It would be optimistic to the point of foolishness to think that everyone in our parliament is a genius. That is simply not how things pan out. Nevertheless, it’s still pretty surprising to see some of the shit these people will pull in the sort-of pursuit of running the country. People like Liberal senator James McGrath, the one who made his big return to Australian politics after being too visibly racist even for British conservative wingnut Boris Johnson.
[jwplayer CwUqv6Y6]
McGrath today decided to tweet his feelings about a sit-in in the foyer of Parliament House, organised by the Australian Youth Climate Coalition in protest of the Adani coal mine:
Just because these selfish gits don’t have jobs doesn’t give them a right to deny jobs for Queenslanders.
Parliament is for all Australians. pic.twitter.com/wNbcdGBfUq
— Senator James McGrath (@SenatorMcGrath) December 5, 2018
Why don’t these ‘selfish gits’ have jobs, James? Why, that would be because a whole bunch of them are school students. Actual school students.
It did not take long for McGrath to be spectacularly owned by Tasmanian Greens senator Nick McKim:
Just because you had to quit working for Boris Johnson for being racist doesn’t mean you to have to keep doing dumb posts so people remember you for something else. https://t.co/1BMaIspN0j
— Nick McKim (@NickMcKim) December 5, 2018
And by a bunch of other people:
“Parliament’s for all Australians – just not, you know, these ones.”
— Andrew P Street (@AndrewPStreet) December 5, 2018
https://twitter.com/chrisjoregan/status/1070132507977310208
As a Queenslander you *may* have noticed that it’s on fire rn? Plenty of jobs in the fire service for young Queenslanders already but not sure it’s a sector we really wanna see booming (& if you don’t understand the link between bushfires and coal, ask any year 7+ student 😉)
— AYCC Queensland (@ayccqld) December 5, 2018
don’t have jobs? they’re…. school students…. https://t.co/TohhISpCFt
— Josh Butler (@JoshButler) December 5, 2018
His bizarre attempts to defend himself without apologising or acknowledging that he had been a huge wiener did not make him look any better. First he tried ‘Uhh, I’m actually talking about the minority there that weren’t young people’:
Greens Senator calls middle-aged and elderly Australians children.
Classy. https://t.co/7uqlxr30Xk
— Senator James McGrath (@SenatorMcGrath) December 5, 2018
Then he tried… well, whatever this is:
The only racism around me is the Greens, who don’t want Indians to have electricity using our clean coal. https://t.co/mJZDammQtK
— Senator James McGrath (@SenatorMcGrath) December 5, 2018
Despite McGrath’s claim that parliament is “for everyone“, he seemed weirdly joyous that police began moving the protesters out:
No respect for police or Parliament. Over to you. https://t.co/708HE736bC
— Senator James McGrath (@SenatorMcGrath) December 5, 2018
Strange, strange man.
Gemma Borgo-Caratti, director of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, said they were disappointed with the response they received: “It’s a sad day for democracy when school students get kicked out of Parliament and the Prime Minister won’t answer students’ calls to meet about the greatest threat to their generation: climate change. We are going to keep fighting to shake up our political system so that our politicians represent us rather than destructive coal companies like Adani.”
It’s not been a great few weeks for Queensland‘s LNP senators, with McGrath joining his colleagues Ian Macdonald and Matt Canavan in visibly sucking off coal while their state is experiencing catastrophic unseasonal bushfires. In the meantime, Barry O’Sullivan is making jokes at the expense of trans people to defend being anti-abortion. The fourth one, Amanda Stoker, has been busy talking about how Catholic schools need the autonomy to shut down any ‘gay clubs‘ that students form.
I’m absolutely thrilled to be a Queenslander at the moment, I’ll tell you that much.
