How about some good news for a change. In this case, the good news is that former One Nation deserter Fraser Anning‘s political party – egotistically named Fraser Anning’s Conservative National Party – was deregistered last week.
Anning’s party was automatically deregistered because it has no representation in parliament (thank god) and because it didn’t respond to a notice from the AEC about whether or not the party still existed with enough members on the books.
Let us use this glorious day to look back upon what a dangerous and hateful clusterfuck Anning’s political career was.
https://twitter.com/cameronwilson/status/1310449268654661632
On one fateful day in 2016, Anning was thrust into the political spotlight when he appeared on the One Nation senate ticket at the federal election, behind perennial lost cause Pauline Hanson and sovereign lizard man Malcolm Roberts.
Anning got just 16 votes in the election, but when Malcolm Roberts (and seemingly half of Australia’s politicians) found themselves suddenly ineligible to sit in parliament, it was Anning whose turn it was to warm the burgundy benches of the Senate.
That lasted all of a few hours. On the day he was sworn in (backed not by Hanson but by Cory Bernardi and David Leyonhjelm… remember them?), Anning said he had no intention of remaining in One Nation and instead sat informally as an independent.
A few months later, Anning slithered his way into Bob Katter‘s party.
In is maiden speech, Anning solidified himself as the most awful Australian politician in recent years. Not only did he call for a plebiscite on reintroducing the White Australia Policy, buy he also namechecked “gender fluidity garbage”, “cultural Marxism” and even the “Final Solution” in a single, problematic swoop.
Basically, the dude quoted Nazis and had the policy ideas to match, despite trying his best not to be called one.
His party leader at the time, Bob Katter, defended it as “a magnificent speech, solid gold”, but Anning was ultimately expelled from the party a few months later for apparently being too racist for even Bob Katter.
Next January, Anning made the first announcement about forming a new political party, but nothing was official just yet.
Then the Christchurch mosque terrorist attack happened, where 51 Muslims were massacred by a white supremacist. In the wake of the attack, Anning gave the shittest and most offensive take possible: he blamed Muslim immigration.
This gave rise to Egg Boy, who nobly cracked an egg on Anning’s dumb fucking head during a press conference. Egg Boy (Will Connolly) was tackled to the ground and held in a chokehold, but footage of his act spread around the world and ended up generating huge amounts of solidarity with (and almost $100,000 in donations to) the families of the victims.
On April 2, 2019, Fraser Anning’s Conservative National party was formally registered with the AEC.
Anning’s old mate-turned-frenemy, Bernardi, protested because the name was too similar to his own Conservative Party. The Nationals also contested the name of Anning’s party on similar grounds.
A few weeks after that, Anning announced his NSW candidates at the site of the 2005 Cronulla race riots. During the event, one supporter intimated and punched members of the press. He was off to a very on-brand start indeed.
Among the party’s loudest supporters was Professor Adrian Cheok, a man who has literally devoted his life’s work to having sex with robots.
Thankfully, the party ended up being a blip on the political scene. At the federal election the following the month, Anning lost his seat, and since then he’s faded into relative obscurity.
The last we heard from the guy was that he was visiting family in the US and had no plans to come home. He’s apparently launched some kind of project with Cheok as well as former Trump strategist Steve Bannon. Yikes.
Please stay there and don’t ever come back.
