Pic courtesy Australian |
Senator David Leyonhjelm is making a prize goose of himself (again).
This is nothing new, of course. He does this with
monotonous regularity. Usually the issue relates to firearm regulation. He
advocates deregulation, which has proved so successful across the Pacific.
Leyonhjelm is a contrarian, only because that behaviour
gets him noticed. He is largely irrelevant in terms of political clout, which
is fair enough, given that his election was largely accidental, and partly a
result of the carelessness of many of those who voted for him. They were
confused by the term “Liberal”.
If he had any integrity, he would substitute
“Libertarian” for “Liberal” in the title of his party of one.
Thinking about it, perhaps “Glibertarian” would be a more
accurate label. His depth of understanding of the concept is shallow to say the
least.
The incidents in play involve some pretty childish
behaviour. He had a verbal stoush with a female colleague which degenerated
into his referring to her sexual activity. That is not on - whether it happens
on the floor of the senate or your local workplace.
Later, he doubled down by reporting “rumours” about her
behaviour on the echo chamber called Outsiders.
A producer got the chop for that, whilst the Senator and
his two sidekicks got off scot free.
Since then, the female senator has begun to consider her
legal options, a number of parliamentarians (of both genders and both sides of
the chamber) have strongly suggested he apologise, and Qantas who airs the show
on its in-flight entertainment, has been criticised for doing so.
Leyonhjelm has a problem.
Couldn’t happen to a nicer bloke......