Doorstop interview: Senator Jim Molan, citizenship, cyber security

SENATOR DOUG CAMERON, SHADOW MINISTER FOR HOUSING AND HOMELESSNESS, SHADOW MINISTER FOR SKILLS, TAFE AND APPRENTICESHIPS: Good morning. I just want to make a few comments about Jim Molan.

 

There was a new record set last night, Jim Molan’s seat in the Senate wasn’t even lukewarm and he had to get up and give an adjournment speech last night trying to explain why his Facebook and him were promoting bigoted videos and really pushing this anti-Muslim position on his Facebook.

 

I have got to say this, I think Jim Molan should apologise and if Jim Molan doesn’t apologise the Prime Minister should show just a little bit of ticker, just a little bit of backbone and take on these right-wing extremists in his party and stop them making this country more divided, stop making this country more bigoted and stop making this country more dangerous by this sort of nonsense being pushed on right-wing Liberal websites.

 

I just want to say to you what he had posted was a post that said “Muslim thugs beat girl in Holland”, and then his adviser, his spokesperson said that all he wanted to do was create debate. Well that is not what we want to do in this country, it’s an absolute nonsense.

 

One of the posts on his Facebook after this went up said that these people were disgusting apes, they were disgusting thugs and they were filth. That is the sort of arguments that are being put up on this Senators Facebook. He should get rid of it, he should show a bit of common sense, he should show a little bit of common sense in relation to what this can produce in this country.

This is a great country. This is a country that welcomes people from all over the world and people like Jim Molan should not be in there pushing this sort of racist, bigoted, divisive approach in this country.

 

Crazy that your first day in Parliament you have got to get up and try to defend yourself against this nonsense. Even Donald Trump actually apologised for running this Britain First fascist material. He apologised and if it’s good enough for the President of the United States to apologise surely it’s good enough for this Liberal backbencher to apologise and stop making this country even more unsafe.

 

Stop making this country bigoted, stop making this country divided, this is a nonsense and this man should get out this morning, apologise, and if he won’t do it the Prime Minister should make him do it.

 

JOURNALIST: I understand the dual citizenship saga kind of remains, is it on the cards at all that Susan Lamb could self-refer to the High Court?

CAMERON: Well I just find it bizarre that the press this morning would be focussing on this issue when we have a backbench Senator, a senior Liberal figure, out there promoting bigoted views, promoting these on his website and doing nothing about it.

 

These are the key issues. We want a decent country, we want a country where people are welcome and whether someone’s citizenship is right or wrong is a matter for the High Court and we have indicated that everyone that’s got any doubts should be sent to the High Court and it should be a joint position.

 

JOURNALIST: Reports say that in discussions on proposed changes to the welfare laws in Australia the government has dropped the drug testing element of that law. Is that a game changer in terms of discussions?

CAMERON: Well it’s not a game changer for us because this government has got form when it comes to attacking the weak in our society, the disadvantaged in our society, those fringes of our society that really need some help and support.

 

Look at the 14/15 budget - they attacked people on social welfare. You have only got to look at the report that was out here the other day when Matthias Cormann was out there arguing that that everyone under 30 should be removed from any social security payments. This is another recipe for division, another recipe for crime in this country, the Coalition just don’t get it.

 

These are people that are in the elite of this country, they are in a class that are far away from what most people recognise and all they want to do is attack the weakest, the most disadvantaged and the poor people in this country.

 

JOURNALIST: So what are the particular sticking points that remain in the legislation for Labor?

 

CAMERON: Well there are a range of sticking points and especially in relation to older women who are doing it tough losing payments, so there are a raft of issues in that we will not support. We will not support an attack by the elite, by the powerful, by the rich in this country against the poorest people in this country.

 

This just demonstrates the fallacy and nonsense of providing a $65 billion tax cut to the big end of town and paying that off the back of payments to some of our most disadvantaged Australians.

 

JOURNALIST: The government has announced it’s going to expand the program where children as young as the age of four will receive cyber safety training, (inaudible) the uploading of sexually explicit content to social media. Just how significant is a program like that in a digital age?

 

CAMERON: Well I think it’s important, let’s have a look and see what’s there and it’s no use simply being concerned about young people in the country and their access to the internet when you have Jim Molan using the internet to push bigotry, to push hatred and to push the nonsense that the extreme right-wing of the Liberal Party push. So when they have a look at that let’s have a look at Jim Molan, let’s make sure this guy gets out and apologises today and does the right thing.