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It took longer than one might hope, but our current PM has finally had a good word for Australian cartoonist Bill Leak. Alas, as with the results of July’s election, it was a wan performance more notable for its shortcomings than coherence. Appearing this morning on Melbourne’s 3AW (audio here), Mr Turnbull had this to say when asked if Leak is “a racist”:
“Of course not … He’s an Australian, he’s a cartoonist, he’s a controversialist, that’s what he does.”
Are we all clear on that? Leak doesn’t burn crosses on other people’s front lawns and, presumably, his ongoing ordeal at the hands of the Human Rights Commission is a gross injustice.
So Turnbull will be doing something about it, right? For instance, it is easy to imagine a leader with spine taking Labor hack and race-grievance pimp Tim Soutphommasane to task for soliciting complaints against Leak — harvesting the gripe he and his team are now investigating. Or, not much harder to picture, a leader with something resembling firm convictions might be urging HRC President Gillian Triggs to get her house in order and put an end to underlings’ make-work gambits and headline-grabbing poses.
Instead, in the same 3AW interview, there is this this (emphasis added):
Mr Turnbull said the government had “no plans to amend” the controversial Section 18C, saying it was an open question as to whether the law set the bar for illegal speech too low.
That’s some logic. A man the PM acknowledges isn’t a racist is being hounded by those professing to be in the process of establishing if he is. Yet there is no prime ministerial plan or inclination “to amend” the vehicle that makes such persecution possible.
The PM’s performance on 3AW, which inspired Zeg’s artwork atop this post, can be heard in full via the link below.
