Not for the first time, George Christensen has hijacked national attention — pushing the boundaries by embracing the fringe.
At the weekend he appeared on the show of far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. He indulged the borderline deranged commentary of Jones while adding his own fear mongering and dog-whistling — all while promoting his newsletter, naturally.
The appearance earned the strongest condemnations yet from the prime minister, deputy prime minister and members of his partyroom.
But the condemnation doesn’t matter one bit. The MP is treading water until the election which he isn’t contesting. In the meantime, he’s spending a lot of his waking hours trying to grow his audience by promoting his newsletter and social media audiences — including spending thousands of dollars on Facebook ads, presumably paid for by the taxpayer.
As predicted by Crikey in April, he’s well on his way to a post-politics career as an online political influencer who monetises his audience. Soon he’ll be fully unleashed and largely irrelevant.
What he leaves behind, however, is a blueprint for other conservative politicians. In a world where attention is power, any politician can dog-whistle to the fringes, embrace their key figures, and revel in any backlash.
We’re already seeing other MPs take lessons from the Christensen playbook. Senator Matt Canavan is now a professional social media troll who went on the podcast of Steve Bannon, the former Trump lieutenant who has emerged as a major source of misinformation and conspiracy in the post-Trump right-wing media ecosystem.
Senator Alex Antic, who also went on Bannon’s podcast, has done interviews with anti-vaxxer group Reignite Democracy Australia’s Monica Smit, who has called for chief health officers to be tried for crimes against humanity. She also interviewed Senator Gerard Rennick, who has spent the month posting pictures of people he claims have received vaccine injuries, a common trope of anti-vaxxers. While none of them have explicitly promoted conspiracy theories, they’ve all rubbed shoulders — thereby endorsing — people who are making careers out of undermining trust in institutions and sowing discord based on lies.
Importantly, Christensen has showed there are no real consequences to being told off.
The rebukes have come too late to affect Christensen, and even then they’re just words. There’s been no public discussion about kicking him out of the partyroom, even as he said he’ll vote only on his conscience. If anything, Nationals Leader Barnaby Joyce has repeatedly defended his right to free speech — despite the disgust of his fellow partyroom members about some of Christensen’s comments.
Whether it’s because these politicians hope to harness the votes of the fringes or because they don’t want to draw attention to it by responding to it, we’ve seen a remarkable reluctance to condemn members of the government for undermining its own work.
The benefits are growing your audience, triggering the left (which in modern politics is something that culture warriors are rewarded for doing) and, if things go right, even some news coverage that can be used to paint the politician as the victim. And unless you’re someone in a marginal seat, the only people you ever have to answer to is the increasingly polarised members of your own branch or party.
By the middle of next year, Christensen will be gone from federal politics. But the member for Dawson has shown the way forward for a new generation of modern conservative politicians.
“Maverick” is much too kind a word to use to describe Christensen. Makes it sound like he might be one of the good guys bucking the system. He’s not. He’s a dangerous, opportunistic grifter like the rest of them
An appalling creature who should never have been allowed into politics.
He does fit the profile for a follower of Barnaby Joh though.
The people of Dawson elected him. Regional QLD seems to be full of people with odd ideas.
Yes – that is the problem. Who will be the new member for Dawson?? A Christensen clone or worse!!
so the ones who oppose Christenson, and his ilk, need to go past the electors are “odd” and work out why they vote for someone like him. My bet is that they feel alienated, angry and not heard, and Christenson panders to that. He can say look I’m just like you, I’m also not heard in parliament, and I’m laughed at so I’m just like you. everyone else laughs at them (calls them odd), or doesn’t take them seriously, so they don’t vote for them.
If we are to oust the likes of Chrstenson, we need to build bridges with his electors, and work with them so that their concerns are heard and taken serously, and they know that something will be done about it.
You seem to assume that his voters have some form of cerebration.
This seems unlikely – they vote LNP so evidence of thought is scarce to nonexistent.
They have the same mindset as the 20 million Americans who still believe that Biden stole the election.
The hillbilly state kept the corrupt Bjelke-Petersen regime in power for 20 years. Think of all the toxic MP’s, Fat George’s predecessor Deeanne Kelly, Canavan, Laming, Slipper, Hinze, Campbell Newman and Fat Clive who learned his politcs at Sir Joh’s knee. And neofascist Pauline Hanson for 25 years and her “brains” James CAshby and arch conspiracist Malcolm Roberts.
Yes they are all from Qld and have learnt to play the electorate. It will wane slowly as the people become more educated and the coal industry slowly dies. My rural area will soon elect another fossil fuel looney of the Malcolm Roberts variety, primed to expose his ignorance to the nation.
Don’t give this looney tunes oxygen.
Figuratively or literally, I’d argue.
“Christensen…..has shown the way forward for a new generation of modern conservative politicians.”
Now that’s a scary thought.
Such people are not “conservative” in the true sense of the word.
They are in truth reactionary in opposing all political, social, progress and reform using deflection, dissimulation, hypocrisy, mendacity and obfuscation with mendacity much to the fore.
As clearly evidenced by what both Christensen, Kelly, Rennick et al spout both in Parliament and on what in reality is anti social media.
Who has said Big George is finished in politics; certainly he hasn’t. It is entirely possible he may join his best mate Shorty Craig Kelly in the United Australia Party financed by Big Big Clive.Thus providing the financial megaphone to spread their bile and divide the nation further. An off the planet move by Wifey and Mummy Amanda Stoker may be a move to the UAP. She number three on the Senate ticket for the LNP and may not be re-elected. A move the UAP as number one on the Senate ticket may be enticing to her. The only problem is that her ego sees her as future Prime Minister material.
Then used, like the NP or QLD LNP, to put pressure on moderate Liberals and more enlightened policies down south….