Nine Other Australian Public Figures Who Had No Idea What They Were Talking About
Jacqui Lambie isn't the only one who gets things wrong.
Over the weekend, Palmer United Party Senator Jacqui Lambie posted the following image to Facebook.
Unfortunately for Lambie’s completely irrational anti-Islam crusade, the photo’s subject was not a terrorist who had been hiding a gun in her burqa. In fact, she was Afghanistan’s first policewoman, Malalai Kakar: a woman’s rights campaigner who had been shot and killed by the Taliban in 2008, outside her home and in front of her young son.
The photo, originally stolen and posted by far-right UK party Britain First, was reposted by Lambie with the message “Do you agree that the burqa is a security risk?” The Canadian photographer who had taken the shot, Lana Slezic, was outraged. “Everything she stood for, everything she fought for, for herself, her family, her daughters and future of her country, everything has been desecrated by how Jacqui Lambie and Britain First have used this photograph,” Slezic said. “I’m outraged actually [that] they would steal a photograph without any sort of consent, completely misrepresent it, use it for their own political agendas.”
On Sunday morning, Jacquie Lambie appeared on Insiders, and was asked to explain Sharia Law. “It obviously involves terrorism?” she guessed. It didn’t get better from there.
Of course, this isn’t the first time an Australian public figure has displayed an appalling lack of knowledge about an issue on which they’ve been asked to comment. The last three years alone have provided a veritable plethora of unqualified and uninformed opinions, which we present here for your delight. Enjoy.
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#9: Sarah Wilson on Vaccination
Date: April 2013
Appearing on the horrifically-titled Sunrise segment, Kochie’s Angels, regular contributor/author/sugar-quitter Sarah Wilson was asked why wealthy areas have lower vaccination debates.
“[Residents of wealthy areas] tend to be older and I guess more educated,” she said, “so they tend to engage with the debates more deeply … weigh up all the different research and so on.”
After being challenged on the panel and, later, on Twitter, Wilson clarified that she “was asked for the arguments anti-vaccine parents cite, NOT my personal views”. This didn’t explain her claims that vaccination effectiveness was “not conclusive” (it is), and “double blind tests have not been done” (they have).
Key Quote: “I’m not going to take a stance on this myself because I don’t know fully, but the research is not conclusive.”
[Skip to 3:50]
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#8: Clive Palmer on China
Date: August 2014
Clive Palmer’s most recent appearance on Q And A came so very close to being a success. For the most part, he was surprisingly — almost terrifyingly — fair-minded and eloquent, denying the existence of an Australian economic crisis, declaring himself against university deregulation, and arguing that the Government’s proposed changes to youth benefits were fundamentally unfair.
But then Tony Jones brought up China, and everything went to shit.
Key Quote: “The Chinese bastards”, he spat out over the top of Penny Wong, whose father is Malaysian Chinese. “The Chinese mongrels”, he continued, loudly. “They shoot their own people, they haven’t got a justice system, and they want to take over this country”.
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#7: George Brandis on Metadata
Date: August 2014
The Attorney General appeared on Sky News in August, to address Australia’s fears that the Government’s proposed mandatory data retention laws would be infringing on our privacy. Part of the problem was that most Australians didn’t understand the laws. A bigger part of the problem was that Brandis didn’t either.
Key Quote: “What people are viewing on the internet when they web-surf is not going to be caught. What will be caught is the web address they communicate to … The web address is part of the metadata. The electronic address of the website.”
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#6: Ricky Muir on The Balance of Power, The Aftermarket Industry
Date: June 2014
Last year, a series of complicated preference deals saw a bunch of candidates from minor parties winning seats — and the balance of power — in the Senate.
One of those candidates was Ricky Muir of the Australian Motoring Enthusiasts Party, who was interviewed on Channel Seven before his six-year Senate term was set to begin.
Muir was asked what the balance of power was. He was also asked what the aftermarket industry was. He was not so great at answering either of these questions.
Key Quote: “The aftermarket industry is the industry… That is… Take a breath… Can I go out for a minute?”
