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Pauline Hanson and friends

I’ve never paid any attention to anything Pauline Hanson says, but I’m starting to pay some attention to what people say about her. It was the article on news.com today titled “Please explain Julia Gillard” by Tory Maguire that directed me on this new ‘thought trail’. The article is reproduced in full below, to save the more intelligent among us from having to click on a link that leads to news.com:

See what happens when you drop your politics to the lowest common denominator.

Julia Gillard’s botched attempt at populism this week with her jobs-for-Aussies-first pledge brought Pauline Hanson back out of the woodwork, firstly to claim vindication, and now to muse on a return to politics.

When Hanson muses on something, such as fleeing Australia for ever to live in the UK, it doesn’t always pan out, so her promise (threat) to return to public life should be taken with a grain of salt.

But such is her political logic, this week Hanson has both praised Gillard for finally seeing the light on foreign workers, and now insisted she will run again because of the lack of “representation” of Australians in public life.

Gillard is fighting fires on every conceivable front. Her 457 visa pronouncements this week were a blatant attempt to appeal to the cliched idea of “the western Sydney voter”.

It’s unlikely to have much political upside, but the downside for Gillard is with Hanson on her side she loses ground in all directions.

What an apt Christian name: Tory. It clearly doubles as a political expression. Pauline Hanson unofficially endorses a Labor policy therefore Julia Gillard is guilty of dropping politics to the lowest common denominator. Hanson is ugly therefore Gillard is ugly.

Shortly before Hanson announced her unofficial support for the Prime Minister, the 457 visa issue was put fairly and squarely under the media spotlight. The article “Coalition takes aim at Gillard staffer on 457 visa is an example”. It is not a news.com site, so feel free to visit it. Talk on 457 visas was the new ‘national debate’ and of course, the Prime Minister was being slammed. Then yesterday, this:

Julia Gillard received support today on one of her other policies, the 457 visas.

One Nation founder Pauline Hanson is backing the Prime Minister’s push to fill jobs vacancies with Australians before turning to foreign workers.

I believe this was staged.

The LNP might be pleased that Immigration Minister Brendan O’Connor has had to spend the last 24 hours distancing the ALP from Hanson while the Murdoch media attempt to portray them as buddies.

Mr O’Connor said he found most of Ms Hanson’s views reprehensible.

“She’s irrelevant to the public debate,” he told Sky News on Wednesday.

“She, of course, only came into the public spotlight because she was a Liberal candidate.”

I smell a rat. A rat called Tony Abbott. Consider this:

Pauline Hanson is backing Tony Abbott, the man who helped kill off her political career, over Australia’s first female Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

Ms Hanson, the other famous female redhead of Australian politics, said she’d put her grudges to the side and support the Opposition leader’s tilt for the top job.

“I won’t be voting for Julia Gillard PM.

“Australian people are sick and tired of the illegals coming here and being looked after when we can’t look after our own.”

Ms Hanson said she supported Mr Abbott for prime minister despite their history as foes.

Ms Hanson said she was not Mr Abbott’s best friend but he was a better alternative prime minister.

“Tony Abbott came after me, he was responsible for the slush fund against me,” Ms Hanson said.

“But you know what, I’ll back Tony Abbott and the Liberal Party.

“I’m the type of person who will not hold a grudge for the sake of holding a grudge.

Does anybody else small the same rat?

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29 comments

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  1. Joy Cooper

    Via Google News, which seems to mostly consist of News Ltd tripe, I did see that appalling piece of alleged journalism. Fortunately for me, the Tory Maguire (loved the name analogy) piece seemed to end mid-sentence almost, certainly mid-paragraph.

    News Ltd will stoop to the lowest of the low in their bid to topple the Gillard government. These dayts their attempts appear to be getting more * more shrill & ludicrous.

    You are right to smell a rat, Miglo, as the ranks of the LNP are full of them. Many thanks for your courage in alerting us to the nauseous machinations of the LNP as led by its current leader.

