Tory Shepherd: One Nation has finally hit peak grubbiness
Their policy is to reject foreign political donations, but they were prepared to prostitute themselves for the gun cause. They’ve proved yet again they’re not even close to being a party of the people, writes Tory Shepherd.
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One Nation is the Theranos of Australian politics.
Both these fraudsters rely on snake-oil schtick. A knack of convincing people they can help. But the promises are hollow and the motives cynical.
The Theranos story is frightening and car-crash compelling.
Founder Elizabeth Holmes “invented” a miraculous blood test device. She built a $10 billion company on the back of it.
But her promises were fake, the machine was a fake. She was a fake.
The machine was meant to be able to carry out hundreds of tests but reportedly the blood samples were actually getting sent off to good old USA Pathology. They weren’t picking up syphilis, diseases, blood sugar issues.
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Holmes even cultivated a new voice — a baritone she thought was more convincing. But the deep voice gives way every now and then to the high-pitched reality.
She started wearing black turtlenecks to channel Steve Jobs.
Holmes, a young, glamorous Silicon Valley success, signed up a conga line of rich and impressive investors in her machine as part of a complicated fraud that went on for years.
One Nation, here in Australia, is the political equivalent of a machine that goes “ping”.
Somehow they’ve hoodwinked a fair chunk of the population.
They’ve hijacked the grievances of the disenfranchised, whipped up their fear, so they can sell them a pup (Actually a pup would help these One Nation voters who feel lost and unloved).
Sleazy One Nation salesman James Ashby has been busted trying to wheedle $20 million out of the US’s rabid gun lobby. On the promise of transforming Parliament to be more gun friendly.
A three-year investigation by Al Jazeera has culminated in a documentary that shows Mr Ashby — Pauline Hanson’s chief of staff — and Queensland party leader Steve Dickson wheeling and dealing with the National Rifle Association.
Their policy is to maintain the existing gun laws, but for cold, hard cash they were willing to put more guns in more hands.
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Their policy is to reject foreign political donations, but they were prepared to prostitute themselves for the gun cause.
They thought they had hit the peaks of Machiavellian sophistication, but they were busted by candid cameras.
“We get the balance of power, very simply that means that we have the testicles of the Government in our hand at every given stage … And guns, in the scheme of things, are still going to be the be-all and end-all,” Mr Dickson can be heard saying.
And there’s one exchange that shows the pair delighting in the idea of using dead children to silence their critics.
An NRA bit of pond scum tells them that, after mass shootings, that’s how you respond to gun control advocates.
“How dare you stand on the graves of those children to put forward you political agenda?
“Just shame them to the whole idea.”
“I love that,” Mr Dickson says.
“That’s very good, very strong,” Mr Ashby says.
The ethics are rancid, the hypocrisy breathtaking.
But the blokes say they were on the scotches for three or four hours before the $20 million conversation, so maybe that’s an out.
I mean, how many scotches do you drink before you joke about using dead children for propaganda and taking millions of dollars to relax gun laws? What level of whiskey before you sell your soul?
This is not the party that will help the disenfranchised “everyday Australians”. This isn’t the party to help restore “Australian values”, or any of the vague, dog-whistling things they promise.
Look through their history of revolving senators and see how split they are on “everyday Australians”.
Then look through their maiden speeches and you’ll see how little they care about jobs, or hospital beds, or schools.
This is not just grubby politics as usual. This is far grubbier than usual.
If you think it was bad that former Liberal speaker Bronwyn Bishop took a helicopter ride when she could have taken a train, think about the entitlement of One Nation powerbrokers promising to change the face of Australia in return for cash from the NRA.
It goes even further than that — in this gotcha doco the One Nation guys actually start talking about changing the voting system.
It’s in there as an aside, but there’s a history of uber-wealthy lobbyists in the US working to undermine the voting system so that the poor and the vulnerable find it harder to vote.
And Mr Ashby and Mr Dickson were in a meeting with wealthy industrialists and conservative agitators from Koch Industries when they made those comments.
One Nation has once again made it abundantly clear they are not a party of the people, but a party of partisan, divisive politics. Extremist politics.
The good news is that should make it far easier for the major parties to denounce them and stop flirting with their preferences.
Holmes has had a most spectacular implosion as she was revealed as a poser who was not helping anyone. One Nation deserves the same.
Sadly — with some help from the major parties — it has risen from the ashes before.
Tory Shepherd is State Editor for The Adelaide Advertiser.
Originally published as Tory Shepherd: One Nation has finally hit peak grubbiness
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