King Of The Gronks George Christensen Resigns As Nationals Chief Whip

Nationals MP and perennial gronk George Christensen has officially resigned as Chief Whip of the party, claiming that holding the position was “untenable” given his “outspoken” (read: shithouse) views.
George Christensen has been in the spotlight since the last election, being seen as one of the major figures of the Coalition‘s far-right faction (along with Eric Abetz, Peter Dutton, and now-former Liberal senator Cory Bernardi) who have been driving the formerly quite moderate Malcolm Turnbull to move further right while simultaneously complaining that he is not going far enough.
This dissatisfaction led to Corby Bernardi recently splintering off to form his own party, a move he had been contemplating apparently for about a year:

Christensen has been an extremely vocal opponent of LGBT activism – especially the Safe Schools program – and has come under fire multiple times for his extreme views on Islam, with many predicting that his frustration with Turnbull would eventually lead to him joining Bernardi’s new party, although he is staunchly denying it:

“I realised my constant outspokenness was incompatible with the position in the long term. It was my decision alone and I wasn’t pushed. Barnaby was going to back me in either way.

“It doesn’t signal anything else.”
According to the ‘Sydney Morning Herald‘, a Nationals source confirmed that the decision was made in concert with Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, both of them believing he couldn’t carry on criticising his own party while holding the position of whip.
The whip’s job is theoretically to keep other members of the party in line (think ‘House Of Cards‘ but without the murder and the threesomes), making Christensen a particularly interesting choice given his refusal to toe the party line:
“I was not pushed by anyone, however I did feel some of my colleagues may have been aggrieved that the enforcer of discipline was being somewhat ill-disciplined himself.”
The move will see Christensen’s salary drop from $225,000 a year to $199,000 a year, essentially giving him a $26,000 pay cut so that he can more freely accuse people running anti-bullying programs of being paedophiles.
He might deny it, but I bet you $10 he’ll be out of the party within 12 months.
Source: SMH.
Photo: Twitter.

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