Let's get a few things straight about the kerfuffle over Queensland Senator Barnaby’s Joyce's comments on Australia’s proposed emissions trading scheme.
He didn't use the term "eco-Nazi" although he did make – and this is just my opinion - a bad blunder by suggesting the emotive charge of being dubbed a "climate change denier" was comparable to being called a "Holocaust denier." No way, and given Queensland has a pretty sizeable and politically active Jewish community, the Senator should have known better than to compare the abhorrence of racial bigotry to climate change scepticism. He should apologise. Graciously. After all, California's Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger apologised for calling the Democrats "girlie men", after he realised the state's high-profile gay community took a dim view of this remark. He was also smart enough to thank the public for teaching him a humbling lesson about the kind of political language they found acceptable.
Check the transcript of the ABC interview in which Senator Joyce made that brief – and foolish - comment about the Holocaust and you'll find, metaphorically speaking, the balloon whisk has been taken to the egg whites to whip up a bit of media meringue froth. No, he didn't say "eco-Nazi". He was arguing that the Rudd Government’s emissions trading scheme was, in effect a new tax that will affect jobs and mortgages. "The idea that this scheme can go forward and no-one is allowed to question it because there is a sort of new form of sort of eco-totalitarianism that demands blind obedience, I think that is wrong and that whole concept and process needs to be questioned," he said.
The interview jogged along harmlessly for a bit, then the ABC journalist said: "Your comments of course will lead some to brand you as a climate change denier. What do you make of those accusations?"
Senator Joyce replied: "Well, I find the whole term repugnant. Climate change denier, like holocaust denier, you know, this is the sort of emotive language that has become stitched up in this ETS issue. A climate change denier? One is not allowed to question anymore and one is not allowed to call to question? One has to sort of fall into sort of a lock step goose step and parade around the office, you know, ranting and raving that we are all as one."
Apart from the Holocaust remark, and the "lock-step goose step" reference, the bulk of the interview is standard Nationals chat about flaws in the government's emissions trading scheme. Apologise with grace and good humour to Australia's Jewish community, Senator Joyce, then get back to doing what you do best – being one of the few Federal politicians who's not afraid to stand up for your beliefs and your electorate. Don't let a regrettable off-the-cuff remark derail you.
And, bear in mind Godwin's Law, which was formulated by United States attorney and former editor of "The Daily Texan" newspaper, Mike Godwin. Also know as Godwin's Law of Nazi Analogies, it states that "as an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches." Apologise, then get back to being one of the few Federal politicians standing up for the interests of rural Australia.
Why am I defending Senator Joyce? Probably because I share his frustrations with the Orwellian group-think of party politics and because I admire his courage in crossing the Senate floor recently to vote against tax breaks for managed investment plantations. And because I was one of probably millions of Australian voters who – feeling progressively disenfranchised by tribal party politics- wanted to punch the air and scream "Yes! At last!" when, as a newcomer to the Senate, he announced he'd put his constituents above the in-house demands of grubby big-party political loyalties. Yes, I know he's defended that water-guzzling cotton behemoth, Cubbie Station and I certainly don't share some of his views on water reform or land clearing of Brigalow regrowth in Queensland. But he's not a cardboard cut-out pollie, and he doesn't speak in the impenetrable weasel-word jargon of many of the Rudd Government's ministers. Nope, you won't hear the Senator from St George talking about "world's best practice" whatever, or the need to "set progressively transformative carbon targets to meet the kind of aspirational goals we're committed to in principle." We thank the Senator for his honesty and plain speaking, even if we don’t always agree with what he says.
During that controversial ABC interview this week, he did say this: "In a democracy you are allowed to question. In a democracy you are allowed to hold people to account." Who would argue with that?