23 Jun 2015

Liberal MP Breaks Party Ranks On Citizenship, Demands ABC Pull Q&A Off Air Over 'Extreme Views'

By Chris Graham

And you thought Alex Hawke was all ‘p**s and wind’. Chris Graham brings you a booming yet confusing exclusive.

A rising young Liberal star has tonight broken party ranks over plans to give ministers the power to strip Australians of their citizenship rights if they’re accused of terrorist activity.

Alex Hawke – the Member for Mitchell – appears to have been outraged by ‘extreme’ comments from fellow Liberal colleague Steve Ciobo on ABC television’s Q&A programme last night.

And Hawke knows a bit about extreme. He’s the former president of the NSW Young Liberals and a card carrying member of the religious right faction of the party.

A few hours ago, he unleashed his Godly fury in an oblique but scathing tweet.

 

 

While Hawke’s tweet didn’t specify exactly which ‘extreme views’ aired on the Q&A episode upset him, it’s obvious he was referring to Ciobo’s support for the Abbott Government’s citizenship rights policy.

Steve Ciobo... even too extreme for Alex Hawke.

Ciobo made the statement after audience member Zaky Mallah asked him: “As the first man in Australia to be charged with terrorism under the harsh Liberal Howard government in 2003, I was subject to solitary confinement, a 22-hour lockdown, dressed in most times in an orange overall and treated like a convicted terrorist while under the presumption of innocence. I had done and said some stupid things, including threatening to kidnap and kill, but in 2005 I was acquitted of those terrorism charges. What would have happened if my case had been decided by the minister himself and not the courts?”

Ciobo replied: “My understanding of your case was that you were acquitted because at that point in time the laws weren't retrospective. But I'm happy to look you straight in the eye and say that I'd be pleased to be part of the Government that would say that you were out of the country. I would sleep very soundly at night with that point of view.”

It’s likely Hawke is upset at the fact the proposed Abbott Government policy flies in the face of everything the Liberals purport to stand for, such as ‘small government’ and ‘support for democracy’.

Under Australian law, it has always been the role of courts to determine the criminality of individuals. Granting a political figure the power to strip away citizenship rights without evidence is unheard of under the Westminster system of government.

Hawke indicated in his tweet that he has already written to the head of ABC, Mark Scott, demanding action.

While he’ll likely be completely ignored – Hawke calls for the abolition of the ABC at least three times a day, usually before breakfast – the move is likely to revive debate about government MPs placing pressure on public broadcasters.

In April, Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull demanded that the CEO of SBS television take action against journalist Scott McIntyre, for a series of provocative and truthful tweets about Anzac Day.

SBS, of course, refused to bow to government pressure, and Mr McIntyre was instead promoted.

New Matilda understands the ABC is now also considering a fightback, by doubling Tony Jones’ annual salary to almost $800,000, thus sending a clear message to the federal government that it will not bow to government pressure.

We didn’t bother seeking further comment from Alex Hawke… because he would probably have sought to clarify his tweet, and ruined an otherwise perfectly good beat-up.

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This user is a New Matilda supporter. hannahs dad
Posted Tuesday, June 23, 2015 - 22:19

Thank dog we have Alex to protect our freedoms under the law and the right to be presumed innocent.

Mind you I think he has gone bit far here,after all if we all have the right to be a bigot surely Ciobo has the right to publicly display stupidity and intolerance and lack of understanding and empathy for plebs.

Its not the ABC's fault for putting him on our TV  and I doubt they would apologise for such.

Its not their fault he was way out of his depth.

Maybe they should just put Ciobo on the Drum where he would be in his comfort zone surrounded by IPA types?

Or on Insiders where he can chat at an equal level with Murdoch and faifax journalists?

 

This user is a New Matilda supporter. paul walter
Posted Wednesday, June 24, 2015 - 01:02

People don't get it.. we are watching an attempted nazi takeover.

This user is a New Matilda supporter. MattQ
Posted Wednesday, June 24, 2015 - 03:03

* chuckle* While Alex can demonstrably use a twitter account, he evidently doesn't yet understand how not to. Love it.

xfretensis
Posted Wednesday, June 24, 2015 - 09:28

>> Paul Walter

I agree in essence Paul, however, nazism is a variation on fascism, and fascism is the preferred politics of capital.  Fascism attracts those who do not want a true democracy - the 'born to rule' - once the exclusive preserve of the Libs and the Nats (formerly Country Party and Land Owners and Graziers Association)  but expanded under Hawke to cover the new Labor Party.  (The 'real' Labor Party died in 1975).

