Tim Blair: Nobody should lose their job for wanting to buy Australian

Nobody is safe from hysterical and potentially job-ending social media fury – not even someone with the noble aim of wanting to buy Australian-made products, writes Tim Blair.

Anthony Albanese is playing a very dangerous game. The Labor leader is using the sort of inflammatory language that gets ordinary Australians fired from their jobs.

Moreover, Albanese is incorporating that language – which, when used elsewhere, has been condemned as “appalling” and “unacceptable” – into Labor policy.

You won’t believe it, but Albanese is actually taking a “buy Australian” policy to the next election.

This should not be controversial. But, as you’ll soon discover, that entirely excellent policy is a job killer for pro-Australian consumers in certain woke, Chinese government-appeasing, social media-complying sectors.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese has called for a buy Australian policy.

Here’s what Albo said on Saturday: “Australians do their best to patronise local businesses, knowing our hard-earned money supports the wages of our friends, neighbours and local community.

“Governments should recognise this principle in its own purchases and activities.”

Yes, they should. Albo added that under a Labor government, a new office would promote purchasing opportunities to smaller business and regional communities:

“Under the Buy Australian Act, maximising the benefit of government purchases to Australia will be the law of the land …

“Labor will maximise small business participation in Commonwealth procurement.”

All good. But look at what happened to Melbourne man Matthew Scafidi after he recently expressed exactly the same pro-Australian purchasing sentiments on his personal Facebook page.

“No Australia Made logo on this one,” Scafidi wrote as he considered buying an item of home gym ­equipment.

“Can I assume on this and price that it’s a Chinese import? Wanting to avoid Chinese imports if I can.”

Melbourne real estate agent Matthew Scafidi was stood down after a post on Facebook about gym equipment he had bought.

As everyone should, and not just because we need to rebuild our economy. Buying goods from communist China emboldens a totalitarian government that is the reason why we need to rebuild our economy in the first place.

Additionally, China’s tyrannical regime has imposed a DON’T buy Australian policy across various products in response to our requests for details about how the economy-wrecking Wuhan flu originated.

Screw those guys, and the deadly lab-created virus they rode in on.

As frequently happens when China is criticised, even indirectly, Scafidi immediately copped a massive social media backlash accusing him of racism.

This occurred even though there was no racial aspect to anything he wrote. A not-insignificant element of this backlash was driven by pro-­communist, hooray-for-Beijing social media partisans.

Those commie shills are hilariously and obviously dishonest. One Twitter account posted a ridiculously bogus screen grab of an alleged phone text conversation between Scafidi and his boss, “Roger”.

“Hi Mathew, can you apologise for what you have comment on Facebook about the made in China incident,” the supposed “Roger” texted.

“You have offended many in the Asian community, also you have many employees within you company that is from the Asian community so please rethink of what you post on social media.

“Many thanks, Roger.”

Matthew was then falsely depicted as replying:

“Roger, I do not care about what the Chinese thinks or comment, it is Australia that they are living in, if they don’t like it just leave the ­country.

“We do not welcome people from the third world country, that is why I let the Asian staffs deal with them, they talk the same and smell the same.

“You have known me for a while and you should know that I would not care and give 2 cents about them. Just let it be. Cheers.”

Call me sceptical, but there is no way anyone who speaks English as a first language wrote any of that. Busted, loser.

Nobody is free from the potential job-ending fury of social media, not even somebody with the noble aim of buying Australian-made products.

Yet the social media pile-on convinced Scafidi’s employer, Jellis Craig real estate chief executive Nick Dowling, to take immediate action.

“I think the comment is appalling, it’s unacceptable and it goes completely against the grain of what Jellis Craig is,” he said. “The person has been stood down.”

Scafidi’s company profile, which previously praised his “expertise and hard work” and celebrated his 2017 Real Estate Institute of Victoria Salesperson of the Year Award, was quickly removed. He’d been disappeared, much in the manner of a Chinese ­dissident.

Absurdly, Dowling offered support to anyone who had been impacted by his ex-staffer’s perfectly acceptable post. Chinese gym equipment manufacturers, probably.

Dowling also told reporters his company was an “ethical, tolerant and principled organisation” that proudly operates across Melbourne.

And beyond. “With high level interest in Australian property coming from the Chinese market, Jellis Craig has a dedicated sales and marketing strategy,” Jellis Craig’s website ­declares.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison must support those who buy Australian. Picture: Getty Images

“By directly reaching the Chinese market, Jellis Craig provides optimal opportunity to match Australian property with qualified buyers, while keeping the process streamlined and efficient.”

So, just like Matthew Scafidi, even Jellis Craig’s Chinese clients want to buy Australian. The difference is they don’t get punished for it.

Consider again Anthony Albanese’s Saturday announcement: “Australians do their best to patronise local businesses, knowing our hard-earned money supports the wages of our friends, neighbours and local community.”

That is precisely what Scafidi was trying to do. No Australian should lose their job for buying Australian.

Especially when the goods they wish to avoid originate from a murderous dictatorship.

Over to you, Albo. And Prime Minister Scott Morrison, for that matter. If you’re going to go big on buying Australian, you need to support Australians who support Australia.

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