Do as we tell you, not as we do

The hypocrisy of the Greens, a party of virtue signallers and political correctness pushing for heavy-handed censorship of political commentary, is writ large. The party’s candidate for the Melbourne seat of Lalor, Jay Dessi, was forced to quit yesterday after The Australian published a series of his offensive social media posts and likes. These included tasteless references to sex with children and dead people, a racist comment about an Asian friend’s eyes, and a ghastly joke about abortion and child pornography. Last night the Greens candidate for Lingiari in the Northern Territory, George Hanna, who reposted a meme in which the Liberal Party’s candidate, Jacinta Price, was called a “coconut”, was clinging on with the support of leader Richard Di Natale. That support, as Ms Price said yesterday, was “the racism of low expectations … So because I am an Aboriginal woman, it is OK for an Aboriginal man to racially vilify me?”

The Greens’ scandal-ridden Victorian campaign last year was just as bad. One candidate was accused of serious sexual misconduct and another exposed for rapping about date rape and domestic violence. A staff member was stood down over tweets that joked about child pornography, Muslims and feminism, and an upper house candidate resigned after boasting about shoplifting and drug use. The party’s NSW campaign was racked by allegations of sexual harassment.

However hypocritical the Greens’ attitudes, the more disturbing factor is that the party, which has no more policy substance or maturity than a fringe protest movement, is not receiving the serious scrutiny it warrants. This is especially important in view of its potential influence on a Shorten government. The ABC’s 7.30 host Leigh Sales, for instance, showed none of her customary feistiness when she interviewed Senator Di Natale on Tuesday night. She let him get away with claims of “racism and division” at the heart of the Coalition government and didn’t press him on his candidates’ shortcomings. Nor did she tackle his most ludicrous climate and economic claims.

Bill Shorten, understandably, shuns any mention of a Labor government working closely with the Greens in the way that Julia Gillard did in office. In reality, the minor party could be in a strong position, especially in the Senate, to lever a Labor government to push its overly ambitious, uncosted climate change policies even further. Senator Di Natale has made it clear that he plans to do so.

He also has signalled his intention to silence potential critics. In a policy akin to George Orwell’s Ministry of Truth, he has promised “laws that regulate our media so that people like Andrew Bolt, Alan Jones and Chris Kenny … if they want to use hate speech to divide the community then they’re going to be held to account”. The Greens also want to break up “media concentration” and impose a “public interest” veto over who can buy media outlets.

While slamming what he claims is “extremism” within the Coalition, Senator Di Natale conveniently skates over his extremist policies, including breaking up banks, buying back power assets, demilitarisation, free TAFE and undergraduate education, cuts to non-government schools and crippling taxes. The Greens will never be in a position to implement them, thankfully. But the direction in which they would push a Shorten government is clear.