Politics

Liberal MP Andrew Laming Is Sorry For Suggesting The QLD Premier Is A Nazi

The federal MP finally apologised for photoshopped a Nazi uniform onto Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, whose grandparents were tortured in Nazi camps.

by Rachael Conaghan  18 May 2020
andrew laming

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Liberal MP Andrew Laming has finally apologised for sharing a meme which photoshopped a Nazi uniform onto the head of the Queensland Premier, whose grandparents were tortured by Nazis during World War II.

In Queensland, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s family history is well documented.

Both her grandparents suffered underneath the Nazi regime, with her grandfather almost dying from many years interred in Nazi labour camps.

In 2014 she cried in parliament while describing her grandparent’s experience, after a member of her own party made a reference to concentration camps.

In 2005 her father, a Beattie government minister, asked for his oath of allegiance to the Queen be withdrawn after photos of Prince Harry partying in a Nazi uniform went viral.

But Andrew Laming, a federal MP, claimed ignorance over the weekend after he uploaded the poorly-photoshopped image of Palaszczuk’s head onto a Nazi uniform.

The body was that of Sergeant Schulz, a character from 70s comedy Hogan’s Heroes which is set in a German POW camp. His signature catchphrase was “I know nothing,” which Lamming used to quantify his apology yesterday.

“Earlier today I shared a GIF with a famous phrase ‘I know nothing.’ It was the American 1970s sitcom Hogan’s Heroes and used to describe the Premier,” he wrote.

“The series was a comedy, without serious historical reference, but I absolutely apologise, because with that link now obvious, it is completely unacceptable, and it wasn’t the intention.”

Whatever his “intention”, it’s hard to see how invoking Nazi imagery to score cheap political points over someone just trying to limit the spread of a global pandemic would ever seem like a good idea.

Laming captioned the meme with a political attack on Palaszczuk’s handling of the coronavirus crisis, slamming her over school closures, ten-person limits, and the government’s bid for a stake in Virgin Australia.

Earlier yesterday he told Channel 9 there would be no apology and no backdown because, “it’s to a TV show and not in any way personally directed to the premier”.

But not long after he backflipped and posted the apology to his Facebook page. While responding to comments he went on to say he accepted the image was unacceptable after the link was made.

“While everyone will have a range of views, I have no problem apologising 100% to those who make an understandable historical association out of the 1970s tv show,” he wrote.

“I am mortified because the association with historical events was never intended.”

Ms Palaszczuk has not responded to his comments, but has spent today providing COVID-19 updates and paying tribute to National Volunteer Week.