The company you keep matters in politics.
It certainly mattered when Tony Abbott took to the stage at anti-carbon tax rallies, with a background of “ditch the witch” and “Bob Brown’s bitch” signs for the TV news. He repudiated the sentiment but didn’t stop attending, and was rightly pilloried by his opponents as a result.
Julia Gillard was due to speak at the Australian Christian Lobby’s Canberra conference next month. Yesterday, ACL evangelist Jim Wallace seemed to suggest we should ward against homos-xuality like we tell kids not to smoke. The Prime Minister slapped him yesterday, slept on it, then decided today to cancel her RSVP for the conference.
It shouldn’t have taken 24 hours to do it.
Gillard ramped up the rhetoric today, calling Wallace’s comments “heartless” and “inappropriate”. They’re also mostly bollocks, as our Get Fact exercise today proves.
Depression, drug abuse, self-harm and suicide rates are higher in the gay community not because of who they like but who picks on them. Wallace feeds the homophobia that harms. Leaders should stand up and say so.
And not get within cooee of the people who say it.
I think Julia has made the right decision and I think she would make better decisions if she adopted a practice of sleeping on politically significant decisions such as this.
It didn’t take 24 hours for the Prime Minister to pull out of the conference – it took nearly a month.
Jim Wallace has been spouting offensive hate-speech for years.
The mystery is not whey she has pulled out – it is why she agreed to have anything to do with them in the first place.
Thanks for the response to Julia Gillard…absolutely spot on.
As are the comments so far.
Krudd happily attended in the past despite ACL’s form though, for some inexplicable reason, today he supported the PM’s decision and repudiated the knuckle dragging, sky fairy adherents.
I’d be more reassured of an outbreak of sanity if it could be ascertained which MPs still attend the Parliamentary Xtn group, with their bizarre study of obfuscatory texts & continuing obeisance rituals.
I am a Christian. Jim Wallace does not speak for me.