Labor ads ‘untrue, pathetic’, Nats MP says
George Christensen says Labor ads targeting him for spending “294 days in the Philippines” in recent years are “pathetic”.
Coalition MP George Christensen claims Labor ads targeting him for spending “294 days in The Philippines” in the past four years are “pathetic” and “untrue”.
The ad blitz, launched yesterday, exacerbated a growing challenge for Mr Christensen to retain his north Queensland stronghold of Dawson as One Nation, which did not contest the electorate in 2016, threatens to drain his primary vote.
The usually outspoken MP, who has been quiet in the media since revelations about his frequent overseas trips, told The Australian the ads were a desperate ploy to damage his image.
“It’s pretty obvious it’s the only thing they’ve got they think they can win the seat of Dawson with,” he said. “It’s pretty pathetic that they think a personal attack like that can help them win.”
Mr Christensen said the content of the ads, decrying cuts to local hospitals, schools and casualisation of the workforce, was incorrect and reports he had spent 294 days overseas, mostly in The Philippines, were “untrue”.
“The story of spending 300 days overseas is bogus,” he said.
Asked what the actual length of time was, Mr Christensen said: “The problem is, you say one week and it’s one week too much. I’m not going to get into an argument of saying ‘I spent this long over there, not this long’.”
Mr Christensen said there was “no truth” in reports he was warned by Australian Federal Police and Malcolm Turnbull as prime minister in relation to his visits to The Philippines.
“My fiancee comes from The Philippines,” he said. “I met her in 2017, visited her a fair bit, for obvious reasons. I’ll leave it at that.”
Queensland Labor senator Murray Watt said he believed Mr Christensen’s absence had disadvantaged his constituents.
“It’s completely unacceptable for George Christensen to spend nearly 11 weeks a year overseas when that is nearly three times the amount a worker in his own electorate gets,” Senator Watt said.
“To stop the LNP cuts, Dawson needs a full-time member of parliament, not a part-time MP who spends so much time overseas.”
One Nation scored strongly in Senate votes in Dawson in 2016, polling third with 10,251 votes behind the LNP’s 24,695 and Labor’s 22,014, indicating preference flows from the minor party could have a significant impact on the outcome on May 18.
Mr Christensen, a National, holds the seat with a notional margin of 3.4 per cent and is not bound by Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s pledge that the Liberal Party would put One Nation below Labor on how-to-vote cards.
He said yesterday he did not know whether One Nation candidate Deb Lawson’s tilt would affect his chances. “I don’t know what is going to be the situation with that,” he said. “We will have to look at who else is on the ballot, the order in which it’s drawn, before we work out the order of our ticket.’’
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