Australia’s Largest Christian News Site

The ABC was quick to mock Malcolm Roberts’ conspiracy theories — but strangely incurious when a Liberal senator rewrote biology.

We keep being told we shouldn’t vote for One Nation because… well they’re crazy. And they’re extreme.

But are they really?

Senior Liberal Senator Andrew Bragg was asked about trans issues on the ABC on Sunday morning.

Here’s what he said, and please note that he begins his answer by claiming that he is bringing common sense to the issue.

“I think we have to be sensible about these things. We have men and women. We have other people.”

Excuse me?

We have men.

We have women.

And we have… other people?

‘Male and Female and “Other People” He Created Them’?

Apparently, humanity now comes in three categories: men, women… and whatever wandered in after Andrew Bragg redrafted the biology textbook.

Who are these “other people”… who are neither male, nor female?

Sorry… but the moment you insist – straight faced – that there are more than two genders… you’ve lost me.

If Angus Taylor wants to know why the Coalition’s message isn’t cutting through with voters, it’s because he’s got people like Andrew Bragg in his shadow cabinet.

How can you be shadow housing minister if you don’t know how many genders there are?

And why would conservatives vote for a party that takes such people seriously?

What fascinated me even more was the ABC’s reaction. Or rather… its complete lack of one.

When a supposedly serious politician says “there are men, and there are women, and there are other people”… you’d think a journalist would jump straight in and ask for clarification.

But the comment was allowed to go unchallenged.

It floated serenely across the studio like incense in a progressive cathedral, accepted as self-evident truth.

ABC Double Standards

Moments later, however, the panel rediscovered its scepticism.

It was suddenly time to mock One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts.

“We’ve got the Malcolm Roberts unearthing of comments he’s made. He’s a senator for One Nation; a lot of it conspiracy theories. Chem trails — incredible stuff.”

Fair enough.

Malcolm Roberts has said some unusual things over the years. If he makes extraordinary claims, they deserve scrutiny.

But it’s remarkable how selective that scrutiny can be.

Apparently believing in chemtrails places you beyond the pale.

But believing there are an undefined number of human sexes beyond male and female?

That barely earns a raised eyebrow.

It’s a curious hierarchy of conspiracy theories.

Andrew Bragg on Gender ‘Common Sense’

Meanwhile, Liberal Senator Andrew Bragg had continued on his merry way, accusing Pauline Hanson for making a woke mountain out of a trans molehill…

“In terms of the trans community, it’s a small community, and I just don’t accept the view, that Pauline Hanson expresses, that it’s some great risk to Australia.

“Where there have been issues, they should be addressed. But the idea that there’s a spectra of trans gender people taking over Australia taking over Australia, I just think is insane.”

So let’s tally this up.

According to Andrew Bragg, it’s “sensible” to believe humanity consists of men, women and some mysterious third category that nobody can adequately define.

But it’s Pauline Hanson who’s supposedly insane for objecting to the ideology that produced that conclusion in the first place.

And this is where Australian politics has become unintentionally hilarious.

We’re told One Nation is dangerous because its members occasionally entertain strange ideas.

Meanwhile, a senior Liberal frontbencher casually invents an entirely new category of human beings on national television, the ABC panel nods along without the slightest curiosity, and we’re all expected to pretend that’s the moderate, evidence-based position.

___

Republished with thanks to The James Macpherson Report.

Image via Adobe and Wikimedia Commons.