In his desperation to attack the Safe Schools Coalition Program, George Christensen has plumbed new depths.
La Trobe University is a partner of the program. George has been given a dirt file (lessons from Senator James McGrath perhaps?) on one of the Professors there and has quoted, out of context, a paragraph he supposedly wrote in . . . wait for it . . . 1982.
That’s a dangerous game to play George.
Far more recently than that, in 1998, George Christensen, as editor of the ‘Student Advocate’, expressed concern that new versions of the Bible were “removing accusations that the Jews killed Christ.”
On another page, he tells jokes about AIDS:
“A homosexual walks into the Doctor’s office, sobbing. ‘Doctor, Doctor’, he says ‘ think I’ve got AIDS. ‘Well,’ replied the Doctor, shocked ‘Who gave it to you?’
‘I dunno, says the homosexual. ‘I haven’t got eyes in the back of my head.’
He doesn’t restrict his venom there either. In an article about the Hollywood actor Will Smith, whom the currently unmarried Christensen felt was over-rated by the ladies, he expressed his thoughts on women:
“Most Aussie men often try to crack onto good-looking women and neglect the not-so-good looking (read fat) ones
Perhaps it’s the intelligence of women or, rather, the lack of it?
My thoughts: the truth is women are stupid and that’s that. So on behalf of you, me and the guy that’s shrugging his shoulders in bewilderment after reading his sister’s copy of Dolly, let me just say: Will Smith, you’re lucky God gave women no bloody brains.”
Other contributions express concern about the special privileges being bestowed on Aborigines, the transgendered, republicans and so on. He is even critical of former Prime Minister John Howard for being a sell-out to aboriginal interests. He argues that there is an Australian system of “apartheid” which benefits Aborigines through land rights, Abstudy and so on.
When the story broke before the 2010 election, Christensen apologised for his views and according to Liberal CHQ sources is very lucky that the offensive document was found after preselection.
“If we’d known about this before the close of nominations, he would have been punted, no doubt about it but it’s all a bit late now. He’s disavowed those views now, has grown up a lot since University and will be a really solid regional MP if he gets up. I can assure you that you won’t be seeing these views repeated in his MP’s newsletters or anything like that” one Liberal campaign strategist said.
Kerry O’Brien asked Tony Abbott about it on the 7:30 report.
KERRY O’BRIEN: OK. You’ve had to defend your Coalition candidate George Christensen in the North Queensland seat of Dawson today over some stridently anti-Semitic, anti-gay and anti-female comments he either wrote or edited in a university magazine 12 years ago describing women as bloody stupid. There was a joke about a gay man dying of AIDS. How can you defend those sort of sentiments, even if they were a decade ago?
TONY ABBOTT: Well, I don’t defend them. It was – they’re not defensible sentiments. But, Kerry, many of us are guilty of adolescent silliness. Certainly, my uni days involved some statements that I wouldn’t make today. Julia Gillard’s uni days and her days at the Socialist Forum involved statements that she wouldn’t make today. We grow through these things.
KERRY O’BRIEN: Have you bothered to check with the candidate to absolutely assure yourself – have you bothered to absolutely assure yourself that none of those sentiments still exist in that man’s mind today?
TONY ABBOTT: I have got to know George quite well. He is a good candidate and I know he absolutely repudiates adolescent silliness.
Far from repudiating it, Christensen’s “adolescent silliness” has grown into quasi-adult vitriole. This most objectionable man has been given a public platform from which to spew his vile hatred.
His empowered vilification has expanded to include Muslims with a website where he intends “to expose radical Islamic practices, its adherents and appeasers within our midst”. His hatred of refugees borders on hysterical.
Climate scientists are also in his gunsight with George claiming that they deliberately change data to produce false results.
So much is George enjoying this new found attention, he is keen for his family to join in on the gravy train. He is urging everyone to vote for his father, Ian Christensen, in the upcoming Mackay council election.
George has experience with the council. After the 2010 election it was revealed that Christensen failed to resign from his position on the Mackay Regional Council before the election, putting himself at risk of high court action which would not allow him to take office as the member for Dawson. Unfortunately no-one challenged.
Christensen speaks often of wasteful spending by government but he is one of the worst, spending incredible amounts of public money on his own campaigns.
Despite the 2010 review of the entitlements system recommending banning the use of the printing and communications entitlement during the official campaign period, a recommendation governments of both persuasions have since ignored, George Christensen spent $130,188 on this entitlement during the six-month period that included the 2013 election and 81% – $105,639 – of it was spent in the six weeks of the campaign.
The central Queensland MP claimed some $529,599 in printing and communications costs between his election in 2010 and the end of 2014. We will no doubt be footing a heavy bill again this year, funding his job application.
When the country is saddled with the lack of leadership displayed by Malcolm Turnbull and Barnaby Joyce, it is up to the people to stand up to this most xenophobic, homophobic, misogynistic, racist, union-bashing, fundamentalist, climate change denying Luddite before he does any more harm.
For the sake of our country, this man should never again hold public office.
