Pauline Hanson and Steve Dickson have completely missed the point about that strip club visit

A politician visits a strip club and stuffs money into a G-string. Big deal. But it’s what Steve Dickson did next that should shame him and all of One Nation. WARNING: Graphic language

OPINION

Two things aired on Australian television last night that terrified viewers.

There was the Battle of Winterfell episode of Game of Thrones, which was heart-stopping in his suspense, andA Current Affair’s footage of One Nation member Steve Dickson making an utter nuisance of himself in a strip club.

The latter was the more terrifying — given the choice today, most women would probably rather be stuck in a remote part of a forest with the Night King than in a strip club with Steve Dickson.

For those who have been blissfully unaware of the footage, apologies for bringing it into your world. Life is markedly better before you hear a racist baby boomer from Queensland attempting to talk sexy.

Turns out this hat isn’t the most offensive thing about Steve Dickson.

The Queensland One Nation Senate candidate was secretly filmed in a strip club in Washington DC in September last year by Australian reporter Rodger Muller, an undercover journalist from the Al Jazeera network.

During his time in the club, Dickson can be seen groping the dancers while his comments veer from comedically outdated to downright offensive and racist. It’s a real rollercoaster for your ears.

At one point the married 56-year-old says, “Now that young lady has a wonderful set of kahoonas”. Have you ever encountered a sentence that takes such a spectacular U-turn? It starts out so polite with “young lady” and then goes all leery Benny Hill at the back end. It’s the aural equivalent of a sucker punch.

The footage appears to show Dickson placing $1 bills in a dancer’s G-string and repeatedly groping another woman’s breasts, in the world’s most hideous example of foreplay.

I don’t think I’ll ever recover from having to watch Steve Dickson fondle a stripper’s nipples 🤢

— Phoebe Loomes (@dollyybird) April 29, 2019

To his companion he says, “you know what’s good about this?” and then makes a remark about seeing “titty”.

… We’ll give you a moment to recover from the concept of a grown man saying the word “titty”.

Then things take a dark turn.

“Little t**s, nothing there,” he says of one dancer, while referring to another as a “b**ch”.

“I think white women f**k a whole lot better, they know what they’re doing. Asian chicks don’t.

“I’ve done more Asian than I know what to do with.”

One Nation party official Steve Dickson filmed in a strip club in America. Pictured fondling and giving money to one of the strippers in the club. Picture: Channel 9

He then continues by insinuating he is something of an expert on the global strip club scene, saying clubs are better in the Philippines because women dance on top of the bars and “then take everything off”.

In another clip, Dickson says to a woman sitting across from him at the table “you need to slide your hand onto my c**k.” She (unsurprisingly) declines.

But this doesn’t break Dickson’s stride.

“I am going to give her my address. She can come and *** me,” he says to his companion.

“I’ve asked her, she said she wants to come home and suck my d**k.”

The only truly interesting element to ACA’s Steve Dickson stripper ‘exclusive’ is how deluded so many middle-aged men are, genuinely thinking they are hot property. Please consider donating some of your unwarranted self-esteem to those in need!!!

— Peter Taggart (@petertaggart) April 29, 2019

After the damning footage aired on A Current Affair, Dickson handed in his resignation, saying he was drunk, and he had “little recollection” of the night.

“I found the footage difficult to watch as my words and actions under intoxication and in that environment, are not a true reflection of myself,” he said.

Hey Steve Dickson, alcohol is a disinhibitor

It doesn’t change who you are, it reveals who you are#auspol

— David Geelan (@ProfBravus) April 30, 2019

As well as his attempt at the “lol I was drunk,” defence, he also made a marvellous typo in the statement, saying “As I will no longer be of pubic (sic) interest, I ask that you please respect my family’s privacy at this time.”

It’s the sort of typo that made us giggle in Grade 5 (and frankly still does now).

This sentence is also an excellent example of Dickson’s hypocrisy — asking that the media respect his family, while he has shown them so little regard himself. It’s startling to consider that this is a man who has been campaigning for the Senate on a family values platform. The irony is jaw-dropping.

In his statement he also refers to the “trip with a person who I never imagined being an undercover journalist”. This seems like the most irrelevant and misguided statement of all time. It’s almost like he is saying “NO FAIR, I DIDN’T REALISE THEY WERE A JOURNALIST.”

Not the point, mate. Not the point.

Or not, as the case may be. Picture: Lachie Millard

Just when we thought we’d had our fill of One Nation antics, Pauline Hanson stepped up to the plate this morning to let waiting media know she had accepted Dickson’s resignation.

She started out rather impressively, saying, “I cannot and will not condone my own candidates dealing with women in this fashion …” but then went on to say, “don’t forget that Kevin Rudd himself visited a strip club.”

This comment shows that Hanson has also missed the point spectacularly. As comedian and writer Benjamin Law points out on Twitter — visiting a strip club isn’t what people are upset about here.

Visiting a strip club in this manner is a legal activity involving consenting adults over the age of 18. It’s how he treats the women, and his litany of racist remarks that is the big problem.

Can we remind ourselves that the scandal isn't that Steve Dickson—a fully grown adult—visited a strip club where women do legal and consensual work? Whatever, really.

It's the fact he talks about women like this, sexually harasses people trying to do their jobs and is racist af. pic.twitter.com/TJadYM9gk5

— Benjamin Law (@mrbenjaminlaw) April 29, 2019

Senator Hanson finished the press conference by doing what she does best: cracking it and storming off when somebody asks a question she doesn’t like.

I’m taking my bat and my ball and I’m going home

We tip our hat to Rodger Muller, the undercover Al Jazeera journo who had to stomach Dickson’s company in the strip club and was integral in embarrassing the bejesus out of Pauline Hanson and the One Nation Party.

Unlike Steve Dickson, you’ve done your country proud.