‘You’re Doing What The Terrorists Want’: Malcolm Turnbull Finally Calls Out Pauline Hanson
Too little too late?
Malcolm Turnbull has accused Pauline Hanson of increasing the terrorist threat in Australia the day after the One Nation leader used the London terrorist attack to push her Muslim ban policy.
Yesterday Hanson released a video calling on her followers to “#Pray4MuslimBan”. According to Hanson, a Muslim ban would “solve the problem” of terrorism.
Heads up before you watch the video: it looks like it was shot by an over-anxious labrador wearing a GoPro.
One Nation has been calling for a Muslim ban since last year’s federal election, though the party has failed to explain how it would actually work, or why it would reduce the threat of terrorism.
A Muslim ban would have had no impact in yesterday’s attack in London as the alleged attacker, 52 year old Khalid Masood, was born in the UK.
Now Malcolm Turnbull has finally decided to call out Hanson’s absurd policy. In a radio interview with 3AW the Prime Minister said “If the problem is terrorism, policies like that [a Muslim ban] would only make it worse. The object of the terrorist, the Islamist terrorist, is to get the broader society to turn on Muslims at large.
“If you seek to attribute to all Australian Muslims or all Muslims responsibility for the crimes of ISIL , then you are doing what ISIL wants. That is the classic strategy of the terrorist and it has been forever,” he said.
Good point, PM. Sounds familiar.
Turnbull went on to say that “Inciting hatred against any part of the Australian community is always dangerous, it undermines the mutual respect we have in our community.”
He added that he had said this to Hanson in private numerous times and that it was also the view of the director-general of ASIO and the Australian Federal Police Commissioner.
Scott Morrison chimed in to say this was “not a time to be pursuing political agendas. It is a time for focusing on keeping Australians safe and ensuring that all Australians – every single Australian, regardless of your race, your ethnicity, your background your religion – is safe.”
These are actually quite good points. The only problem is the Liberal Party’s actions don’t match their rhetoric.
At the recent WA state election the Liberal Party signed a preference deal with One Nation, helping them elect two candidates to the upper house. Yup, the same One Nation “inciting hatred” against the Muslim community, as Turnbull put it.
Turnbull has also refused to rule out a similar preference deal at the next federal election.
And he’s stayed quiet when his own MPs have attacked the Muslim community. On March 10 Coalition MP Andrew Laming wrote on Facebook: “Too many Islamic names in major crime these days.”
Yesterday he wrote the London attacks were “Inspired by Islamic ideology, but no one globally inside the religion has the guts to revise the ideology.”
Meanwhile George Christensen, who supports a ban on migration from countries that don’t share “Australian values”, is attending anti-Islam fundraisers and Turnbull isn’t saying a peep.
It’s good to see him get stuck into Hanson, but unless the Liberal Party actually stops working with One Nation, and until he criticises his own MPs for their anti-Muslim rhetoric, it all rings a bit hollow.