The pompous triviality of George Christensen
Over my working lifetime I have seen enormous changes in requirements regarding behaviour, record-keeping, governance and oversight at every organisation with which I have been involved.
Times change. We learn from our mistakes and grow better as a society.
At least that’s how it is supposed to work.
We have seen unions under scrutiny, with miscreants exposed, expelled and a few even prosecuted.
New governance requirements have been legislated and another oversight body with extensive powers established.
Whilst the messaging has been politically designed to imply that unions are bad, hopefully this shake-up will restore confidence in this crucial sector who are the collective voice of those who are not heard.
Far beyond the betrayal of a few union bosses on the take has been the horrific revelations from the Royal Commission into child sex abuse.
The Catholic Church has admitted to a failure of leadership and governance with catastrophic results. Their sins have been exposed and action demanded.
Yet when we come to our politicians, lying is expected as is rorting of expenses. Jobs for the boys and girls are a given. Freedom of information is at their discretion. They make their own rules and having a majority makes them answerable to no-one. They are completely devoid of responsibility for their actions.
There are so many examples of their dereliction of duty, climate change being one, but the only way they are held accountable is by an election so that is the only thing they focus on.
It is all about the advertising, the presentation, the wrapping.
It doesn’t matter that when we unwrap the present after the election that we’ve been given a steaming pile of shit. It’s too late.
And the bullshit continues because it isn’t about the truth or finding solutions – it’s all about the votes.
Which brings me to George Christensen.
George has decided to flex his tattoo of Our Lady (which some would consider blasphemous) and go on a crusade against political correctness – because no doubt that is what the sugar farmers and unemployed youth and families in his electorate want him to concentrate on.
George is scared of One Nation so he wants to call back the people who want to be offensive with impunity.
I am just wondering what more it is that people want to say.
After all, George has been getting away with being offensive his whole adult life.
Pauline Hanson is a Senator and she has said the most outrageous things about pretty much everyone.
How much more offensive can you be than Larry Pickering?
Is stopping sexual harassment political correctness gone mad too, or do we just want the right to offend people because of their ethnicity?
Donald Trump’s wife does a naked photo shoot handcuffed to a briefcase on his plane. He passes off saying that he can molest women and they love it as locker room talk. And he still gets elected President of the United States – with George and Pauline’s fawning approval I might add.
These Neanderthals want to take us backwards. They want us to forget all the lessons we have learned about equality, respect, self-worth, inclusion, opportunity and cohesion, so they can have the right to be offensive.
Great job George, Pauline and the doo wop chorus from the IPA in identifying the big issues. You concentrate on that and protecting us from marriage equality while the big kids tackle things like health, education, unemployment, domestic violence, climate change, infrastructure, foreign policy – that everyday humdrum stuff that has nothing to do with your campaign to be offensive while you impose your idea of ‘normal’ on the world.
We have seen what a lack of leadership, regulation and oversight allowed in unions and the church.
George and Pauline let off the leash any further, and unconstrained by any sort of national leadership, might be more than the nation could endure.
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Kaye Lee -
Pilot -
Johno -
Kronomex -
Kaye Lee -
Gangey1959 -
Kronomex -
Matters Not -
Mercureaus -
Kaye Lee -
Rhonda -
Terri -
Kate Ahearne -
Matters Not -
Kaye Lee -
Matters Not -
Wsherlockscottholmes -
Trish Corry -
Kaye Lee -
trishcorry -
Kaye Lee -
Kaye Lee -
Kate Ahearne -
Roswell -
Matters Not -
Kaye Lee -
silkworm
Return to home pageMr Christensen made a pointed criticism of Treasurer Scott Morrison’s remarks this week that amending section 18C would “not create one job”, as well as Mr Joyce’s comments that people in north Queensland did not invite him into their sheds to talk about race laws.
“I have heard it stated that ‘this issue doesn’t create one job’. Neither does the Omnibus Savings and Child Care Reform Bill, but we’re still doing that,” Mr Christensen said in a statement on Thursday.
