This was going to be called “Credit where credit is due”…

… and I guess I shall still give a brief tip of the hat to deserving parties, but thanks to yet more bad Family First news this week, it’s going to be shortened.

Given the bagging I’ve given Family First recently, I thought it only fair that I give credit to them for something they have got right. A bit of encouragement rather than an almost behaviorist scolding.

Last year, Family First in South Australia got it together with the local open source/Linux users group known as Bettong.org in the hope of taking their shared concerns to parliament, including the state’s use of open source software and its potential use (or at least tentative part thereof) in public education settings. As a budding educator who intends to make a great deal of use of open source software (which is to say as much as schools will let me thanks to the corporate deals DECS does), the idea of parliamentarians batting for open source, especially in schools is appreciated.

So on this basis, I tip my hat to Family First.

Also, Len Harris of One Nation. I’m not going to be handing out and free kudos to One Nation for the remainder of this election campaign so I think it important to give thanks before I suspend mercy.

People can (rightly) complain about the xenophobic tone that One Nation brought to parliament, but lets face it, the Zeitgeist of the Australian Parliament isn’t at odds with One Nation at the moment. What once came out of the mouths of One Nation campaigners in the 90s which was then received with shock, is now uttered by the political mainstream.

Something that Len Harris did that went against the grain is bother to listen and bother to try and give constructive criticism. In a senate stacked with rubber stamps, Len Harris wasn’t a rubber stamp. Even if he did buckle and give Lord Horatio Nelson his (prescriptive and anti-independence) 2003 university reforms, at least he was critical.
Len Harris had an open door at Canberra, ideologically speaking. He wouldn’t prejudice who he listened to on the ground of political polarity. Indeed, when the AEU (a left-wing union) came knocking on his door seeking a better deal for public education, Len Harris gave his support to the campaign.

If you think Len Harris, as a One Nation member was all bloody-minded hard right, I challenge you to get the same level of support for public schools from a Liberal party senator, or indeed, to find a racist opinion expressed by Harris that can’t be trumped with an opinion from Kevin Andrews. By the standards of the parliament he was a part of, Harris wasn’t extreme and he did facilitate debate in the senate, debate in a climate of increasing supression.

Len Harris, I tip my hat to you.

Now back to that bit of bad Family First news. I don’t want to spend too much time on this (you can probably gather my disappointment from the following, if not sympathise with it.)

Danny Nalliah, the prominent ex-Family First candidate second on their Victorian card right behind Steve Fielding in the last Federal Election, voice-of-God declaring Howard the victor of the 2007 Federal Election and notorious vilifier of Islam, has been rubbing shoulders with a particularly nasty breed. Nalliah, after being warned of their nature, appeared as a guest speaker amongst the Australian League of Rights.

The same League of Rights that denies that the Holocaust happened in WWII. The same League of Rights that believe the ludicrous conspiracy theory that the world is run by secretive Jews and that The Protocols to the Elders of Zion (an anti-semitic tract based on the most spurious fictions) is truthful.

Incidentally, the League of Rights is vehemently anti-republicanism(/staunch monarchist), anti-union and characterises itself as traditionally Christian. This makes them a bit like the 1930s fascist New Guard and Old Guard (except without the caches of weapons or links to the founders of the Liberal Party.)

The League of Rights, unlike the New or Old Guard, by today’s standards could not be described as terrorists. I don’t endorse the censoring of their views in line with the treatment that Nalliah got from the Victorian Government. That doesn’t mean that they aren’t a den of nasty. They are.

Given that Nalliah was aware of their nature, what in the hell was he thinking? Why was he courting them? While Nalliah himself isn’t a Holocaust denier and one can credibly imagine that he himself isn’t particularly anti-Jew, we can accept his association as at least credible evidence of an unhealthy comfort with antisemitism and more broadly with hateful conspiracy theorists (the latter not at all at odds with his own views about Muslims).

Nalliah isn’t the only Family First associated also-ran to have a nasty side exposed this week (and no, I’m not talking about Quah’s exposed penis, which thanks to The Chaser, I’ve now seen – thanks guys I didn’t need that). Ben Jacobsen a Queensland Family First candidate has demanded in no uncertain terms that Liberal candidate Charlie McKillop should disclose her sexuality, expounding the importance that the electorate know not just her sexuality, but that of all candidates in Australia.

He’s back-peddled now, owing most likely to the political disadvantage this puts his party in.

Enough is enough. The backpeddlling and denial is just so utterly incredulous. Every election, Family First has a few nasty exploits leak out from behind the veneer and they just try to cover up with another coat. Andrea Mason, way back when she was leader, told us that it was because they were a new party and that they hadn’t screened all the candidates. Well they’ve had enough time to make some change, but alas the vile hatred still leaks out through the veneer as much as it always has.

Family First has told us that they aren’t a Christian Party. This is a lie. Heck, Nalliah openly questions if Kevin Rudd is Christian enough (not that Christianity is a criteria for good governance)! They have told us that they aren’t homophobic and inferred that they aren’t obsessed with people’s sexuality. Not true. Not even remotely true. Jacobsen is the second Family First candidate in Queensland to fixate upon the sexuality of a female Liberal candidate and Family First’s definition of Family excludes gay parents.

There is a hint of antisemitism that has always run through the Christian Right, and I suspect that Nalliah, while perhaps not an anti-Semite himself, is probably just the very tip of an iceberg that descends deep into Family First’s ranks. Perhaps Nalliah is even naive to the nature of the iceberg he stands upon.

Of course, Family First will probably deny this as well, but so far, almost everything that Family First has denied (at least their denials to prominent accusations) has turned out to be true. Sure, Family First have denied being “anti-immigration right”, but there was no substantial allegation of that in the first place. Christian party? True. Don’t like gays? True. Pro-pseudo-science political wedges? True.

No, we’ve had the violent poofter bashers and the public penis flashers, it’s only a matter of time before we get the rotting corpse molesters and the human piss ingesters. And even then, Family First will continue to apply the veneer over its sordid, hateful, rotten core.

Lets just hope that at least Australians don’t treat them as top blokes after their political death, and preferably before so as to bring it on quicker. I’d like to spend more time patting pollies on the back, than rebuking them.

~ Bruce

PS. Cheers to The Editor, AV (link leads to strong language – not safe for work) and Jeremy for providing some of the links in this post.

PPS. John Howard has refused to sever ties with Danny Nalliah.