George Christensen Went On ‘Hard Chat’ Last Night; Was It Really Hard Enough?
It's all fun and games until you remember what he actually stands for.
North Queensland Nationals MP George Christensen popped by The Weekly‘s ‘Hard Chat’ last night and believe it or not, he actually came across pretty well.
Host Tom Gleeson did his best to get a rise out of the Member for Dawson. When talking about Cory Bernardi’s split from the Liberal Party he insisted Christensen was part of a “loony faction” of parliament. Gleeson also tried to goad Christensen into calling Turnbull a dud, and at one point suggested he was dog-whistling viewers into supporting a Muslim ban. By and large, though, Christensen mostly kept his cool.
“I don’t mind losing viewers from Queensland, I’ve got no problem with that,” Gleeson told his guest.
He’s outspoken..
And so is his guest#HARDCHAT@nonstoptom vs. @georgechristensenmpSee #TheWeekly w. @Charliepick on @ABCTV and @Abciview pic.twitter.com/1GxdfkHRpZ
— The Weekly (@theweeklytv) February 8, 2017
As the first Hard Chat of 2017 — with one of its most divisive subjects — it’s not a bad opportunity to reflect on the effects of this kind of stuff. While Hard Chat definitely has the ability to absolutely decimate politicians, can it also normalise them?
Over the course of his time in office, Christensen has said and done some truly awful things, and that’s worth bearing in mind. Watching him have a good-natured laugh about temporary tattoos and his infamous Good Weekend cover photo, can kind of soften the fact that he has repeatedly called for the reinstatement of the death penalty, spoken at a Reclaim Australia rally, and compared the Safe Schools anti-bullying program to “grooming” tactics used by paedophiles.
Christensen’s performance does raise an interesting question: what’s the best way to tackle politicians like this? On the one hand, you can argue current affairs and comedy programs (particularly those on the ABC) should have a certain responsibility to provide ‘balance’ by letting voices from across the political spectrum be heard. Besides, as much as we’d like to dismiss Christensen as extreme or “loony”, a fairly large number of Australians actually agree with him.
On the other hand, his kind of rhetoric, and the way he votes in parliament, does irrefutable harm to the community. According to recent polls, public support for some kind of Muslim ban is now sitting at around 40 percent. The last thing we need is more people finding logic in that because hey, that Christensen fellow seems like a nice guy on the telly.
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Feature image via The Weekly/Facebook.