Q&A: Liberal Party VP Teena McQueen says Ardern ‘copied Howard’s gun laws’

Q&A host Tony Jones struggled to control last night’s panel, with Teena McQueen and Mehreen Faruqi arguing throughout.

Liberal Party Vice President Teena McQueen on Q&A last night.

Q&A host Tony Jones struggled to control last night’s panel, after Liberal Party vice president Teena McQueen and Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi fought it out throughout the whole episode, with Ms McQueen eventually calling what the Greens had to say “bile”.

Freedom of Speech vs Hate Speech

A question from a young Muslim woman on the limits of freedom of speech where it intersected with hate speech started the argument between Ms McQueen and Ms Faruqi which continued throughout the episode.

“I think there is a clear difference between freedom of speech and hate speech. We do not have to blur the line. In a democracy I would defend democracy to the Nth degree but I will never never say that hate speech is freedom of speech,” Ms Faruqi told the audience.

Feminist and author Roxanne Gay received a round of applause from the audience when she shut down Ms McQueen after she labelled right-wing political commentator Milo Yiannopoulos “an entertainer” and claimed white supremacy was “not growing” in Australia.

Ms McQueen said that people she had spoken to, who see Yiannopoulos, don’t actually take him seriously and simply dismiss him as an entertainer.

“Once again you’re using your personal experience as a metric for reality,” Ms Gay interjected. “Hundreds and thousands of people in the United States take Milo seriously. They follow him, they pay to see him speak.”

Ms McQueen then called out Greens leader Richard Di Natale for supposedly engaging in the “worst hate speech I’ve heard recently”.

“He’s incited violence against the likes of Andrew Bolt. It was vile language which Richard Di Natale used — vile language used against conservatives is disgraceful,” Ms McQueen said.

Teena McQueen says Richard Di Natale used hate speech against Andrew Bolt #QandA pic.twitter.com/rQd2v2zmGs

— ABC Q&A (@QandA) March 25, 2019

“It’s nonsense to say we (the Greens) are part of the spectrum,” Ms Faruqi rebutted.

“They are two ends of the spectrum. You cannot compare — it is silly and nonsensical to do that. Racism damages people … anti-racism is actually calling out and stopping that damage.”

Labor MP and spokesperson for the environment Tony Burke came to Senator Di Natale’s defence: “I am going to defend Richard Di Natale in this.

“There is an argument coming at the moment that is trying to establish an equivalence between somebody saying ‘we need to have a final solution, we need to ban Muslims from this country’ from people who describe Islam as a disease and because they say that angrily, think that the anger’s the only thing that makes it hate speech, and therefore if someone responds with a bit of anger and a bit of passion, that somehow is hate speech too.

“But to imply somebody who is standing up against racism is guilty of the same sort of hate speech as the people who have allowed the hatred to fester … it just doesn’t add up.”

Bad Feminist author Ms Gay interjected: “The challenge with freedom of speech is that people think it means freedom from consequence.”

“What we’re talking about is how do we implement consequences for people who use speech to radicalise hate?” Ms Gay asked.

“You can do whatever you want with your freedom of speech … I think it’s all well and good that we protect this kind of speech but I also think it’s horrifying, because so many things are excused in the name of freedom of speech.”

Researcher at the Centre for Independent Studies Simon Cowan said there needed to be a focus on condemning the “fringe unacceptable views” as completely unacceptable.

Hate speech on social media

The debate then turned to how hate speech should be dealt with on social media after the terrorist who killed 50 people in Christchurch live streamed the attack online.

“We already have principles about what you are allowed to say in Australia under section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. There is nothing in the act that says somehow social media is free … if it’s wrong to allow hate speech in the public square, it’s wrong for it to be appearing on your phone,” Mr Burke said.

Mr Cowan, however, agreed hate speech on social was wrong, but said it was impossible to stop.

Should social media companies be held more accountable for publishing extremist content? #QandA pic.twitter.com/pmljI2jyNi

— ABC Q&A (@QandA) March 25, 2019

“It’s all but impossible to stop someone from posting something that is against the law, from doing something that is against the law in an online space when they’re based in a different country … how can you enforce liability (on a platform) for providing that platform without removing those platforms all together?” Mr Cowan asked.

Ms Gay disagreed: “It’s actually not impossible. When we have a town square, we don’t allow littering. There are trash cans. Because we have community standards that say ‘We’re not going to live in trash’. So people who curate online spaces can treat it in exactly the same way — this kind of virulent racism is trash and they can hire moderators to clean it up.”

Jacinda Ardern

The New Zealand Prime Minister’s response to the Christchurch terrorist attack was on the agenda this evening.

“I thought she did a remarkable job,” Ms Gay said.

“For once, we saw a politician who didn’t think about politics and thought about humanity and empathy and said the exact right things at the exact right rime, and then did the right political thing by within six days, banning semiautomatic weapons.”

Will Jacinda’s example lead to a swing against the standard masculine, power driven politicians in the election? #QandA pic.twitter.com/NzrPetvrrU

— ABC Q&A (@QandA) March 25, 2019

Ms McQueen then pointed out the Liberal Party under John Howard implemented gun reforms years ago, and accused Ms Ardern of copying their policy.

Ms McQueen also fought back at Jones’ suggestion Ms Ardern handled the attack better than Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

“If there’s disappointment I have with the Prime Minister, it’s not the words that he gave immediately following that. It’s the fact that even after all of that he’s still contemplating preferencing One Nation,” Mr Burke said of Mr Morrison’s reaction to Christchurch.

“That’s not true, Tony Burke. That’s simply not true,” Ms McQueen responded.

“It’s not the Prime Minister’s decision — that’s a decision by the Federal executive. We’ll look at it on a seat by seat basis. I mean, clearly — there is no way myself, personally, would do any sort of deal or preferences with the Greens after the vomit that comes out of their mouths,” Ms McQueen continued.

“You know — you go on about One Nation, but you still don’t listen to the absolute bile that comes out of Di Natale — your leader,” Ms McQueen said, again circling back to her earlier accusations against Richard Di Natale.