WENDELL HUSSEY | Cadet | CONTACT
The nation’s Federal Opposition Leader has today been issued a polite request from his staffers and the wider Australian public to please read the room.
Peter Dutton, has been firmly but respectfully asked to maybe just shut the fuck up for the next few days.
This follows the most horrific local news cycle in living memory, with the nation reeling from a seemingly unending string of tragedies.
It’s not lost on anyone that this horror comes a couple of days after the Opposition Leader spent a week tearing open old wounds for some cheap political points.
Speaking last week in regards to political responses to growing tensions in the community – Dutton compared pro-Palestine protests to the Port Arthur Massacre.
In one of the weirdest political takes we’ve seen from a mainstream political leader, Dutton said Albanese’s response to the protests were weak, using an overreaching and wildly innappropriate comparison to the 1996 Port Arthur Massacre as a political hot button.
When offered the opportunity to retract his divisive and inflammatory comments targeted at stirring up division in society, he of course predictably doubled down, a decision which rehashed this dark day in Tasmanian history for news headlines right across national TV news, talkback radio and social media.
It seems that the media’s responsibility to not sensationalise acts that may trigger copycats, such as bridge jumps or spree killing, does not apply to embattled conservative politicians.
But in the wake of the last few days events, it’s hoped that the man whose idea of political leadership involves nothing more than driving fear into the community with his highly emotive and antagonistic rhetoric, will just shut his mouth until things calm down.
So far, surprisingly, he’s managed to not wade into the culture wars minefield surrounding current events, which would be taking a serious amount of restraint after last night.
More to come.
