Tony Abbott Said That There Was “A Holocaust Of Jobs” Under Labor In Question Time Today And People Are Very Angry
Today, in "Stories of Good Government":
Question Time came back for the first time in the new year this week, in case you were wondering where you can go to watch grown men get paid six-figure salaries to shriek insults at each other. Four days in and the Prime Minister has already provided some stellar moments of political oratory, including trashing a Human Rights Commission report on children in detention as “blatantly partisan” and raising the prospect of dead North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il building Australia’s submarines.
But Tony Abbott somehow managed to raise the tone of debate even higher this afternoon, when he claimed job losses in the Defence industry under the former Labor government amounted to a “Holocaust of jobs”.
Prime Minister Abbott’s “holocaust” reference in question time today. pic.twitter.com/oGunHNlEgA
— Rhett Bartlett (@rhettrospective) February 12, 2015
Even Christopher Pyne looks kind of unsure at that one; his head is nodding, but his face is doing something altogether more complex. Understandably there was an instant and overwhelmingly negative reaction to Abbott’s comparing of Defence job losses to the Holocaust, because, y’know…the Holocaust. Touchy subject.
PM just said there was a ‘holocaust’ of jobs under former govt. He repeated it. Then withdrew it. I’m lost for words, to be honest #qt — Adam Bandt (@AdamBandt) February 12, 2015
Somebody should shirtfront the PM for that holocaust line. No suppository of wisdom saying it. Am I critical? You bet you are, you bet I am.
— Peter van Onselen (@vanOnselenP) February 12, 2015
Tony, you’re confused. The fact that we have detention camps for innocent people doesn’t mean jobs experience a holocaust. — derridalittle (@derridalicious) February 12, 2015
As more than a few people have pointed out, the Era of Good Government that started on Monday seems to have been extremely short-lived, confined to roughly between 2:14 and 2:18AM early on Tuesday morning.
good government starts now holocaust holocaust holocaust holocaust
— adam brereton (@adambrereton) February 12, 2015
A good government accepts the evidence and acts in the face of what we all know is wrong – the institutionalised abuse and harm of children
— sarah hanson-young (@sarahinthesen8) February 11, 2015
There’s also a point to be made somewhere on the irony of Abbott’s flapping the word “Holocaust” around on the same day a federal Parliamentarian pushes for him to be tried by the International Criminal Court for crimes against asylum seekers, but for the life of me I can’t think what it might be.