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#5: Stephanie Banister on Religion
Date: August 2013
Stephanie Banister was facing criminal charges for sticking “Halal food funds terrorism” stickers on supermarket products when she decided to run for One Nation in the federal seat of Rankin, Queensland. Great move!
Ahead of the election, she was interviewed by Channel Seven, where she described Judaism as a religion that “follows Jesus Christ”, referred repeatedly to the Koran as “the haram”, and said the National Disability Insurance Scheme was working — despite its introduction still being years away.
You know your political career isn’t going too well when Pauline Hanson declares you’re “not ready” for it.
Key Quote: “I don’t oppose Islam as a country.”
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#4: Geoff Shaw on Reproduction
Date: May 2014
Independent MP Geoff Shaw was pushing for harsher anti-abortion laws in Victoria when he was asked by the Herald Sun to explain his position.
“If in society we are saying there should be more women on boards, there should be more females in parliament, well you are killing them,” Mr Shaw said, ridiculously. “How can any women who are pro-women’s rights say that you can kill girls?”
And then came the real kicker: “Here in Australia we can’t kill snake eggs but we are quite happy to kill an egg in the tummy and it should be the safest place for a baby to be.”
Key Quote: #tummyeggs
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#3: Rupert Murdoch on Climate Change
Date: July 2014
Murdoch’s media empire stretches across the globe, encompassing the US, the USA and, of course, Australia. As The Guardian noted, “Many of Murdoch’s news outlets are also among the worst when it comes to getting climate science wrong and disseminating climate myths and misinformation. Inaccurate media coverage is in turn the primary reason why the public is so misinformed about global warming.”
So no one was too surprised when Murdoch appeared on Sky News to explain what he thought about the whole climate change thing, and got pretty much everything wrong.
According to Murdoch, the worst case scenario projected by alarmists is a 3°C warming over 100 years, 1°C of which would be caused by humans; in reality, the 2014 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projected 4°C warming, all of which would be human-cased. (Murdoch’s 1°C was the best case scenario.)
Murdoch adamantly denied that humans played a role in changed conditions — which was again contradicted by the IPCC, who stated with 95% confidence that humans were the main cause of current global warming.
Key Quote: “If the sea level rises 6 inches, that’s a big deal … We’ve just got to stop building vast houses on seashores and go back a little bit!”
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#2: Jaymz Diaz on Liberal Party Policy:
Date: August 2013
Two days after the election was announced, Liberal Candidate for Greenway, Jaymes Diaz, appeared in a Channel Ten doorstop interview. He bumbled his way through an explanation of how the carbon tax affected the cost of living, grew increasingly confused when describing his direct action environmental policy — “a real army of people going out there planting trees” — and visibly dissolved when asked by John Hill to detail his party’s six-point plan to stop the boats.
It was wonderful.
Key Quotes:
John Hill: “The six points. The six points. ‘Turn back the boats’?”
Jaymes Diaz: “Look, here’s the thing, the boats started under Kevin Rudd…”
JH: “And the six points are?”
JD: “Well, one of the points would be — the key point would be stopping the boats where safe to do so. We have a plan to stop the boats. It is under the Labor Party –”
JH: “Forget about Labor, we’re talking about the Liberal Party. What are the other five points?”
JD: “Well look, it is under the Labor party that all –”
JH: “The other five points?”
JD: “I’ve answered your question.” *runs away*
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#1: Tony Abbott on “Shit Happens”
Date: February 2011
Back when he was still opposition leader, Channel 7 ran footage of Tony Abbott speaking with the US Commander of Australian forces in Afghanistan. Abbott was given details about Australian Lance Corporal Jarred MacKinney’s death in combat, to which he responded: “Well, sometimes shit happens, doesn’t it?”
When Seven’s political reporter Mark Riley showed him the tape, Abbott attempted to defend himself: “You’ve taken this out of context”, he said.
So Riley explained the context.
And Abbott didn’t know what to do.
Key quote: ” *28 full seconds of silence* ”