Mr Albanese, who almost became the Leader of the Opposition in the wake
of last year’s election, must be an early favourite for the most bizarre and
audacious comments in 2014. He has called on the Liberal Party, from Prime Minister,
Tony Abbott all the way down, to distance themselves from Senator Bernardi’s
beliefs.
But I’ve read the Senator’s book in the past few weeks and guess what!
It’s brilliant!
There are two main sides to politics in Australia, conservative and
leftist. Senator Bernardi has done an exceptional job of explaining the conservative
position. Far from representing an extreme position, it is actually a call for understanding,
for better citizenship and for smaller, less dictatorial government. He is certainly
not trying to force his views on the Australian public but he does demonstrate
the importance of faith and family if Australia is to be the nation that it
should be.
Some of Mr Albanese’s comments were gross distortions of what Senator
Bernardi has actually written. His overall portrayal of Senator Bernardi as a
dangerous extremist is nothing short of offensive.
But demanding that the leader of a conservative government distance
himself from well-reasoned arguments in favour of conservative politics is not
only an attack on free speech, it is, in fact, a call for the “thought police”
to be given unlimited powers to ostracise and punish anyone who disagrees with
the new radical agenda.
Is Senator Bernardi’s book controversial? Absolutely! But guess what: if
anything is controversial, by definition it means that different people have conflicting
views. How audacious, then, to demand that only one side of controversial
issues has any right to be spoken or written about!
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