Day to Day Politics: The Hanson Factor . . . Please explain!
Tuesday July 5 2016
When in an inspired act of stupidity the Liberals and Nick Xenophon decided that the Senate rules needed to be changed under the pretext that the existing, hard to get on with, cross-bench Senators needed to be gotten rid of, little did they know that they were creating a disaster.
Of course what they were really trying to do was to create a position of self-advantage. The result is that they have created a monster. One in which any government would find it almost impossible to have legislation passed. If the Coalition wins it will need 10 of the cross benches to pass bills and Labor would need 2 to block bills.
However, the focus for me in this piece is the resurgence of Australia’s best known female racist. At noon yesterday I tuned into a press conference at which she was spruiking the same old Hanson hate-stuff that she has been peddling since the Liberals parted company with her.
18c of the Racial Discrimination Act had to go and we needed to have an enquiry into global warming. It seems her running mate and likely Senator, Malcolm Roberts, is the only person in the world who is knowledgeable on the subject.
In 2013, talking about Malcolm Roberts, Ben Cubby, the environment editor at the Sydney Morning Herald, said he had an unusual problem – “how does one critically analyse a pile of horse shit?”
An observation
“An enlightened society is one in which the suggestion that we need to legislate ones right to hate another person is considered intellectually barren”.
The thing that registered most whilst listening to her answers was her complete ignorance of the facts. I say “ignorance” because her answers come from a preconceived attitude that has never sought enlightenment.
One who is enlightened is one who has tested one’s beliefs against the facts of opposing opinion. It is obvious Hanson has never sought to do so instead, I think, relying on inherited concepts or fact-deprived evidence. Her black and white answers to complex questions showed a reluctance or inability to take many factors into account.
I was reminded of her maiden speech in Parliament in which one journalist said that she was as a “point in fact” wrong on 25 points of her speech.
An observation
“Personally, I find the most objectionable feature of conservative attitude is its propensity to reject well-substantiated new knowledge, science in other words, because it dislikes some of the consequences which follow from it“.
I went to my box of newspaper clippings that I have kept over the years and there it was. An aged clip from the Herald Sun. It doesn’t have a date but the headline reads “Facts lacking in Hanson’s claims”. The sub-heading reads “Pauline Hanson has become the most talked about politician in Australia, but are her claims based on fact?” It written by Michelle Coffey who lists 11 claims by Hanson and refutes them all simply by stating the facts.
As I have been saying in my recent writing, people want to be heard. They want a voice. They don’t care who spruiks for them so long as they have a voice. It is systematic of a sick democracy that needs to re-examine its democratic institutions and values.
It is the interested young who are beginning to see the world in a different way. It is a world that has no place for the likes of Hanson. It well may be that the only legacy Malcolm Turnbull leaves will be that he opened the door for the re-emergence of Australia’s best known racist. Please explain.
My thought for the day
“Politicians who change their minds aren’t necessarily seeing the light. They might just be feeling the heat”.
27 comments
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Adrianne Haddow -
Gordon Parsons -
corvus boreus -
The Faceless Man -
Möbius Ecko -
Freethinker -
Athena -
corvus boreus -
paul walter -
corvus boreus -
The Faceless Man -
Osiris -
wam -
FERGOLO11 (@FERGOLO11) -
townsvilleblog -
Rezblah -
Graeme -
leonetwo -
jantonius -
John Lord -
jantonius -
Athena -
Keitha Granville -
Athena -
win jeavons -
@RosemaryJ36 -
Kyran
Return to home pageA Royal commission into whether Islam is a religion or a political ideology, really.
I’m sure any ‘findings’ on that score will convince the millions of Muslims around the world that they are wrong and Pauline’s bigots are correct.
And she wants the right to tell even bigger lies with the repeal of the 18C section of the Racial Discrimination Act.
I’d like a royal commission into how someone who served a prison sentence for defrauding the electorate can re-enter Parliament as a senator.
That conviction was overturned and thrown out by the Supreme Court, it was just another attempt to shut her up.
My fellow Australians, in their collective wisdom, have chosen to elevate this extremist bigot into the house of review, based upon her platform of staging witch-hunts against scientists and holding an inquisition into Islam.
Sigh.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhnN54tHjkI
Whilst I think her islamaphobic attitude (she must not mind Asians anymore) is toxic and knowing she wouldn’t see me as an Australian because of the certain pigment mutations that make my skin ‘coloured’ never mind I was born here to a white mother, I can’t help but agree with her when it comes to the Halal inquiry.
Is it me or does the perpetual denial of global warming tend to come from the older generation?
“(she must not mind Asians anymore)”
Well actually she does. The point was raised with her in an interview yesterday and she responded by saying she has been proven right about Asians as the streets are full of them.
