Malcolm Roberts said he did not have time to refute a constituent’s claims that a former prime minister was a necrophiliac or that local councils were turning their areas into prison camps under the guise of making them more walkable because he had to focus on disagreeing with the man’s call to form an armed militia “like the IRA” to replace police.
Last week, the Queensland One Nation senator headlined an event for anti-vaccine GP Dr William Bay who is attempting to appeal his license suspension to the High Court with a claim that the Australian medical regulator does not legally exist.
After Roberts spoke for nearly two hours, the “Dare to Question” event opened up to questions from the audience.
One frustrated attendee, who gave the name “Pell” and said that he was facing “15 charges at the moment”, launched into a bizarre conspiracy-laden rant which was met with applause from the audience.
His two-minute question accused former prime ministers, Crime Stoppers and the Country Women’s Association of being run by secret societies and he said his town’s embrace of the 15-minute city policy was a ruse to bring in open-air prisons. He also claimed that Paul Keating was a necrophiliac.
In response, Roberts asked his name and then professed not to know about the situation: “And this is symptomatic of our society. I can’t comment on these secret societies because I make statements based on data.”
Pell responded: “See, I want to start a military wing. I’ve got this freedom thing. Like the IRA, they always had a military wing, right? Cause they need to have some credibility. And they need to have some force. If we want to police the police, give me some frickin’ hard hitters.”
“Pell, I acknowledge your frustration but what you’re advocating is that you replace that bunch of control freaks with you, with you in control,” Roberts said. “When you are invoking violence, you are trying to control.”
Roberts ended the testy interaction by comparing the attendee to WEF chairman and conspiracy theory target Klaus Schwab: “Now you’re sounding like Klaus Schwab. Forgive me, you’re sounding like Klaus Schwab. We know what’s good for you.”
Roberts told Crikey he did not have the time to refute “every opinion I may disagree with in public”.
“I stand by the positions I take with my words and respect the right of constituents to hold their own personal views whether I agree or disagree with them,” he said in an emailed statement.
“My dismissal of any advocacy for violence, which was this constituent’s possible view, was very clear and I did not want to dilute that most important point in the limited time available.”
You know things are seriously out of whack when Malcolm Roberts is the voice of reason!
Good to know that the Lizard People and the World-wide Jewish Conspiracy are running the Country Women’s Association. It explains a lot.
So long as the Lizard People keep up the good work with the CWA cookbook then I welcome our new overlords.
Beware of microchips in the pumpkin scones
it’s the ANZAC biscuits you got to watch out for – tomorrow is when it all happens! – don’t say you weren’t warned
Nah microchips are old technology, they use those camera pill thingummys to take photos of your gizzards on the way through. It’s the Gizzard People that are the problem.
LUV the Gizzard People – may I steal it?
I’m seeing my mum in a whole new light. And I’ll be thinking twice about eating her banana cake in future – probably has some of those Bill Gates mind-controlling microchips in it!
Roberts is forced to look in the mirror, and recoils.
Unsurprisingly I’ve never had much time for Senator Roberts or his view of the world. But i give him credit for his stance on this.
There’s an element of dogs and fleas – if you are ‘out-there’ the way Roberts is, there’s a likelihood of coming face to face with even more ‘out-there’ characters. But having a real in-person conversation with someone who is in a silo of insanity online, is probably worth a lot. Whacko conspiracy theorists have been around forever. In the past they’d get a bemused hearing at the bar or tea room and then be ribbed with good humour and the theorist would have no allies to carry on with. Now they can cluster in the cloud and gee each other up, with kudos aparently granted to the most bizarre.
It turns out Morrison was “way out there” too hey?
Having finally found my voice (the article left me speechless and in disbelief), all I can say is, be careful what you wish for Malcolm. OMG! I swear I could hear duelling banjos as an accompaniment whilst reading.