While few would doubt Scott Morrison's professions of shock and calls for national unity in the wake of the Christchurch massacre are heartfelt and sincere, they sit oddly with reports his office threatened to sue Channel 10 over allegations he had fuelled anti-Muslim sentiment in the past.
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The threats were allegedly made on Friday night in response to a moving and passionate on-air editorial by well-respected Australian Muslim writer and broadcaster Waleed Aly.
Aly politely called out the Prime Minister and Peter Dutton for statements they had reportedly made in the past.
Dutton, who has repeatedly said the decision to make it easier to bring detainees from Manus Island and Nauru to Australia for medical treatment, would force the government to admit rapists, murderers and paedophiles.
He has said previous governments made a mistake by letting Lebanese Muslims into the country in the 1970s.
Morrison was called out over reports dating back almost a decade to a 2010 cabinet meeting in which he allegedly suggested the then Opposition could capitalise on anti-Muslim sentiment as an electoral tool.
Morrison dismissed the claim at the time, which he categorised as "gossip".
But assuming those reports are correct, it is disturbing that on the day of the massacre, Morrison's office was busy worrying about how it would be percieved, and was busy disputing two lines in Aly's speech.
What he missed in the speech that has since been shared by hundreds of thousands of Australians, is the point that too often standards of discourse on issues of race and immigration have been allowed to slip in our parliament. Statements on immigration and refugees that would once have been considered unthinkable by any member of parliament - have found their way into the national discourse.
Dutton's over-reaction, given his persistent history of dog whistling on race related matters, was even worse.
He has launched an attack on NSW Greens senator, Mehreen Faruqi, for saying he should be held to account for fostering Islamaphobia. Senator Faruqi, Australia's first female Muslim senator, was no better than Fraser Anning, Mr Dutton said.
Once again a senior member of the Morrison government was more concerned about perceived slights on their own reputation than on the important issue; the way in which anti-Muslim sentiment has been normalised to the point where the unthinkable becomes conceivable.
As for Anning, whose odious views have been widely condemned, he has proven again he is undeserving of his accidental place in the Senate.
This individual, who has never ceased to give offence at every opportunity and has been unable to find any party in which he is welcome, originally took office under the One Nation banner.
That party's leader, Pauline Hanson, has said she will not vote in favour of a motion censuring him when Parliament resumes. And so the standards slip further.
What this nation needs from its political leaders now is messages of unity, compassion and inclusion. Attacking Muslim commentators and fellow parliamentarians is not a good look.