“It is not the fault of the pig, it is of those that scratch it back”
In another words, Pauline Hanson will be irrelevant if there will be no people that agree with her ideas.
It is sad but a reality that have to be accepted.
There thousands of bigot racists people in our society, some more “educated” than others, some that think that Pauline have not much in her head but are quite happy to support Dutton, Brandis and other “intelligent” politicians who are as bad or worse than Pauline but have the ability in how to “show their cards”
We can vote out Pauline in the next election but if the present government dominated by the extreme in the future have control of both houses we will have the same outcome but more refined.
Fellow bloggers just have to read the excellent series of articles “The facets of Australian fascism: the Abbott Government experiment” in this site to have an idea what I am trying to say.
Correction – Pauline Hanson is Australia’s best known female misogynist and racist.
Faceless Man – The denial of global warming comes from the far right. We already had an inquiry into halal. It revealed that Bernardi, Christensen and Hanson were talking nonsense. We could have a dozen Royal Commissions. If they don’t tell Pauline what she wants to hear, she won’t believe any of them.
My fellow strayans, in their infinite wisdom, have elected to elevate that bigoted ignoramus into the upper house of governmental review, based on her policy platform of staging witch-hunts against scientists and conducting an inquisition into Islam.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhnN54tHjkI
Please explain?
Disbelief in the rafts of peer-reviewed science concerning anthropogenically induced climate destabilization is strongest amongst those who choose to get their ‘news’ through the ‘opinions’ brayed in the Murdoch tabloids (ie the willfully misinformed).
http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-14/fact-check-does-halal-certification-fund-terrorism/6383238
Let it be said that the Faceless Man doesn’t shy away from a learning experience.
Pauline Hanson is only the spokesperson for a section of our society where racialism is the common denominator. Unfortunately, we will have to deal with her until the ignorance and intolerance that spawned her is eradicated.
good finish lord but “When in an inspired act of stupidity the Liberals and Nick Xenophon decided that the Senate rules needed to be changed” is the sort of thing that the msm may do. Two points:
the results show slimy X first lawyer is far from stupid.
the role the diludbran loonies played in the DD by their ‘inspired act of stupidity’ was certainly far less successful than the X, two HHs and the L.
loved the kitchen theme the heat will be on for pollies to get out and in????
her proposal of first and second tier citizenship has obvious merit – whites built orstralia, these non-whites now flooding in are here for the spoils that they havent earned lol
I understand that her opinion runs contrary to our views, but I have overheard many conversations about the opposition to Islamic Immigration, right or wrong over 300,000 voted for her, so there must be a quite large concern among the Australian people. I’m not sure how to go about convincing those people that their fears are groundless.
If trump gets in surely we can buy some wall from him to fence off her electorate and force them to secede from the union? It can be built with 457 visa workers and they can live in their own special utopia. It would be a win win win
By whatever crazy circumstance enough Qld voters have backed Hanson to get her elected. She now represents them in the Senate. The best way for other Senators to respond to her ideas is to get her to propose legislation then, after vigorous debate, vote it down. … A bit of valuable time wasted but democracy in action.
Do we have to keep talking about this appalling person? The Guardian this morning has THREE articles about Hanson, nothing about any other newly elected senators.
She’s not worth the attention. She is just a back-bencher, one with a highly inflated opinion of her own importance. Her shrieking about all the things she is going to do now she is a senator is just rubbish. She won’t achieve any of it. She might, by some miracle, manage to get a few committees going, but that’s it. Their findings will not be what she wants.
There will be no RC into Islam, or any of the other investigations this airheaded bigot is demanding. She can demand all she likes, none of it is ever going to happen.
Let’s talk about something else.
Hanson’s electorate is the State of Queensland. Harder to fence than Mexico.
John Lord seems to think it better that voters elect in the Senate people they have never heard of, and may be opposed to if they knew anything about them. He seems to prefer backroom deals where candidates could buy a place in a secret ALLIANCE and on a miniscule vote leapfrog into the Senate.
The voter might be a mug, but entrenching that as a principle of vote-gouging seems even more regressive than the Hansonite voter – because deliberate, systemic cheating. Hanson is a dangerous idiot – but the secret ALLIANCE of paid-up candidates was gangsterism.
I’m with George Wright, National Sec of Labor. That’s the George Wright who wanted to get rid of that scam – before he was censored by the beloved Party.
The results in the Senate are most directly the consequence of a DD election with a halved quota. That shows Turnbull’s judgement to be as good as it ever was.
If you recall the stated purpose was to mount an anti-Union campaign. The bland way Turnbull proceeded through the election suggested he meant to undermine that very singular purpose.
I am grateful for that little mercy. As a strong Union supporter. A strong supporter of hardworking law-abiding Union staff. Not crooks and standover merchants. They are a deadly enemy of Unions – on present counting, worse than Turnbull has turned out to be.
jantonius. And the evidence for what you say is?
