Screencap from ABC News
By Situation Theatre 4/5/2019
Because governing the nation by nurturing the far right and torturing refugees in concentration camps just doesn’t compare to a 22-year-old’s Facebook posts.
It may be hard to believe at the end of a week in which five candidates have been forced to resign for racist, sexist, or homophobic comments, but one candidate who has fostered these attitudes with years of public policy remains in his job.
Liberal candidate for Lyons, Jessica Whelan, was forced to resign for making anti-Muslim statements on social media.
Liberal candidate for Cook, Scott Morrison, was not forced to resign for being the architect of a near ten year campaign of anti-Muslim rhetoric and policy expressed in every newspaper and on every radio station and TV channel in the country.
Liberal candidate for Melbourne, Jeremy Hearn, was forced to resign for expressing “abhorrent Islamic views” in the comments section of Quadrant magazine.
Liberal candidate for Cook, Scott Morrison, was not forced to resign for repeatedly characterising mostly Muslim asylum seekers as rapists, paedophiles and murderers who self-harm to game the system to try to steal the hospital beds of Australians.
Liberal candidate for Wills, Peter Killin, was forced to resign for anti-gay remarks he made in 2018 in the comments thread of Christian-right blogger Bill Muehlenberg.
Liberal candidate for Cook, Scott Morrison, was not forced to resign after campaigning stridently to legislate homophobia via the euphemism of ‘religious freedom’.
Given the Liberals’ glaring inability to consistently stick to a principle other than naked self-interest, it’s time the Australian people force the party as a whole to tender its resignation.