Mike O’Connor: Pauline Hanson’s ill-considered ‘p*ss off’ comment versus tide of anti-Semitism
Tolerance has been a hallmark of Australia, but it has its limits and those have been breached, writes Mike O’Connor.
Mike O'Connor
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Love her or hate her, you would have to concede that Senator Pauline Hanson is not easily silenced and is unafraid, in a way unmatched by many of her contemporaries, to speak her mind.
It’s a trait that has lately seen her hauled before the Federal Court accused of breaching the Racial Discrimination Act when she told a fellow senator to “piss off back to Pakistan” in a tweet.
The senator to whom the remark was directed and who bought the action, deputy Greens leader Mehreen Faruqi, had on the occasion of the death of the Queen said that she couldn’t mourn “the leader of a racist empire built on stolen lives, land and wealth of colonised people”.
Senator Hanson’s reply included: “It’s clear you’re not happy, so pack your bags and piss off back to Pakistan.” Senator Hanson’s counsel has told the court that her client was speaking rhetorically when she made the tweet. Justice Angus Stewart has retired to consider his judgment.
Senator Hanson’s comment may have been ill-considered and it is for the judge to determine if it is unlawful or not, but one can’t help but contrast her treatment to the blind eye that has been turned to the anti-Israel sentiment that has now moved from the streets on to university campuses around the nation and that goes unchecked.
Students waving flags and chanting “interfada” and ”from the river to the sea” which can be code for advocating the destruction of the Jewish state now invade our most elite educational institutions, institutions which are supposed to be seats of learning and intellectual excellence.
University vice-chancellors mumble about freedom of speech and do nothing. But this is not about freedom, and with freedom, it must be remembered, comes responsibility. This is hate speech urging the extermination of the state of Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, and all who live within it.
Academic Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah recently led a protest of school students at the University of Sydney campus, at which children who appeared to be as young as five were chanting “intifada’’ and “Israel is a terrorist state.’’
Dr Abdel-Fattah is currently enjoying a government grant of $837,174 awarded to carry out a four-year research project titled Arab/Muslim Australian Social Movements since the 1970s: a hidden history.
She has denounced criticism of her involvement of children as driven by “Zionists” and “white supremacists” who “slink along the corridors of power” targeting Muslim and Arab academics. Politicians from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese down have failed to comprehensively denounce this evil, being incapable of mentioning this anti-Israel sentiment without mentioning Islamophobia in the same sentence.
Where’s the Islamophobia in this country? The outrage shown by a Christian community when their bishop was stabbed in front of his congregation allegedly by a 16-year-old Muslim terrorist? Seriously?
You would hope that the shameful reticence to denounce hatred is not been fuelled by websites such as Muslim Vote, which says it has “substantial funding” to spend at the next federal election.
“The next federal election signals a shift – Muslim issues at the forefront,” the website says. “We will no longer accept being taken for granted. We are a powerful, united force of nearly one million acting in unison. We are focused on seats where the Muslim vote can influence the outcome. We are here for the long term.”
If the nation starts dissembling into tribes, each driving a narrow agenda that most benefits a particular race or group with scant regard for the consequences that may flow to their fellow Australians then we have a serious problem.
The fabric of multiculturalism that we rightly claim to be one of our proudest achievements starts to fray and unravel and society descends into an “us” and “them” conflict that can easily spiral out of control.
Tolerance has been a hallmark of this country, but it has its limits and those limits are breached when some people use it to preach the elimination of a state.
This cannot be endured and yet the country appears to drift like a rudderless ship, its direction driven by whichever pressure group makes the loudest claim to victimhood.
As Senator Hanson’s lawyer has said, “(she) undoubtedly ... could have expressed herself differently and more reasonably”.
It is not difficult to appreciate, however, the sense of anger that she said caused her to express herself as she did.
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