Former independent MP Susan Davies By Susan Davies
IN 1998 I was a rookie Victorian MP, elected as an Independent in a 1997 rural byelection protest vote. The then rampant Kennett government was trampling over rural communities and people were very cranky (as they are again now).
Pauline Hanson was crowing at the eight One Nation MPs who'd been elected in Queensland (before they started to abandon her party). Convinced she could make a dent at the coming federal election, she was planning to tour conservative rural Gippsland and beyond to make her mark in Victoria, as she is again now.
In those days Jeff Kennett had a spine and rejected her divisive, anti-migrant message (unlike now). I went beyond my own Gippsland West patch into central Gippsland with a message on WIN TV. "There is no kindness, care or community in Pauline Hanson's politics,” I said. “This is not us, this is not our communities, not rural Victoria. Send her packing.”
IN 1998 I was a rookie Victorian MP, elected as an Independent in a 1997 rural byelection protest vote. The then rampant Kennett government was trampling over rural communities and people were very cranky (as they are again now).
Pauline Hanson was crowing at the eight One Nation MPs who'd been elected in Queensland (before they started to abandon her party). Convinced she could make a dent at the coming federal election, she was planning to tour conservative rural Gippsland and beyond to make her mark in Victoria, as she is again now.
In those days Jeff Kennett had a spine and rejected her divisive, anti-migrant message (unlike now). I went beyond my own Gippsland West patch into central Gippsland with a message on WIN TV. "There is no kindness, care or community in Pauline Hanson's politics,” I said. “This is not us, this is not our communities, not rural Victoria. Send her packing.”
And Gippsland and the rest of rural Victoria largely did send her packing. Attendances in Gippsland were pretty poor and heckling was frequent. She never came back.
That message still stands all these years later. There is no kindness, care or community in Pauline Hanson's politics!
That message still stands all these years later. There is no kindness, care or community in Pauline Hanson's politics!
Senator Pauline Hanson: different target, same sentinments
In those days she was mostly picking on Asian migrants, the very people from all parts of Asia and South East Asia who now form such a vital, active part of every Australian community. These days she mostly picks on Muslims. Same rubbish message.
We are so lucky as a country that people still want to come here. Yes, we all agree the numbers needed to be reduced from their post-covid highs, as they are being reduced. But developed countries who've traditionally rejected migration are now in serious trouble, with aging populations, and not enough young people to care for the old. We're lucky. People are still coming to fill the roles we need to be filled; to pay the taxes we need for services.
Rural people in this country look after each other. They volunteer in their communities. They work together. They are kind. They care about community. They build community. Good people, often doing it tough, but caring for each other. That's a good way to live! It's not Hanson's way.
I urge those in rural Victoria particularly, but all over our state, not to be led by her fake outrage, her divisive messages, her fake orange hair, all so like Trump's divisive messages and similarly fake orange skin tones.
If you want to change your vote, look for a good, sensible, caring member of your community who'll stand as an Independent and speak up for your region. Or get in there, join one of the existing parties and work to make them develop some decent policies and processes! They're all desperately need new blood. Make them be better at governing, or at being an Opposition, because we need both.
Being cranky without doing something constructive is useless. Voting for Hanson's mob is useless. She can whinge, but she doesn't do much else … apart from take freebies from Gina Rinehart, the richest woman in Australia who's been sued by her own offspring for allegedly ripping them off.
We are so lucky as a country that people still want to come here. Yes, we all agree the numbers needed to be reduced from their post-covid highs, as they are being reduced. But developed countries who've traditionally rejected migration are now in serious trouble, with aging populations, and not enough young people to care for the old. We're lucky. People are still coming to fill the roles we need to be filled; to pay the taxes we need for services.
Rural people in this country look after each other. They volunteer in their communities. They work together. They are kind. They care about community. They build community. Good people, often doing it tough, but caring for each other. That's a good way to live! It's not Hanson's way.
I urge those in rural Victoria particularly, but all over our state, not to be led by her fake outrage, her divisive messages, her fake orange hair, all so like Trump's divisive messages and similarly fake orange skin tones.
If you want to change your vote, look for a good, sensible, caring member of your community who'll stand as an Independent and speak up for your region. Or get in there, join one of the existing parties and work to make them develop some decent policies and processes! They're all desperately need new blood. Make them be better at governing, or at being an Opposition, because we need both.
Being cranky without doing something constructive is useless. Voting for Hanson's mob is useless. She can whinge, but she doesn't do much else … apart from take freebies from Gina Rinehart, the richest woman in Australia who's been sued by her own offspring for allegedly ripping them off.
"Being cranky without doing something constructive is useless. Voting for Hanson's mob is useless." |
Apart from slandering migrants, the main other Hanson policy I've heard is her rejection of the current state and federal governments' net zero emissions policies. Rinehart’s profits grow with that denial. No matter the increasing number and severity of extreme cyclones, floods, fires and droughts which climate change is bringing down on our heads. And no matter the additional economic security we gain from increasing our reliance on clean renewable energy which we can generate within our own borders.
We can do better than Hanson. Think carefully, please, before you risk straying from our traditions of kindness, care and community.
My hair is its natural silver now, and much of my effort goes into being a useful nanna. But I still care about our communities and about our people. Look after yourselves and each other. We are stronger working together for the common good. That's us. That's not Hanson.
Susan Davies was the Independent MP for Gippsland West from 1997 to 2002.
We can do better than Hanson. Think carefully, please, before you risk straying from our traditions of kindness, care and community.
My hair is its natural silver now, and much of my effort goes into being a useful nanna. But I still care about our communities and about our people. Look after yourselves and each other. We are stronger working together for the common good. That's us. That's not Hanson.
Susan Davies was the Independent MP for Gippsland West from 1997 to 2002.