Comment on an article in The Age titled ‘Katter dumps two candidates over gay slurs’.
A couple of prospective politicians from the Australia Party have been forced to either resign or be suspended by the party over alleged gay ‘slurs’. One of them Bernard Gaynor, had said that he did not want homosexual people teaching his children. Wayne Swan said that he didn’t think anybody can condone those sort of comments wherever they come from. Now of course Mr Swan is just trying to score a few political points, but really, who has the right to choose who will teach their kids? Is it the parents, or Mr Swan? Does he have the right to dictate to parents who will teach their kids?
Rodney Croome calls Gaynor’s comments ‘bigotry’ and says that ‘the Coalition and Labor Party must reject the bigotry by ruling out a preference swap with the Katter Australia Party’. So not only is he totally intolerant of someone else’s belief, he wants to force others to be just as intolerant. That is called bullying! Bullying Mr Gaynor by not making it possible for him to run effectively. Bullying the other parties into sidelining people who disagree with him. Bullying the Australia Party into withdrawing it’s candidates from the election. And all because their opinion differs from his.
Does Mr Gaynor have the right to express his opinion on a matter in Australian political life? An opinion some may not agree with, but an opinion of his own in a country that up to recently celebrated free speech? Are only homosexuals allowed free speech in this country? It seems they can call others anything they like, including ‘bigots’, and not be held accountable. Croome calls Gaynor a bigot and says that he has no right to express his opinion. A bigot is a person utterly intolerant of any different creed, belief or opinion. Who really is the bigot, Gaynor or Croome? Who is the one who will not tolerate any other opinion? Judge for yourself on that!
Two candidates with differing views forced out of running for parliament just because they have different views. Bullied out of their democratic right to run for parliament in their own country. That is a sad blow to democracy in Australia.
Is Australia still the country of the ‘fair go’?
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