A high-profile human rights lawyer puts his hand up for a crack at being a Greens MP
Novice Greens candidate Julian Burnside decides to challenge Josh Frydenberg for the seat of Kooyong. The Australian yesterday:
Mr Burnside’s candidacy will be announced this morning, just days after he likened the government’s border protection policies implemented by Scott Morrison to the tactics employed by Nazi Germany …
Burnside shows he is no stranger to hyperbole. The Australian, June 13 last year:
We get a very tiny number of boatpeople turning up in Australia, until we started pushing them off to Manus and Nauru, and the question is, well, if someone falls at your feet asking for help do you kick them in the head or do you treat them decently? Now what happens if the next morning a little kid comes to the door and says, “please help me, there’s a man with a knife chasing me”. I could say, “come back on Thursday week” … it would be unthinkable.
Burnside reveals his distaste for politics and politicians. The Conversation (based on his Hamer Oration), September 28, 2015:
It was with some surprise that I found myself engaged in such a hotly political issue as refugee policy. I had never been involved in politics, nor interested in it. When politicians call boatpeople “illegals” and “queue jumpers” they are not telling the truth. When politicians say that they are concerned about people drowning in their attempt to reach safety, they are not telling the truth.
Burnside’s political maturity unmasked. ABC yesterday:
The Greens are now a mature party. Our policies on any number of things are policies that most people would agree with. It’s come of age. It’s not the bunch of environmentalists it was thought to be when it was established in the early 90s.
Andrew Bolt, Herald Sun yesterday:
Asked on the ABC to comment on the recent scandals in the Victorian Greens, Burnside replied: “I am simply not interested.” Burnside, the noisy moralist, is “simply not interested” in the following: the Greens’ former leader paying a settlement for alleged sexual discrimination; a Greens candidate quitting over shoplifting; boasts Greens candidates apologising for sexism; a veteran campaigner … accused of bullying before quitting the party and accusing it of being the real bully … Hmm, the company you keep, Julian … This new party of yours suits you.
Gerard Henderson, The Australian, February 22:
Due to overwhelming popular demand (Media Watch Dog’s) “Media Fool of the Week” returns this week, after a somewhat long well-earned break … Lotsa thanks to the avid reader who drew attention to this tweet by media fave Julian (“I just love flashing my postnominals”) Burnside AO, QC … “Prediction: A few refugee boats will arrive before the election. Enquiries will show that #Scomo told Operation Sovereign Borders to let some boats through.” Does m’learned friend really believe that any such instruction could be kept confidential in the lead-up to an election — or that Prime Minister Scott Morrison would be so foolish as to do such a thing, even if he thought it might be politically beneficial in the short term? Apparently, (Burnside) thinks he does. How foolish can you get?
Centre for Policy Development:
(Burnside) acted … for Alan Bond in fraud trials, against Gina Rinehart on behalf of Rose Porteous, and for the Maritime Union of Australia in the 1998 waterfront dispute against Patrick Stevedores.