“I have also heard it said that it’s not the issue people are talking about in pubs or in farm sheds. They weren’t talking about the Australian Building and Construction Commission either, but we still brought it back.”
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/fundamental-breach-of-faith-george-christensen-berates-boss-barnaby-joyce-over-race-hate-laws-20170302-guovfg.html
Thanks George for pointing out that none of you actually give a shit about jobs.
Only one thing can be said about diddums George……. He has shit for brains……
Sam Dastyari summed it up nicely “In the same week where 700,000 people are potentially losing their penalty rates, the only thing the conservatives seem obsessed about is how they can be a bit more racist.”
This is absolutely disgusting behavior from Christensen, and the real issues facing humanity are denied or swept under the carpet.
The more print space the main slease media gives this pompous overbearing oaf the more he’ll puff up his already Stay Puft Marshallow Man sized body and self-importance and pass judgement on everything. Here’s hoping somebody crosses the streams and blows a hole in his arrogance and “superiority”. George is only scared of One Nation because they could potentially take his seat from him at the next election and he’d lose his snout rights. The Horror, the horror.
Unemployment in the Dawson region doubled between 2012-13 and December 2015, from 3.6 per cent to 8.4 per cent. ..take-up of the dole increased by 98.61 per cent in postcode 4740, in the heart of Mackay, in the three years to 2016, government data reveals.
Asked if the penalty rate issue could threaten Mr Turnbull’s leadership, Christensen said: “I don’t know about that. Leadership speculation is a matter for the Liberal Party and not the National Party, to be honest. I think we are going to have to make decisions which may be political, but the reality is it is in line with what people think.”
“The reality is that we are headed for the cliff because people like me have been calling out, ‘turn right, turn right, or turn left’ or whatever, and we haven’t. We just keep headed for the cliff,” he said yesterday after landing on home turf in Mackay from a big sitting week in Canberra. “I am not going to go over that cliff. I am going to do something else.”
Asked if this meant he would ditch his party for One Nation or stand in his own right, he said: “That could all be on the table. At the moment, I am trying to tell people, ‘turn’.”
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/sugar-hit-george-wont-go-over-cliff-for-pm/news-story/73b87dc9b66995a014e1864f593c3328
If someone stuck a pin in it, how many times would the christiminsane balloon fly around the chamber making farty sounds before it finally stopped and hit the floor? Or can we just have it taken out and set (Read in Rule 303) free? It is a waste of oxygen.
@ Pilot. No it hasn’t. Would you put it’s brains on your roses, because I wouldn’t. I like mine alive. You could sell them to bayer as the new kill-all though.
Gangey1959,
With the current crop of waste of space politicians if there is ever a zombie apocalypse head for parliament house in Canberra. You will be safe inside because even zombies know instinctively that there is no nutritional value (let alone any other value) in a political brain.
With Labor’s decision to always put the PHONy last, George is guaranteed re-election if he remains with the LNP. If he becomes a complete PHONy then the LNP will endorse someone else who will make George’s position much more uncertain.
He’d be nuts to out himself as a complete PHONy. Best he remain a LNP/PHONy hybrid. But then again …
Ironically Mackay is somewhat of a Labor stronghold. But much of the remaining electorate is what Marx would describe as – rural idiocy.
Thank you for your insightful article Kaye. While everything you say about GC is valid, I cannot take anyone who looks like he was spawned from some sort of cross breeding experiment between a cane toad with DNA from Russ Hinze seriously at all.
I just wish he would stop doing posed photo shoots. It’s disturbing.
Kaye Lee, you are so right on the mark, as usual! Giving a shit has gone to shit.
