Politics

Watch The Exact Moment Christopher Pyne Forgot He’s Supposed To Be Terrified Of African Gangs

This is so transparent.

by Rob Stott  17 July 2018
Christopher Pyne

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It’s an election year in Victoria and things are really heating up. On one side you have Labor Premier Daniel Andrews, and on the other side you’ve got Liberal Opposition Leader Matthew Guy.

It’s looking more and more likely that the election will be fought on law and order issues. Andrews is claiming that crime rates are down, while Guy reckons people are scared to leave their homes at night (you can massage crime statistics to say pretty much anything you want, so neither of their claims should be taken too seriously).

And as usual during a state election, the federal parties are trying to help out their teams a bit, which is why Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull went on Melbourne radio this morning and backed up Guy’s claims about people being afraid to go out at night.

“There is certainly concern about street crime in Melbourne there is concern about the state government’s failure to uphold law, the rule of law on the streets in Melbourne there is a real concern about that,” Turnbull told Neil Mitchell on 3AW.

Turnbull was re-heating a controversy from earlier this year, which claimed that “African gangs” are terrorising the good people of Melbourne. It’s a nonsense claim designed to whip up fear and racial hatred in an election year, because fear and racial hatred tend to be good for the Liberal party.

Following those comments, a journalist asked Christopher Pyne if he’s afraid to go out at night in Melbourne. Pyne replied as any normal person would: No, of course he’s not afraid. Why would he be?

Then the journalist gave him a little more context and he suddenly remembered: “Ohhhh, because of the gangs and the violence,” he said with a giggle.

So the next time you hear about “African gangs” roaming the streets of Melbourne, just remember, Christopher Pyne isn’t scared to go out at night, and you shouldn’t be either.