  2. Joy Cooper

    Damned keyboard. Its days & there is a & between the more & more. Grr

  3. labor supporter

    I read the article and wouldn’t be surprised at what Abbott will do to try to bring down the government, but unfortunately there’s an error in your assumptions on this one, the woman in the vid is Jane Prentice LP MP Ryan in Brisbane, not Hanson.

  4. Signe

    Pauline must re running low on dosh…. she makes a bloody fortune out of running a federal campaign even knowing she hasn’t a prayer. ((Sniff sniff I smell a cash cow))

  5. Signe

    correction: my prayer is she doesn’t have a hope in hell….

  6. Tom R

    I smell more than a rat. I smell news-libited in action.

    There were no cries of ‘populism’ when the initial crack down was announced, only in light of when Gillard spoke, and she used the same terminology in her speech as was used in the announcement. It is simply posturing from a media intent on putting down and twisting every thing Gillard says or does.

    The facts are simple, for all the improvements Labor have made to the 457 visas, they still need more work.

    Despite the importance of the changes, it appears – two years on – that many sponsors are not recognising or meeting the new sponsorship obligations. Nor are they aware of the legal penalties and reputational ramifications that can flow from a breach.

    http://www.mackeylawyers.com.au/Portals/117177/docs/public%20accountants%20457%20visa%20compliance.pdf

  7. Iain Hall

    Michael
    the woman you are seeing in the vid looks nothing like Hanson, for a start the hair and skin colours are both wrong as is the shape of her face.

    Talk about LONG bows you must have had major orthopaedic surgery to draw that one!

  8. uknowispeaksense

    If that’s Pauline Hanson behind him then I’m the Queen of England. Education time. When Hanson first went solo and after her maiden speech, her popularity went through the roof. Abbott sent David Oldfield one if his former staffers in to white ant the support movement. It really struck me as odd that Pauline and the other David both were wrongly convicted and sent to jail but Oldfield, who did most of the work setting up the party slipped out scott free. The really ridiculous thing about it now is while everyone accuses Hanson of being some sort of right wing nutcase, she’s nowehere near as far right as Abbott or his immigration spokesman seem to be. For the record, I am apolitical, but if the Australian Independant Media Network is going to call for honesty in reporting, it should probably engage in a bit of that themselves. That is not Pauline Hanson in the background and you do yourself a disservice by trying to stitch up a story that has no basis in truth.

  9. Miglo

    See above comment.

  10. uknowispeaksense

    Are you aware that when she went to jail, she was forced to pay back $500000 in electoral funding that her party was legally entitled to after the Queensland State Election. She had already distributed all of that money to her candidates basedon the voting percentages they received. She paid that money back to the QEC out of her own funds, went to jail, was exxonerated but that money she paid back was never returned to her and it was a legal entitlement. Now, quite frankly I hope she doesn’t get elected but some of you people need to do a bit of research so that you can make informed comments. I’m pretty sure if someone took half a million dollars of your own money and didn’t pay you back you’d be feel pissed off and cheated. Don’t pretend you wouldn’t be. I’d be keen to know though, this “bloody fortune” she makes, how much is it? I know the answer because I’ve done the research. Do you?

  11. uknowispeaksense

    It’s Jane Prentice buddy. Do your research.

  12. Miglo

    The post has been updated after linking Abbott to Hanson.

  13. Joy Cooper

    Like the edit Miglo. 🙂 It puts the rest of the story into perspective & proves Pauline is Tony’s fan even after all he did to her. Is she right in the head?

  14. Miglo

    The video has been removed. My bad.

  15. Miglo

    The error was admitted. No need to provide any further proof.

  16. Alison White

    I agree Iain – that doesn’t look like Ms Hanson of the “please explain” variety.

    However, I think its also erroneous of the Murdoch media to paint the picture that the ALP and Hanson’s rabid xenophobia are in any way linked. The LNP are much closer in tone and spirit.

  17. Miglo

    The video has been removed.

  18. Iain Hall

    Michael
    the new way you are doing the Comments here stuffs up the thread continuity please consider reverting to the other option of having all comments in the order with which they have been posted.