George has no idea what the people of his electorate think. He only knows what the syncophantic members of his fan club think of him & they suck up to him so much it’s sickening. At a guess, around 50% of those commenting on his Facebook page are not even from Dawson, many of them are from interstate. At the last election, only about 35% of the votes in this region went to him & that’s including preferences. The other 65% wanted anybody except him. Unfortunately, that 65% was spread out over too many candidates for any particular one to beat him. If he now jumps over to PHONy, that’s going to lose him as much as it gains, I think, if not more. Especially as many people are starting to wake up to the fact that Hansen is as much the enemy of the people as Turnbull, Joyce & co. Sooner or later, one or both of them is going to open their mouths & put their foot in it once too often & that will be the end of them. Karma works like that. I will sit back, wait patiently for the day & prepare to open a bottle of champagne to celebrate. Shouldn’t be too long now…
Thanks, Kaye. Yes. you’d think if you looked and sounded like he does, you wouldn’t want people to be able to exercise any more freedom of hate speech than they already have the right to. I’m writing up a little dictionary which I will be happy to unleash if/when the government says I can.
Terri, yes there was a swing against George at the last election that flowed (almost) directly to the ALP. But he still received 42.6% of the primary vote. After preferences he was elected with 53.3%. That’s still a reasonable margin even though it’s down from the 57.6% of 2013.
If he stays with the LNP, George will get Labor preferences (they promise to put PHONy last) and romp in.
People have control of their own preferences – a fact that is often overlooked.
But not by me. Sadly, the vast majority of people don’t understand that. That’s why preference ‘deals’ are vital and why so much effort is spent achieving same.
But if a swing is really, really on, then everything is up for grabs. Deal or no deal. Just ask Campbell Newman.
The real disappointment here is of course Malcolm Turnbull. I believe he treats women decently and is prepared to treat non Anglos well. So why doesn’t he repudiate this altogether? A half formed moron like Christensen can’t be expected to do anything but scam.
Malcolm. You’ve failed us on the nbn. You’ve failed us on penalty rates. And now you’ve failed us on decency.
“We have seen what a lack of leadership, regulation and oversight allowed in unions and the church.”
In 1891 some shearers wanted better pay and conditions. The bosses said no. The anger this incited in the bosses led to gunfire and death of the workers. The important part of this is that the conservative anti worker government said if we can’t stop you from striking we will make a law to jail you if you don’t get back to work. And they did. I have touched the walls where these workers were held and sat in the room where they were judged. Never forget that this has always been the motivation of thought word and deed of those who rally against the worker. This battle is eternal. The laws today of the oversight and regulations that may restore confidence in this movement as you say is testament to over 100 years of this.
I say we have seen what a lack of regulation and oversight allowed in workplaces has given us and that was called Work Choices. Today we have work choices by stealth and the ABCC which results in workers deaths, takes away a worker’s right to silence and fines and jails workers for striking.
If we are to use a shining example of corruption and dodgy behaviour, I’d hardly use the union movement as the example to bring you to “I lifted myself up in life to success and everyone has the power to do the same” George Christensen.
When you jail a man for striking it’s a rich mans county yet. The unions didn’t vote for that law but the LNP and PHON both of George’s love interests, most certainly did.
If anything will give us the steaming pile of shit that is Hanson, that will be to continue with the mantra that unions are corrupt and need reining in and all politicians lie and none of them can be trusted. In that respect George should take the plunge and join Pauline Hanson’s One Nation.
I agree that unions are crucial to protect workers from the many dangers that corporate greed or government overreach present.
But I also acknowledge that a lack of governance allowed a few people like Kathy Jackson and Michael Williamson to steal from the people they were supposed to be representing and others like Halafihi Kivalu to blackmail people into giving him bribes. Those doing the wrong thing are only a tiny fraction of the union movement but it is impossible to pretend that there wasn’t any problem at all. Getting rid of the miscreants and improving governance and oversight can only strengthen unions.
The point I was trying to make was that the unions and churches have rightly been asked to improve their leadership and governance but there is no such expectation for politicians to do likewise and this lack of leadership and oversight is destroying the public discourse, allowing widespread rorting of public money, and encouraging rogues like Christensen to push their populist niche issues with no necessity for them to be factual.
