Senator Pauline Hanson rolled up to question time in the Senate today in a burqa. This stunt was supposedly in aid of a ban proposed by One Nation on burqas in government buildings1. While everybody occasionally does stupid things, Pauline Hanson seems to revel in it. It seems to be her main hobby, mostly in cahoots with the other two stooges, Senators Brian Burston and Malcolm Roberts2.
Pauline Hanson seems intent on alienating the Muslim community in Australia and as they are one of the best allies we have in preventing terrorism in this country, alienating them is probably one of the simplest ways, as they say, to give aid and comfort to islamists. This has been said time and again by the Director-General of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), Duncan Lewis3, as well as his predecessor David Irvine. However the drongoes on the far right seem unable to consider the possibility that their belief is inferior to Duncan Lewis’ knowledge.
When lambasting Hanson for her idiotic stunt, Attorney General George Brandis fumed: “to ridicule that community, to drive it into a corner, to mock its religious garments, is an appalling thing to do and I would ask you to reflect on what you have done”. It is not like Brandis is just expressing an opinion here. He is regularly briefed by ASIO as he is the responsible minister1 (at least until ASIO is sucked into Dutton’s superministry), so he understands the relatively fine detail of the threat we face and probably how it is being combatted. The stooges of One Nation simply think it is brown people; that is the limit of their understanding.
While most people know that One Nation is not the brains trust they think they are (the Dunning-Kruger Effect in action), seeing Hanson in a burqa made her look more intelligent that usual.
Sources
- http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/pauline-hanson-burqa-stunt-george-brandis-pulls-off-his-finest-speech-by-calling-out-a-dangerous-fool-20170817-gxyf7f.html
- http://www.blotreport.com/australian-politics/crazy-malcolm-roberts/
- http://www.blotreport.com/australian-politics/dunning-kruger-two-step/
- http://www.blotreport.com/australian-politics/malcolm-roberts-and-the-dunning-kruger-effect/
The most unfortunate part of Pauline Hanson’s burqa stunt is that it brings the institution of parliament into disrepute. Democracy has its flaws, but it is by far the best system that is available.
I think that we should be aware that a lot of people agree with Pauline Hanson’s general views whether the so-called political elite like it or not. This became evident this morning when listening to the local ABC radio–not exactly a right wing audience. There was a lot of support for Pauline Hanson’s views on the wearing of burqas in public. Later this morning I had to go for a medical test and after the test while chatting to the young lady who gave the test, she raised the topic of Pauline Hanson’s senate stunt. She suggested that while Pauline Hanson may not be all that bright, she agreed with her views.
While this is a rather limited sample, there is little point in simply abusing the views of One Nation–they have to be outdebated. The hardliners will never change their mind, but the general public can be brought around. One of the problems is that the major political parties have currently lost the respect of the public and show little signs of regaining it. This has allowed fringe parties such as One Nation, the Greens, and NXT to get into the act, although currently the Greens and NXT are both in disarray.
Jim,
I think the best way to argue against Hanson is to use the fact that this is what scum like ISIS want, for the local populations of Muslims to be marginalised, making them fertile ground for radicalisation. In another piece I wrote some time ago (Dunning-Kruger two step), I tried to put this across, as that was what the head of ASIO, Duncan Lewis, said. It was halfwits like One Notion and a few on the rabid religious right of the Liberals who seem to think that their opinion is as worthy as Lewis’ knowledge; hence the reference to the Dunning-Kruger effect. These people are too stupid to realise how stupid they are.