I have always advocated Anarchy as a political strategy - that is, the much feared 'mob rule' of the French aristocracy - and English for that matter.  Anarchy requires 'participatory democracy'.  That is, major decisions have to handed back to the people via their representatives.  At the moment - the House of Representatives represent only their political factions and their capitalist masters.  Anarchism is democratic representation from below. 

Not a chance in hell, eh?

DrGideonPolya
Posted Wednesday, June 24, 2015 - 10:58

Censorship endangers democracy. The militant, extremist, US state terrorism-supporting  Coalition is dangerously playing with our fundamental freedoms to speak, read and listen that are fundamental  to our democracy and security. The biggest Orwellian American, British and Australian Lib-Lab lie is that free speech endangers us – the complete opposite  is true.  Free speech is vital for democracy and for rational risk management crucial for societal security. Rational risk management, that is crucial for societal safety, successively involves (a) accurate data, (b) scientific analysis, this involving the critical testing of potentially falsifiable hypotheses, and (c) informed systemic change to minimize risk.

Unfortunately,  this rational risk management protocol is typically perverted at the individual,  family or local level,   or at the level of the family of nations by (a) lying, self-deception, spin, obfuscation, intimidation and censorship, (b) anti-science spin, this involving the selective use of asserted facts to support a partisan position, and (c) blame and shame that is counterproductive because  it blocks reportage crucial for rational risk management and in the worst cases leads to war (see “Gideon Polya”: https://sites.google.com/site/drgideonpolya/home ).

ISIS and their ilk are evidently barbarous (deadly bigotry, mass executions of prisoners, terrorizing of ethnic and religious minorities, sex slavery,  beheading of Western journalists and aid worker hostages, destruction of priceless statues ) but fall far short of the sustained, remorseless barbarism and mass murder of the genocidal British  and American imperialists and their Australian lackeys who have been variously butchering Iraqis on and off for 100 years,   with 9 million Iraqis (half of them children) killed by Western violence or Western -imposed deprivation since 1914. However  this  Awful Truth is remorselessly ignored by Mainstream journalist , politician and academic presstitutes  to the detriment of democracy and Australia’s security ( see Gideon Polya, “Australia’s Seventh Iraq War”, MWC News, 28 February 2015: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/50028-australias-seventh-iraq-war.html  ) .

Further, it is quite clear that the Sunni rebellion against  the secular Assad regime in Syria (0.2 million killed, a similar number dead from deprivation and 11 million refugees) has been backed by Australia-backed US state terrorism, UK state terrorism, French state terrorism, Israeli state terrorism,  Turkish state terrorism , Qatari state terrorism and Saudi Arabian state terrorism.

Decent Australians who oppose both non-state terrorism and state terrorism and dearly value free speech that underpins our democracy  and security will utterly reject mendacious, Zionist-perverted, US lackey Lib-Lab state terrorism , vote 1 Green and put the Coalition last.

This user is a New Matilda supporter. lindsayb
Posted Wednesday, June 24, 2015 - 13:38

Hawke and Brandis must be at each other's throats over people's right to be bigots. (lol).

What a disasterous bunch this LNP are. Among all the other things they don't understand, it is clear that the concept of seperation of powers is beyond them, and that freedom of speech is anathema.

This government is the most dangerous thing Australian democracy has had to face since WW2. It is not clear that it will survive.

jexpat
Posted Wednesday, June 24, 2015 - 14:50

Alex Hawk, another cowardly, whining Australian teabagger. 

maflaja
Posted Thursday, June 25, 2015 - 20:12

Granting a political figure the power to strip away citizenship rights without evidence is unheard of under the Westminster system of government.

It's worse than that. It actually greatly diminishes the very idea of Australian citizenship. It becomes more like a visa, a permit to stay in the country at a whim of the government of the day.

What is truly astonishing it the fact that both Abbot and Shorten claim that those people who joined ISIS (or Daesh, or whatever it is) are fighting against Australia. Since when? Has ISIS declared a war on Australia? Are they planning to invade us? No. It's the Australian soldiers who first took part in destroying Iraq and are now helping to pulverize the remaining rubble into dust.