When everyone’s favourite Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie gets an idea in her head, it’s generally pretty hard to tell her anything otherwise. The outspoken, brash Senator voted most likely to resemble the “wacky” Aunt who gives you a deck of porn cards and a gift voucher to Off Ya Tree for Christmas addressed the Upper House late last night, delivering an address that, among other things, very vehemently asserted that “halal money” funds “terrorism.”
“Given that our enemies in Islamic State are receiving a steady cashflow to control their caliphate in Syria and Iraq, why isn’t there a legal requirement in Australia for halal certification fees to be disclosed? And given that our nation is on high terrorism alert, while hundreds of Australian Islamic State sympathisers are fighting our ADF forces in Iraq, why is there is no formal reporting or auditing mechanism in Australia to ascertain whether monies paid for halal certification are misused?“
“(This) could allow financing of terrorists and Australia’s enemies through halal money.”
Now, I’m not exactly a great authority on the subject, but I’d wager the reason that Halal Certification isn’t required to disclose if they fund terrorism likely boils down to two key points.
1) It doesn’t.2) Much in the same way that not everyone who receives Centrelink benefits is a cannibal, everyone who Halal Certified food is produced for is not directly engaged in the conflict in Syria and Iraq.
Just in case you were actually wondering how the Islamic State gets all its funding, the ABC explained the whole scheme. And as it turns out, it’s far more interesting than xenophobic Senatorial babble.