  19. Alison White

    Seriously??? I’m a go-googling

  20. Ricky (Tory Torcher)

    Here is a “Red” that does not get better with age. Don’t we have enough dickheads and trivial distractions in Australian political discourse without he singular quest for a cushy job and a pension.

  21. Cool Pete

    What sort of a joke is Pauline Hanson? She attempted to demand a recount of Legislative Council votes on the basis of a fake email, she has had more unsuccessful attempts at being elected than she has successful, and now she’s decided to back the person who helped put her in prison. The latter is hardly surprising as the Shadow excuse for an Immigration Minister belongs in the Nazi Party and Hanson has engaged in dog-whistling over Muslims. She has not decided to back Julia Gillard, as the Limited News (pun intended) toilet rolls allege, only agree with her stance on one issue. And let’s not forget that Pauline Hanson’s dog-whistling xenophobia was also displayed last year on that wonderfully credible news source, A Current Affair, calling out to Wake Up Australia about a story of lies and half-truths regarding a shopping mall. I guess her best song should be “Wake Up Folks, She’s got the racist disease, Not 60, Xenophobes to appease, She’s Bott’s, Give it to her now.” (New Radicals, 1998, You Get What You Give, paraphrased).

  22. Peter

    BARLOW: But both Australia’s Prime Minister and Opposition Leader are being accused of whipping up community fear over foreign workers and asylum seekers. The Federal Independent MP Rob Oakeshott has had enough.

    OAKESHOTT: These are sad days when it comes to both major political parties picking at the scabs of our race history in this country and playing the xenophobic card and I hope we can get through it.

  23. Peter

    Bernard Keane from crikey:
    Our sordid triangle of xenophobia over 457 visas

    Our sordid triangle of xenophobia over 457 visas

    “All policy coherence has been chucked aside in favour of election strategies.

    If anything, (the 457 issue) merely further embeds xenophobia in the political agenda, an issue that the Coalition will always more successfully exploit than Labor.

    Labor’s pitch is simple: even if you think we’re softer on asylum seekers than the Coalition, at least we’ll make sure a foreigner won’t take your job.

    Thus we have a sordid triangle in which each party accuses the other of being soft on some particular brand of foreigner.”

  24. Tom R

    Bernard Keane from crikey:

    All policy coherence has been chucked aside in favour of election strategies.

    but then he says

    The 457 visa category is indeed rorted — all categories are misused.

    So, what is it. I’ve got an idea, why don’t we hear the PM, instead of opinionators feeding of xenophobic angles pushed by news-libited

    JOURNALIST: On foreign workers, Labor has been in power for six years but six months before the election you have discovered you have an issue with 457s, what do you say that you’re just playing to peoples’ prejudice and xenophobia?

    PM: We inherited from the former Government a 457 temporary foreign worker visa program that was out of control. And every step of the way we have been putting in place new conditions to crackdown on the rorts.

    We have done that in the past and we will continue to crackdown as necessary.

    I understand that there can be legitimate skills shortages where businesses need to source labour from overseas.

    But I also understand there are too many times when people have got the skills to get the job and they don’t get the job. And in those circumstances I want to make sure that Australian workers are coming first.

    That’s what Minister O’Connor has been talking about as Minister for Immigration.

    Labor is doing what Labor has always done, putting Australian jobs first. To class this as xenophobic is ludicrous, or simply pushing the oppositions line.

  25. Buff McMenis

    Well, at last! Someone gets it right! 457’s are TEMPORARY Visas .. nothing to do with migration or asylum seekers!!! They were brought in to allow companies who couldn’t find SKILLED workers in Oz to fill positions. Now 457’s seem to be for back-packers picking fruit, cane-cutters, truck-drivers, repetitive machinery workers and all paid lower than normal wages. Not migrants, not asylum seekers whether boat people or not.

  26. Buff McMenis

    And the only rat I can see which has caught your nostrils, Miglo, is the one pictured above! He’s always reminded me of Rattus Rattus and I have no reason to change my mind now.

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