 PRIME Minister John Howard must distance himself from comments on Muslims made by Liberal backbencher Danna Vale and force her to apologise to the Australian people, minor party senators say.
| Does anybody pay attention to what minor party senators say? |
Ms Vale has caused a furore by tying debate over the abortion drug RU486 with published comments by an imam saying Australia would be a Muslim state in 50 years. She said Australians were aborting themselves out of existence and at the current rate of 100,000 a year "that's five million potential Australians we won't have here."
| So she's supposed to grovel for pointing out the obvious? |
Australian Democrats leader Lyn Allison said the comments were outrageous. "I think they're outrageous and she should retract them," Senator Allison told reporters. "They're very unfortunate from almost every point of view."
| Except that of truth, of course... |
"I've heard those very silly remarks made about immigrants to this country since I was a child. If it wasn't the Greeks, it was the Italians ... or it was the Vietnamese who were going to outbreed us – it's a nonsense." Asked if she thought Mr Howard should pull Ms Vale into line, Senator Allison replied: "Yes, I do, yes I do.
"Yes! I want to see her humiliated! I want to see her degraded! I want to see her paraded naked through the streets..."
"Take your hands outta yer lap, Senator! That's disgusting!" |
"I think the prime minister should come out and say that was ill-considered and that she ought to apologise. I don't think there's any doubt about that. Let's see him get off the fence for a change and reprimand his coalition members and just tell Australians where he stands on these issues, what are his values, does he support that kind of comment and if he doesn't, he should say so."
| "We wanta see him grovel, too! We wanta see him naked — Ow! Hey! That hurt!" |
Ms Vale – whose southern Sydney electorate takes in areas hit by racial strife – yesterday joined four other female coalition colleagues in opposing attempts to strip Health Minister Tony Abbott of his approval powers over the abortion drug RU486. But Senator Allison, who co-sponsored the private member's bill now before parliament to hand authority for RU486 over to the Therapeutic Goods Administration, said Ms Vale's argument did not hold true. "The point I made in my speech in parliament on this issue was that you cannot coerce women into motherhood – it never did work, it's not going to work in the future, it doesn't work now," Senator Allison said.
| "We realize this. We're against motherhood, y'know. Apple pie's fattenting, so we're against that, too." |
| It's not like they play baseball, ya know. |
Fellow Democrats senator Andrew Bartlett said Mr Howard should dissociate his government from Ms Vale's comments.
"Yes! Throw her out! Throw her out naked!"
"Cheeze. Wotta buncha pervs. No wonder nobody votes for you!" |
Senator Bartlett also referred to comments made last year by government backbenchers Bronwyn Bishop and Sophie Panopoulos describing the wearing of Muslim headscarves in Australian schools as an act of defiance. "This Islamophobia is just getting out of control and it's quite dangerous if it's allowed to be repeated by senior politicians of the governing party without clear condemnation by the prime minister," Senator Bartlett said.
| "Better if they just stick with being mealy mouthed and politically correct, like we do." |
Asked if Ms Vale's comments were simply a left-field argument for keeping the administration of RU486 out of a bureaucratic control, Senator Bartlett replied: "I don't know if it's left-field, it's off the planet is what it is."
"I mean, whoever hearda such a thing? They oughta..."
"Yeah, yeah. You said that." |
Australian Greens senator Rachel Siewert said many people would take offence at Ms Vale's comments. "I think they're insensitive, I think she actually needs to concentrate on the real issues and I think she's completely off the mark," Senator Siewert said. "I think she needs to sit down and have a good think about it." |