The LNP backbencher George Christensen has hit back at his colleague Russell Broadbent, declaring the Victorian Liberal backbencher part of “the elitist set” in Canberra who fails to respond to the feelings of their constituents, and a “politically correct hand-wringer.”
Christensen’s spray on Facebook on Tuesday morning follows a strong speech from Broadbent delivered in parliament on Monday night in which he blasted some colleagues for “cuddling up to Hansonite rhetoric”.
Broadbent singled out Christensen for a special negative reference, warning that the MP’s “diatribes” against Islam would only hurt the Coalition politically in the long run.
The Victorian Liberal moderate said he should have disassociated himself from Christensen’s inflammatory rhetoric immediately and he regretted not doing so.
Broadbent said he had not taken Christensen on directly because he didn’t want to highlight divisions in the government and he didn’t want to draw more attention to the contribution than it deserved.
Christensen took to Facebook to hit back: “Victorian Liberal Russell Broadbent told parliament last night that I had given a speech recently that was a diatribe about the rise of Islam.”
Christensen said Broadbent had failed fundamentally to make the distinction that he was talking about “radical” Islam.
“It seems Mr Broadbent is suffering the same problem many other politically correct hand-wringers suffer: they do not hear the word ‘radical’ when I talk about radical Islam,” Christensen said on Tuesday.
“Islam is a religion and we have freedom of religion in this country. Radical Islam or Islamism is an ideology and a dangerous one at that.
“Nowhere in the speech Mr Broadbent has criticised me for will anyone find any criticism of Islam.”
Christensen said MPs in Canberra should reflect the views of their constituents, not try and exercise leadership, which he suggested was an elitist proposition.
“Mr Broadbent is part of the elitist set here in Canberra that we find on all sides of politics,” the Queensland MP said. “This is confirmed by the fact he told parliament last night that MPs shouldn’t reflect the concerns of their electors but instead should be leading them.
“The last time I checked I sat in the House of Representatives not the House of Lords. This is why many people are coming to the conclusion that politics is broken: MPs of all political persuasions don’t listen much at all to the public’s concerns and they hardly ever act upon them.”
Broadbent in his speech on Monday night said he had thought long and hard about how to respond to the politics of division during a recent parliamentary break and how to counter “those who exploit fear in the vulnerable and disillusioned for political gain”.
He said one of the reasons he did not intervene sooner was he’d had no personal experience of racism or discrimination on the basis of religious belief. He said free speech in the parliament was not an unlimited right and expressions of populism needed to be tempered by acts of political leadership.
“It is time for us to rise above the politics of fear and division because our love of diversity, difference and freedom will endure,” Broadbent said.
The Victorian also argued cuddling up to Hansonism would hurt the Coalition in the long run and mean that the Coalition inevitably became a captive to the reactionary right, in the way the ALP was now “captive” to the Greens, “relying on their preferences to win 31 of their seats in this House”.
