So it’s on – Australians will go to the polls on the 18th of May and already the level of hypocrisy and scaremongering from the right is staggering. Let’s have a look at one issue they’ve been particularly vociferous about so far; Electric Vehicles and Labor’s plan to have 50% of new vehicle sales to be EVs by 2030.

First the hypocrisy:
Here’s a report prepared for the Government in May 2018 – it’s what they’ve based most of their own paper-thin EV strategy on. It’s 103 pages so I won’t bore you with it all, but it’s worth remembering the Coalition has had this detailed information for 11 months and has published it on the arena.gov.au website, so they vouch for its veracity. Continue reading

Events in Christchurch last week have emotions running high on the entire range of the political spectrum.

Here in Australia the heinous event itself seems to have been overshadowed by the remarks of a politician who somehow got into Australian Parliament despite getting less votes in his electorate than he has fingers and toes.

Senator Fraser Anning sent out an incendiary tweet, essentially saying the mass murder of 50 people by a white supremacist was New Zealand’s fault for letting Muslim immigrants into the country in the first place.

Not content with that the Accidental Senator followed this up with an official media release that further illustrated the right wing beliefs of a man who attends white supremacist rallies on the taxpayers dime and then attended a gun show less than 48 hours after the shooting.

Understandably a hornet’s nest has been stirred and an egg to the back of the head from 17 year old Will ‘Egg boy’ Connelly is probably the least of the consequences he will face. Calls for censure and expulsion from parliament are coming thick and fast from the left while the right have leapt to his defence saying he is representing the views of the ‘silent majority’.

So let’s have a look at that – is the right way the right way according to most Australians?

There are two significant change.org petitions which have arisen from Anning’s remarks. One started 4 days ago calling for him to be removed and the other 3 days ago in response from the right supporting him.

Current numbers are illustrated below:

Hmm, bit embarrassing for the unite the right brigade this one. They’re both using the same platform with equal opportunity to share on social media and it’s a resounding loss to the right by well over a million people. Kind of looks like Fraser’s percentage of the vote.

Even more embarrassing when Egg Boy’s social media followers after two days now eclipse the flagship right wing organisation Reclaim Australia’s followers two to one.

Ok but that’s just social media stuff – it’s not real I hear the aggrieved shouts from the right saying. What about rallies? real people protesting with their feet?

Good question – let’s look at a tale of two marches in 2017.

In Sydney Reclaim Australia organised a Rally against Muslims and refugees in general on the Australia Day weekend. The timing couldn’t be better, pull on those Aussie xenophobic heart strings on our National Day weekend, get hundreds of Fuck Off – We’re Full and Ban The Burqa signs and march with the like minded masses.

Despite Reclaim Australia Rally having over 100k facebook followers and sharing the crap out of the event the response was a tad disappointing.

Yep there were two police for every person that marched – 50 protesters in total. I’d  say more but I’m sure they’re humiliated enough.

Now let’s contrast that with the Palm Sunday march in Melbourne a couple of months later which was held in support of migrants.

Here organisers were also disappointed with the turnout. The state SES had urged people to stay indoors but 4000 still turned up to support refugees and other newcomers to our shores.

It’s starting to look like the “silent majority” are not the force they think they are.

I know several people who tell me that Fraser Anning, Pauline Hansen, Peter Dutton etc. represent the views of mainstream Australia.

Recent election results in Victoria and Western Australia and the Wentworth by election which all resulted in landslide swings away from the right show they are incorrect.

Hot button issues like immigration and crime will always be divisive but the rhetoric is mainly perpetuated by politicians who’s self interest is their only interest.

We can maintain strong law and order, border protection and controlled immigration without the hardline, xenophobic attitudes that currently turn Australians against Australians.

This is Australia, land of my birth but not of my ancestors. They arrived by boat and so did most of yours. Good job Peter Dutton didn’t have a say in it.

So to answer the question – yes, the far right is getting further away from the views that the “average” Australian holds and they are becoming more desperate, vocal and vitriolic as they fade into eventual obscurity.

So we’ve all seen the memes on Facebook, you know the ones – anti Islamic detritus and similar divisive illustrations and “news” which are shared endlessly by “patriots” from the extreme right.

Turns out the posts that are shared around like the bong at a Cheech and Chong festival have a high chance of benefiting the very people they derided. Continue reading

So I just got banned from Steve Mav’s political page on the strength of two comment’s I put up in relation to this and a similar post he put up the next day spruiking his law and order “policy”:

Maybe I was a bit sarcastic in my replies:

“This is ridiculous, why don’t you concentrate on real issues”

and

“Yep – we should go further though, lets have lynch mobs in hoods roaming the streets looking for boat people and the homeless. We could have a Super Sunday in each city where we can hang the fuckers en mass. Can we start with the woman who walks past every morning and lets her dog crap on the lawn?

We can get the CWA to provide sandwiches and chocolate crackles at half time”

I got challenged on the first comment by a guy who wanted to know why it was a non issue and that’s simple – even if 99.9% of the people say yes to the question the law cannot and will not be changed, nor should it, so the meme is disingenuous at best, populist mob rousing at worst.

The second comment got me banned – sorry I upset you Steve. For a hard line non immigration and law and order advocate you are surprisingly sensitive. Continue reading