Tim Watts (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Russia has a long history of exploiting useful idiots in the West, harnessing their blind ideology to obscure unpleasant truths. Unfortunately, the Russians seem to have found another polezniye juraki in the member for Dawson. The Hansard should record that overnight the member for Dawson deleted a series of repugnant and embarrassing tweets about Russia; tweets in which he took Vladimir Putin's word over the Australian Prime Minister's, labelling claims of Russian involvement in the recent hacks of democratic political figures in the United States as fake news; and tweets in which he took Vladimir Putin's word over that of the former Australian Prime Minister, the member for Warringah, and the current foreign minister, seemingly denying Russia's responsibility for the shooting down of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, at the cost of 38 Australian lives, attributing this to separatists. Indeed, despite the current Prime Minister stating that he had 'no doubt' about Russia's culpability for this atrocity, the member for Dawson stated that Russia was 'demonised unfairly' and asked, 'What threat do they cause us or the West?' The Hansard should record this as a warning for our parliament. The post-fact politics that are currently assaulting American democracy through outlets like Infowars and Breitbart are now migrating to Australia through MPs like the member for Dawson and conservative columnists. People who were unwilling, or unable, to distinguish reality from conspiracy weaken our democracy. We do not want this kind of post-fact politics in Australia and if you do not stamp it out now, you will reap the whirlwind in the future.