The article by Mandy Nolan re Pauline Hanson hits the proverbial nail right on the head. A no-punches-barred telling of the shortcomings of our brand new Senate member.
And who is to be blamed ? Ok some voters (in fact to many) decided to vote for her, but Malcolm Turnbull (with the help of the Greens) changed the voting system that allowed her to get so many primary votes.
His worst nightmare came home to roost. And then our beloved leader states ‘She should not be allowed in parliament’.
And yes Mandy we should and must keep our mouth wide and open to beat the One Nation hate brigade. Australia deserves better.
Once again thank you Malcolm and co for the situation.
Ross Cornwill, Lennox Head
The only way the change to the voting system that enabled Hanson to get over the line was that it favoured the larger small parties like One nation and the Greens, instead of very small parties like the Motorists Party. What really helped was his unnecessary double dissolution. Turnbull has been mute on what has happened and, given his outlook is much more liberal than Hanson’s, presumably realises his mistake. The people to blame are those that elected her and those that encourage their prejudices and harassment of minorities. And if you want to go back to the at least part of the root of the problem, many of the older electors in QLD are poorly educated – a legacy from the long era of Labor rule when schooling up to “scholarship” (primary school) was considered sufficient for ordinary people. That improved in the fifties after the County Party started seriously funding high schools in the suburbs and country towns. But when I moved from Mullumbimby High School in ’65 to Kingaroy, the standard of education of the teachers, and the quality of teaching in QLD were markedly lower,and the use of corporal punishment was still widespread, so the majority of kids left the oppressive boring school environment at 15, or just after Junior Certificate (year ten). This has left a larger proportion of older rural QLDers without the basic skills to apply critical thinking to the validity of the various racist and bigoted ideas that One Nation supporters can now so easily get from the internet.
wonderful mandy, , you tell it as it should be…..only you and me should vote.That’s the problem with democracy, it allows the silent majority a voice and then we get a noise that can out do even you.
Why don’t you have a go at the next election Mandy, worried about rejection?.
Glad you love queensland, that is where the wonderful Echo is printed.
Pauline Hansen has a right to be in the Senate just like anyone else. Objectivity is lacking in this area.
There are no perfect people in this world so Pauline is just like everyone else, imperfect.
The Senate is there to block the Government’s excesses, and that is the way everyone voted, to block the Government.