You are seriously using Kathy Jackson – a Liberal plant as the benchmark for dodgy behaviour in unionism? I’m off to have a stiff drink. You do realise she is a Liberal plant?. If you haven’t done so, may I suggest you read Peter Wicks work on this topic. I reject the use of unions as something so corrupt they need regulation and oversight as a lead up to a comparison of Christensen and Hanson and placed in the same bucket as dirty old pedos. As a union member I find it downright insulting. The reason they have asked to regulate is to weaken the unions. How many workers will put up their hands to be delegates knowing they can be personally sued for tens of thousands and possibly jailed? This is the regulation we have under ABCC. Voted for by LNP, Hinch, Xenophon and Hanson. If there is one thing Australia Industrial relations history tells us, is this fight to break the workers and the unions is constant and never ending. You may think it’s fine and dandy and buy into the conservative bullshit excuses for union regulation and the lies that unions are corrupt but I sure as hell don’t.
One of your problems Trish is that you refuse to accept that there is ever anything wrong with unions or the Labor Party. You immediately take personal insult which is utterly ridiculous. You misrepresent the opinions presented to launch into an unjustified rant.
I have written at length about the ABCC. I have expressed my support for unions. I have written about the crucial and unique role they play. For you to say I “buy into the conservative bullshit”and that I “think it’s fine and dandy” to break the back of unions shows you have a personal agenda with me rather than an objective comment on what was actually written. I really wish you would stop deliberately distorting what I have said.
The unions themselves have carried out several prosecutions and banned certain people from holding office. The unions themselves welcomed working with the government to improve oversight. The ABCC is not what was needed. The govt should have taken time and worked with the unions to draft and implement better governance regulations.
The Labor Party even has a policy to improve union governance.
http://www.alp.org.au/betterunions
Labor’s plan to strengthen accountability and transparency of unions
http://www.billshorten.com.au/press-conference-melbourne-labors-plan-to-strengthen-accountability-and-transparency-of-unions-governments-innovation-statement
I am sure you have, over the years, seen governance and procedures improve in organisations with which you are involved. The point of the article is a lack of leadership in government sees them as the only organisation I know who has not undergone such improvement in transparency and accountability. They lie with impunity. They misinform for political advantage. They waste money hand over fist with the stench of corruption surrounding much of what they do. They fire up on populist issues instead of addressing the challenges we face honestly and with a genuine desire to find solutions. They should, like all other organisations, be forced to lift their game.
As for Jackson being a Liberal plant, she had been an HSU official since 1992, I assume repeatedly elected by union members including becoming national secretary in 2008. She was also a member of the Victorian Branch of the Australian Labor Party, as part of its Labor Unity faction, aligned with Senator David Feeney.
Trish, Kathy Jackson a ‘Liberal plant’?
But seriously, all organisations are made up of individuals, and wherever you have a group of human beings, you’ll have some who are not quite as scrupulous as others. Unions and union members do need to be answerable, just as banks and bank managers, political parties and politicians do. I’m not suggesting that the ABCC is the answer, but surely YOU are not suggesting that unions should not be subject to oversight?
I think it’s a bit rich to call her a Liberal plant.
They just happened to fall all over her when they thought she was a hero. They said nothing when she turned out to be a fraud. If she was a plant, they would have been rushing to distance themselves.
Don’t think one stiff drink is going to excuse that extraordinary claim. But I suppose that these days ‘belief’ is more relevant than … take your pick.
I should also point out that in no way was I putting unions “in the same bucket as dirty old pedos”.
I could just as easily have talked about when I took over as school canteen treasurer and started doing monthly bank reconciliations only to find that takings were going missing. The lack of leadership and oversight had allowed an unscrupulous person to take advantage. I did not mean to compare crimes or the frequency of wrongdoing. It just astonishes me that every organisation has had to employ better practice except government.
Bagasse is the dry pulpy residue left after the extraction of juice from sugar cane, and Christensen has turned into one.