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Jason Clare’s “vanilla” attack on One Nation’s immigration policy dissolved under scrutiny, leaving only fruit salad and spin.

Education Minister Jason Clare deserves to be condemned for his smug performance on Sky News on Sunday morning.

My colleague Andrew Clennell asked the senior Government MP about Pauline Hanson’s call for a crackdown on immigration…

Clennell: “What do you think Pauline Hanson means when she says there should be a monoculture?”

Jason Clare: “Who knows? Monoculture? What are they talking about? People with one eyebrow? It’s ridiculous.”

Hilarious.

Immigration Concerns Dismissed

Australians have genuine concerns about immigration — the numbers of people being allowed into the country… not to mention the kinds of people — and Jason Clare behaves like a dad who’s had too many beers at a barbecue.

And spare me the “who knows” routine. Jason Clare knows very well the sorts of issues that Pauline Hanson is drawing attention to. Everyone does.

Why do we have three flags rather than one?

Why are we continually welcomed into our own country as visitors?

Why do so many immigrants not speak English?

Is it wise to import so many people from Islamist nations, let alone repatriating ISIS brides?

These are legitimate questions.

But Jason Clare prefers to pretend he’s got no idea what Pauline Hanson and the 30 percent of voters who apparently share her concerns are worried about.

He makes dad jokes instead.

Jason Clare should have stuck to dad jokes, because as unfunny as they were, the next part of the interview was just downright grubby.

He suggested that One Nation wants to get rid of anyone who’s not white…

Clare: “The Liberal Party was responsible for getting rid of the White Australia policy. Now, they’re so spooked by One Nation they can’t even say the world multiculturalism.”

Clennell: “Are you saying One Nation wants a White Australia policy?”

Clare: “We’ve got three right-wing parties at the moment: the Libs, the Nats, and One Nation.

“They’re like the Neapolitan ice cream of Australian politics. The problem is, they all want to be vanilla.

“That’s the problem here, we are a multicultural country. It actually makes us a better country.”

Now, leaving aside the point that a lot of people actually prefer vanilla ICE CREAM… what exactly was Jason Clare implying here?

Andrew Clennell immediately noticed the implication, and asked again…

Clennell: “They want whites only? They all want vanilla. Is that your belief?”

Clare: “I don’t know. You’ve got to ask Barnaby that. He’s going to be on the program in a moment.”

And there it is.

The modern political smear in its purest form.

Release the suggestion into the air like a bad smell, and then deny ownership of it the moment anyone asks you to be specific.

When Andrew Clennell asked a third time, Jason Clare suddenly discovered a brand new meaning for vanilla.

Clennell: “But what else did you mean by vanilla?

Clare: “Well pretty much vanilla across the board when it comes to policies, they’re all the same.

Clennell: “You didn’t mean they want white people?

Clare: “No, no, no, I’m not talking about that.

“Think about what they want do in terms of making it easier to sack people, lowering wages, they… Pauline Hanson and Barnaby Joyce will talk to you about migration but they’re against free TAFE.

“If we want to get more tradies to build things then things like investing in TAFE is important as well. They’re against that too.”

So one minute vanilla is a racial metaphor.

And the next minute it’s a policy metaphor.

How convenient.

So let’s be clear about what happened.

Jason Clare floated the insinuation that One Nation were a bunch of white supremacists because he wanted viewers to hear the association.

But when pressed to actually state the accusation plainly, he ran away faster than a Labor Minister at a women’s rights rally.

Because Jason Clare knows very well that One Nation aren’t racists. But he did want the insinuation hanging in the room.

Unserious Political Debate

And then, as though trapped in a children’s television script written by a focus group, Clare shifted from ice cream to fruit salad. He told viewers…

“When I go to primary schools I tell the kids that Australia’s a bit like a fruit salad.

“We all like apples and oranges and bananas.

“But they’re better when they’re all together. And that’s Australia, right.

“We’re not all the same but we all get on and work.”

So there you go.

Try to have a serious conversation about our country with Albanese Government ministers, and they’ll reply with primary school stories about fruit salad.

It’s enough to drive you bananas.

Here’s what’s infuriating though. The very next thing he talked about was how the Royal Commission into Anti Semitism will tomorrow hear about the horrific abuse Jewish students suffered on campus…

“I think you’re going to hear some pretty horrific evidence tomorrow and over the next few days in part from Jewish students about the abuse and intimidation and harassment that they experienced in universities. People being called baby killers.”

All of which begs the question… who’s stirring up all the anti-semitism Jason Clare?

Is it the apples? Is it the oranges? Is it the bananas?

Or is it the dates?

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Republished with thanks to The James Macpherson Report. Originally titled “Dad Jokes, Dog Whistles and Deflection”.

Image via screenshot of YouTube.