The Oxley Moron

Today on Sunrise they had on Pauline Hanson & Derryn Hinch to discuss Australia's response to the Syrian refugee crisis. 

Once again it was a train wreck of interview. 

But what gets me most is that David Koch & Sally Armytage took the high moral ground and laid into Hanson. I'm sure they felt quite smug about it.

Now Hanson has no credibility. But Sunrise should. If you invite Pauline Hanson onto your show of course she will stay stupid things. It's no surprise she did. She's being saying stupid stuff since she first came to public attention in 1996. So many examples. The 'Please Explain'. Calling Hazem El Masri a 'Christian Muslim' (she made a few references to these Christian Muslims). And after returning from the UK, where she had moved to lived, she said Britain was 'overrun with immigrants and refugees'. Who knew that Britain had immigrants?

Pauline wants to know where the money will come from to pay for any extra refugees Australia might accept. It's true that the government only has so much money to spend. Whilst Pauline thinks spending money on refugees is a waste of money, I think giving millions in dollars in electoral funding payments to failed politicians is a waste. Pauline has done very well out of winning a seat at one election, the seat of Oxley in 1996. Since then she has failed to win the seat of Blair in 1998; a senate seat in Queensland in 2001; an Upper House seat in the 2003 NSW election; a senate seat in Queensland in 2004 and 2007; and a senate seat in NSW in 2013. 

The problem is not with Hanson but with Sunrise. It's surely the oldest trick in the book of Australian current affairs show on commercial TV. You discuss a serious subject, but you include somebody (or better still 2 people) with the extreme views. Back in the day that would usually be Bruce Ruxton or Ron Casey.

Now if want to discuss an issue involving race then you invite on Andrew Bolt or Pauline Hanson. Just because you a racist doesn't make you an expert on racism. 

You know a segment has been a disaster when Derryn Hinch, the Human Headline, said at the end of the interview, "Would you run a disclaimer after the segment? 'I wish I hadn't been on it.' Just at the bottom. Jeez." Touche.