Liberal Party Senator for Tasmania Claire Chandler has drawn the ire of her parliamentary colleagues after she asked voters to contribute to an anti-trans “Action Fund” that she says will be used to fight “radical” politicians, activists and lobbyists on tentpole “free speech” causes.
In an email to constituents sent Friday morning, Chandler called on voters to make donations to the $27,000 fund, which she said would help her amplify the voices of those whose “opinion” and “rights” are “of no interest” to the nation’s leaders.
“If you don’t have the right opinions, if you don’t know the right journalists, if you don’t follow the right people on Twitter, you’re not getting a look in with those running the country,” Chandler wrote.
“That’s where I come in. I’m prepared to ask questions that others aren’t asking and raise issues that the mainstream media insists aren’t allowed to be raised.”
Chandler, an outspoken anti-trans and free speech advocate, went on to remind voters of her record of fighting for the exclusion of transgender women in women’s sport, and repeated unproven claims that she had tried to stop authorities from putting “male sex offenders in women’s prison and letting convicted child sex offenders change their name and identity”.
Senator Chandler did not respond to questions from Crikey about how the funds would be used or whether any transparency measures had been put in place in the event the funds aren’t used in their entirety.
Throughout the year, the senator has positioned herself as a key figure in the import of US-style culture wars.
In February, she was left unable to answer questions about who exactly was calling for transgender people to be excluded from women’s sports in Tasmania, as she was campaigning aggressively for amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act.
In the months since, she has gone on to accuse bureaucrats at the Department of Health and Services Australia of being “woke activists” over a decision to favour the words “pregnant person” over “mother” in a vaccination guide, and attacked the ABC for reporting on transgender women in sport.
Greens Senator and justice spokesperson David Shoebridge told Crikey Chandler’s efforts to get voters to fund her campaigning will only give more money to “powerful people” to hurt young people and their families.
“The activists being attacked here are mainly young trans and gender diverse people, their loving families and communities — a politician seeking to drum up funding to ramp up attacks on ordinary people is plain wrong,” Shoebridge said.
Greens MP Stephen Bates told Crikey Chandler’s calls are yet another reminder of the ways the Coalition have used “trans people as a political football to manufacture outrage for their own gain”, which in part cost them the election.
Why do CONServatives feel they’re entitled to stick their noses into everyone else’s business? They’re always on about free speech, cancel culture etc, when they are the ones standing on a soap (free speech) cancelling everyone that has a different opinion to them out. Flaming hypocrites!
And the fact that conservatives (usually Christian) are obsessed with sex.
Conservative or fundamentalist followers of any of the ‘religions of the Book’ perform very highly in this regard. The wonder is that they indulge in so much mutual hostility rather than make common cause.
Voyeurs?
Yep, ‘God’ – or whatever they call him nowadays – seems terribly interested in what goes on in the bedrooms of parishioners.
So much so that you’d surely be forgiven for thinking God is a self flagellating old pervert.
God only knows what we’d find If we had a Royal Cmmission into the suburban god-fearing nuclear family.
Go fund that one, Lady Chandler.
Like the senator, I am angry that if you don’t have the right opinions, you don’t get a look in. Accordingly, I am starting a fund to advance the cause of (for starters) an end to military alliances and the nationalisation of banks. Donations welcome.
May also need to include stopping the sovietisation of Australia and saving the poor old mining companies from abject poverty if you want to get the ‘right’ people engaged.
Yes. What an evil person. I’d love to confront her about this even though I am in no way affected. It’s pointless for me to be outraged on others’ behalf but I think everyone here who is on social media should get on her web page or Facebook or other social media accounts and let her have it. On the other hand, let her stay. Let her run. This will make the Liberal party federally unelected for years and show them up for the nasty people they are. I say to Sen. Chandler – “Go for it”. Of course it’s wrong but let’s be realistic. If it weren’t for the imposition of National Service and the Vietnam War, we wouldn’t have had Gough and many of us wouldn’t be living with the benefits his government bestowed on the nation – free tertiary education, long service leave provisions, the start of Medicare, single parent pensions, even the cockies got a floor price for Wool. Damned ingrates. Without Liberal nasties there seems to be little reason for voting Labor and the goodies they bestow on the people and the country. I say go for it and let’s keep the Liberals out of office for 100 years.
Yes; so long as the outcome is as you predict. The risk is that somehow Chandler and her ghastly colleagues do find their way back into power despite all you say to suggest it is unthinkable. Politicians as bad or worse than Chandler have succeeded before in various places, if not by their own efforts then because their opponents performed so badly, either through their own incompetence or overwhelmed by external events (which can be orchestrated, such as the destabilising crises engineered by the CIA against certain left-wing governments), that voters would accept anything for a change of direction.
Yes, I wouldn’t fully trust an electorate that voted for Morrison, Abbott and Howard, the latter despite being shown to have blatantly lied about WMDs and children overboard
OK, fellow swimmer, she sets my teeth on edge.
I don’t think Chandler can rustle up enough votes to get elected and as she and her ilk are a remnant of the Liberal Party’s guru of re-election’s strategy, I think that she may have already been marked for the cull list.
If she hasn’t made that list, she will focus the minds of the disengaged voter on who they most certainly don’t want in power.
Ignoring her is hard, very hard!
Chandler, SA’s Antic, Queenslands Rennick, Canavan etc. All a waste of public money going on salaries that are not deserved. All spiteful horrible little creatures whose sole purpose in life is to cause harm and misery. May they long be members of the opposition, where they can do little but wail and thrash about.
Why SA voters got rid of the excellent Rex Patrick and installed the abominable Alex Antic into the Senate never ceases to astound me.
Imagine if we’d had the excellent Rex and Pocock in the Senate. Wow!
I think SA may have buyer’s remorse, already!
Voted for by voting above the line or living in a red necked area.
I always love how these people demand that their constituents donate to the cause. If it’s so important to you, why not use your $300k salary to pay for the campaign yourself?
No, that would involve taking personal responsibility.. which must only be imposed on the lower classes.