Are you kidding me?
The evidence is what happened.
Read George Wright’s submission to the JSCEM on 24/4/14.
“When in an inspired act of stupidity the Liberals and Nick Xenophon decided that the Senate rules needed to be changed under the pretext that the existing, hard to get on with, cross-bench Senators needed to be gotten rid of, little did they know that they were creating a disaster.”
The DD made it easier for senators to be elected, but that is not a regular event. Pauline Hanson would have been elected anyway without a DD, considering the primary votes she obtained. Senate voting reform kept Bob Day out. That’s worth celebrating.
Oh seriously, ffs, Halal certification is about the same as the heart foundation tick, it doesn’t affect us at all. Shall we stop telling people what’s contained in food so that those with allergies or coeliac disease can avoid things that make them ill ?? It is simply a way of telling people of a particular faith that the food is accepted by that faith. Are we now going to proscribe one religion ? We are supposed to be a free, fair, democratic country. It’s why people want to live here because they KNOW that about us, and because they know they will live in safety.
That may be in danger with likes of Ms Hanson screaming her vitriol and prejudice. She and George Brandis would make a good team, perhaps he should think about jumping ship.
It amuses me that so many of the people who protest against Halal certification due to the non-existent price increase don’t seem to mind the GST increasing to 15%. It’s not difficult to avoid products that are Halal certified either if one feels so inclined. Some people are just intent upon marginalising others. There’s no fuss about foods that are suitable for Jews, or celiacs, vegans or anyone else who chooses some form of restricted diet. In fact, there’s been a huge increase in organic and gluten free foods because it is trendy to eat them. Many of the people who buy them are not gluten intolerant. These foods are significantly more expensive than their regular counterparts but no one is complaining about the cost.
Faceless man ; Is over 80 old or young? I have been studying and teaching climate change for over 30 years, and the more I learn the more concerned I am. Ignorance and closed minds are the problem, NOT simply years on earth.
The Faceless Man: I am 80 and no one could possibly accuse me of denying climate change – I am already enjoying my own solar generated electricity!
“One who is enlightened is one who has tested one’s beliefs against the facts of opposing opinion.”
A community becomes enlightened when the ‘media’ do their job, not merely report the opinion of a fool as if it were news, or newsworthy. How many times in this campaign have the opinions of insignificant fools been trotted out as either noteworthy or newsworthy?
It seems Ms Hanson, who was dispensed with by the Libs (whilst remaining on their HTV card) in 1996, has evolved. Her evolution appears to be ‘one step forward, two steps back’. She appears to have forgotten that little johnnie took her policies, whilst tiny established a slush fund to finance any claims that could be made against her. She even got a pilot, Ashby, to fly her around to reclaim rallies. Rallies to which our First People were neither invited, or welcomed. They weren’t even acknowledged. What were they reclaiming?
Here’s the thing. This git now has a seat in the senate, complete with salary and expenses. To add insult to injury, or salt to a wound, she is undeniably the most successful senator elect we have ever had.
There is no prospect of Sharia law ever being introduced in Australia. Mission accomplished.
There is no prospect of ‘Islam’ being taught in our schools. Mission accomplished.
I honestly tried reading the aims of their policies the whole way through, but there is only so much you can take. Feel free to have a go;
http://www.onenation.com.au/aims
It is, in my reckoning, some of the most nonsensical nonsense since Alice in Wonderland.
The party clearly does not like science, rationale or fact. Literacy, punctuation, expression and lucidity also appears to be a difficulty for them.
It seems truly appropriate that ABC Fact Check no longer exists. Their epitaph was posted on Friday, 1st July.
“ABC Fact Check has been checking claims made by politicians and public figures since the lead-up to the last election, seeking to inform the national debate, and the choices of those voters when they head to the ballot box.
Fact Check has tested hundreds of claims during its tenure, including claims made during this election campaign.
This election week will be the Fact Check Unit’s last due to funding cuts to the ABC’s triennial enhanced newsgathering budget.”
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-06-30/fact-checking-the-election-2016/7536484
Having said that, I don’t see her, or her party, as the disease. Merely a symptom.
Take ‘Halal certification’. It is the only internationally recognised food processing certification. Governments couldn’t agree on terms of trade, with army’s of lawyers. The irony is that ‘private enterprise’ required certainty of trade and adopted ‘Halal’ as a basic certification.
I am hopeful that she, the ‘talking headline’, corgi and all the other nuph-nuph’s in the senate do the right thing. Use their expenses to buy some crayons and some butchers paper. And go play quietly in the background. And let the adult’s be in charge.
It seems odd that I have a sudden need to read a book from 1865 to see the future.
Treat the disease, not the symptom. Thank you Mr Lord, and AIMN. At least there is some media doing its job. Take care