[Gary Clarke, Jackie Kelly’s husband, caught with dirt on his hands.]
For the latest in illegal Islamic-Panic racist spew from Australia’s reigning bigotocons: the Libs have been busted red-handed letterboxing fake campaign pamphlets in Lindsay, a marginal electorate. The pamphlets, purporting to be from the fictitious “Islamic Australian Federation”, carry the ALP logo. They offer a show of support for the Labor Party as their “preferred party”, alluding to terrorist links and financial support for mosque-building.
I hesitate to call it “muck-raking”, because there’s no muck to rake, except the filth in the Libs’ minds. This is completely concocted.
You can download a PDF copy of pamphlet here. Mispellings and grammatical slips are theirs:
“Muslims supporting Muslims within the community and assisting and showing christian Australian the glorious path to Islam […]
We gratefully acknowledge Labors support to forgive our Muslim brothers who have been unjustly sentenced to death for the Bali bombings. […]
Ala Akba.”
Seriously. “Ala Akba”.
Senior party official Jeff Egan was allegedly involved in creating and distributing this, though he strenuously denies distributing it. Confirmed as involved are the husbands of an outgoing MP (Jackie Kelly) and her would-be replacement Karen Chijoff. There have also been allegations that an actual MP was directly involved, but this is unconfirmed. Profoundly ignorant, bigoted, amoral asshats all. We hatessss them.
Liberal Party higher-ups publicly deny all knowledge and condemn such tomfoolery, as does Chijoff.
Jackie Kelly, on the other hand, labelled it a “prank” perpetrated by bored drunk blokes. In the same breath, she said “On first read, it is quite funny!”, shortly before conceding that they probably shouldn’t have done it. Good ol’ Aussie larrikins, no doubt. Can’t we take a joke?
ROLL ON SATURDAY NIGHT. There will be bubbles and whooping. Oh, please let there be bubbles and whooping.
[Note: this is not a genuine ALP pamphlet.]
~~~
News roundup:
Adelaide Now: “Husband of Libs candidate quits over race smear scandal” (with video)
news.com.au: “How stakeout found flyers lying about Labor”
ABC World Today: “Liberals embroiled in Lindsay letterbox scam”
ABC: “Flyer scandal ‘will play out in electorate”
The Australia: “Libs dirt tactic exposed”
The Age: “Leaflet scandal triggers resignation”
SMH: “PM’s campaign derailed by hoax pamphlet”
The Grauniad: “Howard election campaign hit by dirty tricks scandal”
WaPo: “Fake Muslim flyer row flares in Australia election”
Beeb: “PM Howard condemns fake leaflets”
[hat tip to huckle.]
Categories: culture wars, Politics, social justice, Sociology
Are cultural politics worse than no politics at all? 
Hoyden About Town 
I don’t think Rudd’s much better – [link]
Nick Possum in your city sent an email with the following:
Nor should it be forgotten that this isn’t the first time Howard’s
shock troops have used the fake pamphlet trick. At the last federal
election, in the neighbouring seat of Greenway, a bogus ALP pamphlet
targetting Labor candidate Ed Husic (a non-practicing Muslim) was
distributed on the night before the election. It stated: “Ed Husic is a
devout Muslim. Ed is working hard to get a better deal for Islam.” The
similarity in technique and timing suggest that police should
investigate whether the participants in the Lindsay scam were involved
in the earlier crime.
Interesting, maybe the police SHOULD check if there is a link.
Paul W, that’s why I’ll be handing out how-to-votes for the Greens.
Lauredhel, did you notice the way that Howard tried to play the “feminist” card– we shouldn’t assume that Kelly and K Chijoff knew about this because women aren’t under their husbands’ thumbs or something. But you know, if my partner and I both care strongly about something (and both couples clearly want the Libs to win), we tend to talk to each other about what we’re doing about it; usually I even tell him what I’m doing even when it’s not something we’re both into– not because I need his approval, but because we just have this habit of talking to each other about stuff. Or maybe Howard just thinks that feminism means that partners no longer talk to each other or something…
Yes, especially considering they were claiming a few months ago that Rudd was responsible for the actions of Therese Rein in running her business, that line so isn’t washing from yesterday’s rodent.
Rebekka, someone totally needs to do some sort of mashup with vocal from Howard set to Yesterday’s Hero.
I’m starting to feel a little ill just vaguely visualising the Tracksuit Johnny choreography for the chorus.
Hi, this is a manual trackback, sort of. I just wanted to say that I link to this post from my blog (check the link posted in the website field). I read about the scandal in Swedens biggest mewspaper this morning and found your blog trough a technorati search. We don’t get news from you guys very often and when we do it usually has something to do with John Howard. But we have too much of the racist crap up here in scandinavia and a huuge discussion about islam and islamism, and a far right party entering some local parlaments after last election. And of course the damn “Danish cartoons” and whatnot. So perhaps no wonder that they published the news about the liberal party’s “pranks”. Thanks for a good blog anyway.
Hi Mr Brown, and welcome! I found your post yesterday, and asked a Swedish friend to translate it. I’m fervently hoping you’ll stop being subjected to any news about John Howard in around 36 hours or so. May he sink like a stone.
Har. I can feel a song coming on, to the tune of Mr Bojangles.
I’m glad to hear you found a swede to translate! I wish you all luck in the work of dethroning Howard and I wouldn’t mind reading in the news tomorrow that he sunk and was never agin heard of (until he publishes his memoirs of course).
Political autohagiography… it’s a nauseating thought.