George Christensen has distanced himself from a fellow speaker who was slated to appear at an online anti-abortion rally this week who has espoused neo-Nazi beliefs in the past.
On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Queensland LNP Member for Dawson told Crikey that the MP was not aware of the identity and beliefs of one of the other two listed speakers for March For The Babies. The protest, which has been run by Victorian state Liberal MP Bernie Finn to mark the anniversary of the passing of an abortion law in 2008, is set to take place online this year.
Last month, the event’s website named three speakers: Christensen, Professor Priscilla Coleman and a third speaker credited as a “Disability Support Worker”. Crikey has chosen not to name them due to concerns about their mental health.
This speaker’s extreme views have previously been noted by Australian anti-fascist researchers. According to researcher Andy Fleming, the speaker took part in a rally organised by far-right Australian group United Patriots Front in 2015, and has a history of sharing Nazi iconography and memes on their Facebook page.
As recently as last month, they shared a “Strasser Gang” meme, a seeming reference to a worker-oriented form of neo-Nazism, along with references to the alt-right slogan “it’s okay to be white”. Other posts on their profile reference their belief in national bolshevism, a radical ideology combining nationalism and communism.
Since Crikey’s inquiries, the speaker’s name has been removed from the protest’s Facebook event and been replaced with Bernie Finn.
Finn did not respond to questions about how this speaker was chosen to headline the event.
That speaker is not the only controversial figure appearing at the rally. Coleman is a highly controversial researcher whose research on the psychological effects of abortion has been discredited due to concerns with her methodology and skepticism about the results.
In 2010, The Washington Post reported that a review of Coleman’s research linking abortion with mental health problems found the findings were “logically inconsistent with other research” and were unable to be reproduced.
“Our inability to replicate the findings of the Coleman study makes it clear that research claiming to find relationships between abortion and poor mental health indicators should be subjected to close scrutiny,” review author Lawrence Finer said. A panel from the American Psychological Association, which considered Coleman’s research, found that there’s no greater risk having an abortion than carrying a pregnancy to term.
Abortion is such a difficult issue, not something the true Nazis would have been worried by I am sure. I would not be surprised if mental health issues were linked to abortion given the social pressures, the stigma in many cultures and the vile statements by the anti choice (allegedly pro life) groups, but is the termination the cause or is the mental health already damaged by the traumas that made the abortion necessary. I wish that abortion did not need to exist simply because I cannot see how anyone but the most callous could be unmoved by such a traumatic decision. But sometimes the need is there and it should be as simple, discreet an d equitable as possible to avoid any additional trauma. I do not think it is a decision that is any business of anyone other than those intimately affected and the decision is still for the woman to make, hopefully with enough support. A special place in hell for those who seek to denigrate and disdain women who find them selves in such a position.
This article sets up an individual as having “Neo-Nazi beliefs”. Which beliefs, specifically? Is it a problem if individuals have beliefs others disagree with? It’s not as if the individual believes paedophilia should be legalised and was actively involved in child abuse. Nor is it comparable to someone who believes the Koranic injunctions to fight the unbelievers and physically attacks individuals to put their belief into action.
Just as – for example – telling someone to “drop dead” is not a death threat and should not be treated as such, so allegedly having Neo-Nazi beliefs is not necessarily reason to make a song and dance. It is even drawing a longer bow to criticise individuals who may “share a platform” with someone who allegedly has beliefs those individuals may or may not share.
Was it a slow news day? Or was the writer grasping at any plausible opportunity to criticise George Christensen?
I like the headline. George is, and always has been, a pretty “unaware” type of guy.
Yeah, there are a great many things George is unaware of.
Yep. The first three words would have sufficed.
‘March for the Babies’? Of course that has nothing to do with the common QAnon meme of ‘Save the Children’ to rope in anti-abortion Evangelicals and Catholics? Conservative voter coalition building……
A few years ago it was reported that something like 75% of psychological research could not be replicated. Much of the research is bunk. Around that time I found out that ‘the Stanford Prison experiment’ was completely debunked as a piece of science.
Freud the fraud being the perfect example – a century of careers, wealth and great harm based on the hysterics of a handful of fin-de-siecle Viennese faded aristocrats.