In the past week I’ve been contacted by the tax office warning of an impending arrest, three solar installers offering the deal of a lifetime, and an energy company wanting to know why I don’t want to change suppliers.
Then there was the scam demanding bill payment for a non-existent order on Amazon, a research company interested in finding my “pulse” on various issues, and two blokes who want to meet, with their future more than mine in mind.
But perhaps the most annoying — and dangerous — is the spam from MP Craig Kelly for the United Australia Party, warning of adverse reactions to the COVID-19 vaccine. No explanation, just a 73-page downloadable report with the clear message that COVID vaccines might be dangerous, hinting that the rollout is a threat to voters’ health and safety.
Millions of voters received the text, which linked to a website with the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) logo, and which readers believed featured TGA credible information. That organisation is seeking legal advice as the data was out of context.
It is not only reprehensible that an MP would mislead the public. It should be a crime for politicians or parties to exploit the community’s anxiety over vaccines, particularly during a pandemic which is killing Australians daily.
The maverick MP’s move only feeds that sizeable chunk of anti-vaxxers spending their time online warning that the shot inserts a 5G chip into our skin, or other similarly preposterous conspiracy theories.
Now, Kelly is not the only political dill promoting freakish COVID claims. George Christensen takes the cake for his Facebook post expressing his happiness at snagging unproven COVID treatment ivermectin before the TGA got to ban it.
“It was prescribed to me, in safe doses, by a qualified doctor, despite the media and the so-called experts claiming it’s not safe and only meant for horses,’’ the Queensland MP told his followers.
Perhaps the best response was the quick-witted missive by Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles, who shot back: “George, you are not a horse.”
Humour aside, Christensen’s stance — where he encourages voters to snare the drug before it is taken banned — should not be tolerated. Like Kelly, he is on the public payroll working actively to derail legitimate and desperately needed health campaigns to protect the public. No other employer would tolerate it. Nor should the parties who put them there and nor should the voters who are the victims of their claptrap.
Anxiety around COVID is at an all-time high. Thousands upon thousands of Australians are waking up daily, plagued by an uncertainty around health and loved ones and business concerns and mortgage repayments.
Year 12 students soon to begin their final school exams are worried about the impact of lockdowns and whether that will stop them pursuing their dreams. Childcare workers see toddlers struggling to share or socialise with peers. Others have not seen family for weeks or months.
COVID has presented a community challenge and the response needs to provide the community with confidence; the contributions of the UAP and Christensen just feed community anxiety. And they risk undermining both the national response to the outbreak and the vaccine rollout where we need to sing from a national hymnbook.
NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro decided to sing out of tune yesterday, saying restrictions would be lifted “including for the unvaccinated’’ when 80% of people aged 16 and over were fully vaccinated.
The impact of that statement wasn’t lost on his leader, with Premier Gladys Berejiklian having to quash suggestions that the unvaccinated should share the spoils of those lining up for the jab. Her comments were important given the slow down in vaccines being administered this week:
I want to say it clearly: if you are not vaccinated, you will not have the freedoms that vaccinated people have even when we get to 80% double-dose.
That’s the message we need to hear in NSW and in every other state, and supported by the Commonwealth. That’s the message all our political parties need to share. And it’s a message most of us might even cop on text.
Is up to the people in his electorate to terminate his tenure.
He will get his pension along with all entitlements, but at least he will only be then a voice from the wilderness.
Morrison endorsed this barnacle along with others he endorsed and the weight of those barnacles is sinking that ship of fools.
And before Morrison endorsed Kelly’s candidature in 2019, Turnbull did so in 2016. Malcolm has come out swinging against Porter, who he appointed as AG, but he remains silent on Kelly.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-15/turnbull-says-christian-porter-blind-trust-outrageous/100462584
Yes the bag of cash that dropped in Porter’s lap for his failed shonky defamation to silence attempt.
Won’t he also get a relocation allowance, so that he can relocate to the same house he has been living in?
Yes, and that’s the whole rationale for his actions. Run, loose, “oh lookie here, I’ve lost my seat” cries Craig, and “can I have my 6 months worth of my Parliamentary salary as my relocation allowance please?”. He will be relocating to Sky AfterDark me thinks.
Message to voters- treat anyone sending out UAP election material at polling boots as unvaccinated and Covid infectious- don’t touch it with a 10 foot pole!
Good point
But at least they won’t have intestinal worms.
Here’s the story of a hominid called kelly,
With ego as big as his belly,
But small is his peen
So small its unseen
At least not on the telly.
Because Madonna as you well know the average taxpayer has no say in the matter. I cannot understand how Christensen can avoid prosecution. No George is not a horse, horse’s arse maybe. A safe dose of Ivermectin is not enough to be therapeutic, that is the problem identified at the start, as well as the sample not being human respiratory tissue. Christensen increased his majority due to the Palmer Blitz. It ishigh time the media took a good look at Clive Palmer, rather than taking his money.
Porter sued, then discontinued the case after mediation and payment of a small sum by the ABC
The ABC did not have to apologise and the story remained on the website
He then applied to the court to have much of the ABC defence hidden From the court file
Now he says his legal fees have been paid by a Blind Trust, in which he has no involvement
Sorry, CP, you need to either declare the donor(s) or give the money back.
Meanwhile, Scomo has thrown up a shield and is adopting his usual resort to secrecy when presented with a curly proposition
One thing, at least, is clear from all this – Porter’s position as a Minister has become untenable.
He has to go
The small sum paid by the ABC was to do with the mediation and is normal practice in the circumstances – nothing to do with the defamation case.