person suggested “Perhaps it’s time for the State/Fed Govts to implement renewables technology and take responsibility for those affected and retrain these people, and give them a future.”
George’s response: “Yeah. We can take all those jobs on wind farms and solar farms. Wait … There aren’t any!”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the poster replied “Well if we had forward thinking elected reps in govt with something called a brain … Wait … That’s right there ain’t any.”
George has decided to oppose cuts to penalty rates. When asked “What do you think”, one poster replied “My view is why does this government seem to have it in for the poor? Every tax change they want to do always seems to target those that can least afford it. With direct regard to penalty rates most people do the overtime because there struggling to make ends meet Not because they want too.”
George’s response: “You’re wrong, Trevor. This government has no plans or policy to change penalty rates as I said. It doesn’t have it in for the poor.”
Yeah … right.
When asked about the 12,000 Syrian refugees, Christensen said “As many people on my facebook page would know, I have been quite critical of the intake of 12,000 refugees and have actively dissauded the government from having any resettled in the Dawson electorate.”
Way to help out there George.
He then went on to suggest that environmentalists against the mines in the Galilee Basin were motivated by racism.
“I knew you extreme greens were inspired by racism when it comes to Adani.”
He linked to an article he had written.
“EXTREME green groups are guilty of veiled racism in their relentless and targeted campaign against Indian company Adani and its “brown-skinned executives”.
They want to hark back to issues in other jurisdictions, but I’m wondering why they haven’t come out with stories of breaches by Australian, American or British-owned mining companies?
There are a plethora of these white-faced mining companies who have blotted their copy book in terms of environmental management of mines in other countries.
Why is it that the extreme green groups have only gone after a company that is headed by people with brown faces?
Why is it that these extreme green groups have only attacked a mining executive who has a brown face?
The extreme green racism needs to stop!”
But George’s bigotry towards Muslims is no problem apparently.
After trying to inject some truth in reporting on George’s page I was bombarded with abuse from his loyal followers which went along the lines of the following:
Bob McDowell: If you are a real person as YOU say, Kaye Lee, you probably need ongoing help with your substance abuse. There are some really good government schemes now which you would qualify for as you obviously don’t work or pay taxes. Good luck.
For someone like George Christensen to be employed outside the family business is in itself surprising. To think that he influences opinion and actually helps make decisions about our lives is truly frightening.
