One Nation Candidate Thinks Port Arthur Massacre And Photo Of A Drowned Syrian Child Are Fake
"Frankly the whole story simply doesn’t add up."
Yet another One Nation candidate for the upcoming Queensland election is facing calls to resign after a blog post published on his website claimed both the tragic death of Syrian child Alan Kurdi and the Port Arthur massacre were “fabricated”.
At this stage it might be easier if Pauline Hanson just sacked all of her candidates and started again. Though there’s no guarantee another batch of weirdos attracted to the idea of running for One Nation would be any less… weird.
In a post dug up by BuzzFeed Australia, titled “The drowned boy, the lie that changed the world” One Nation candidate Peter Rogers claims that the story of drowned Syrian toddler Alan Kurdi was “made up”. Rogers doesn’t provide any evidence for the claim.
Kurdi, a three-year old refugee, died when the boat he was travelling on to Greece capsized. A photo of his body was published by newspapers around the world and brought the Syrian refugee crisis to the public’s attention. In response world leaders, including then Prime Minister Tony Abbott, promised to increase the number of Syrian refugees they would resettle.
“This phenomenon of world leaders was world wide in giving credibility to this farcical drowned boy story,” the post on Rogers’ website says. “The greatest social changes that happen in Australia are founded on total lies and a fabricated incident. Look at Port Arthur.”
No information is provided to back up the assertion that the Port Arthur massacre was a “fabricated incident”.
According to Rogers the post was written by his friend and he wasn’t aware of the contents. The Greens have called bullshit on this excuse.
What complete and utter bullshit from One Nation. They are racist, post-truth conspiracy theorists.https://t.co/ceqBvTrqCm
— Nick McKim (@NickMcKim) January 12, 2017
Tasmanian Greens senator Nick McKim said that Pauline Hanson “should not only sack Mr Rogers as a candidate, but she needs to apologise particularly to the Tasmanian people, for comments that are just breathtaking in their insensitivity around something that was such a terrible and tragic event for Tasmania.”
–
Feature image via Facebook