The election campaign is almost over, thank God, but it wouldn’t be finished unless we had a debate about vaccination. That’s right: both major party leaders were asked questions about anti-vaxxing today, as Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party candidate Alexander Stewart posted on Facebook about there being no evidence that getting jabbed outweighed the “risk to children.” Ya-huh.
Refusing to be outdone, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation candidate Vaughan Williams posted a string of anti-vaxx nonsense on his website, “The Vaughan Report.”
I am so, so, tired.
Peter Dutton promised everyone he had the utmost faith in Scott Morrison (the man who beat him to the PM job) and the Coalition, despite the fact he also called up Liberal legend and long walk-taker John Howard to send a letter to voters in his QLD electorate, insisting that Peter was a Very Good Boy. What a thrill for Dutton, getting a letter of recommendation from the old dude who did the same thing for convicted pedophile George Pell.
Dutton spent today actually in front of reporters, something that hasn’t been seen much in this campaign due to the very real threat he faces of losing his seat. You might remember earlier in the campaign when he last made headlines for saying his opponent, Labor’s Ali France, for using her disability as an excuse.
Elsewhere, over 1.5million people have already voted in the election via pre-poll, a real demonstration of how much the Australian public don’t give a fuck about this endless campaign of kicking footballs and wearing high-vis.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison was slammed after seeming to deflecting criticism of the government’s response to a landmark report on wildlife extinction by pointing to recent legislation that doesn’t actually exist. Killing it, dude.
Labor’s Anthony Albanese said some weird things last night, accusing Greens voters in his electorate of not even knowing where the Adani coal mine they protest is. He also railed on “groupthink” and took aim at social media for damaging Australian politics, before saying there had been a “perfectly legitimate” case against marriage equality based on religious conviction that this apparent groupthink had caused to dissolve.
And finally, Peter Garrett showed up, of Midnight Oil fame, to beg Labor to declare a climate emergency and asked Liberals to cross the floor if Shorten wins the election.
P.S if anyone knows who “Chicken Man” is, email me.
https://twitter.com/BevanShields/status/1126320655761174528
