…and she’s running for Parliament.

No, it’s not Pauline Hanson, although the media have dubbed her as the “next Pauline Hanson”.

Who? This dopey cow.

Small wonder Kate McCullock has joined the One Nation Party and will be their candidate for the seat of Macarthur in the next Federal Election, according to a press release from the Ku Klux Klan One Nation Party today.

Mad Kate is standing for the seat because:

…she felt strongly about freedom of speech.

“So many people felt so strongly about the issue in Camden but they were too terrified to speak out, and that’s sad,” she said.

She hoped standing as a candidate and “saying the truth and what I think” would give Australians the courage to speak up.

Or allow bigots and racists to spew their bile. Making it acceptable to be racist and ignorant and xenophobic and all that jazz.

Of course, racism and bigotry is never acceptable. Except Kate’s not racist, is she? Oh no. It’s the media’s fault for portraying her like that:

But Mrs McCulloch said she was prepared for an onslaught from the media.

“I have a feeling how the media are going to portray me as xenophobic and racist,” she said.

“They will sensationalise. You have to cop it sweet.

“It doesn’t worry me what they call me. I’ve got six kids. I know I stand for good values.”

That’s right. She’s not xenophobic and racist, she stands for good values (and what the hell does having six kids got anything to do with anything?). But she still thinks

…too much time and money is being spent on helping poorer countries overseas and helping asylum seekers, while Australian citizens such as farmers needed help.

Yeah, real good values, Mad Kate. Farmers need help from time to time but I would hardly put them in the same basket as asylum seekers.

Mad Kate’s good values also means being nice about other cultures:

We don’t want [Muslims] not only here, we don’t want them in Australia. They’re an oppressive society, they’re a dictatorship… The ones that come here oppress our society, they take our welfare and they don’t want to accept our way of life.

Oh, sorry. Hang on, I’m sure I can find something she’s said that demonstrates Mad Kate’s good values…

Go and do something while I search. Go on, then. It will take me a while.

So, I’ve blogged about this before, as has Scott. The proposed Islamic school in Camden, the resulting outpouring of xenophobia and hypocrisy, and the publicity given to this stupid bint. Oh yeah, and bleatings about some fucking cemetary.

Yesterday in the SMH, there was a report about the appeal against council’s decision, with some familiar names, as well as new ones, making some bloody awful bigoted statements. Again. In fact, I was struck by how paranoid these freaks sound. There seems to be a new level of hysteria in their ridiculous statements.

Check them out. From the aforementioned stupid bint, Kate McCulloch:

…said she was “no redneck xenophobic racist like the media have put to me”.

“Let’s start making people understand that the Western way of life is the best way of life,” she said.

Yeah, well, she’s not exactly reaching out to them to make them “understand”. There are so many other things wrong with that statement as well: the “Western way of life” is undefinable, for one. Second, it’s subjectively not the “best way of life” – maybe for her it is but it’s not for everyone. Third, many Muslims live in the West. So what? I really don’t get her at all.

Moving on.

Judith Bond said the school would teach war and how to kill.

“Values of violence will be emphasised. It will be a breeding ground for terrorists … There will be a surge of gang rapes, looting and attacking infidels,” Ms Bond said.

I don’t even need to comment on this. Its utter stupidity and offensiveness speaks for itself.

Next.

The area’s Christian values were threatened by the proposal, said another resident, John Waterhouse, who warned Christmas decorations and nativity scenes would be “pulled down or withdrawn on some sort of process of religious nit-picking”.

Describing Camden as “the mouse that dared to roar”, he said he did not want prayer mats unrolled in shops or “[our] teenage daughters subjected to demeaning taunts wearing jeans, shorts or T-shirts”.

I really don’t know where to start with this one… Or maybe I’m just feeling sicker and sicker with the blatant bigotry and ignorance.

But on the opening day of the appeal to the Land and Environment Court on Tuesday, council’s barrister, Craig Leggat, SC, opened his evidence with a letter signed by a group of the region’s Christian leaders, who said Islam was an ideology with a plan for world domination.

Hang on, I thought traditionally it was the Jews who were planning world domination? Has anyone notified ZOG about this?

Come on, Camden. You can be better than this.

Ten-plus years on, we’re still getting doomsday predictions from our right-wing politicians who still seem to think getting swamped by whoever the latest Scary People are. 

Pauline Hanson in 1996:

“I believe we are in danger of being swamped by Asians. Between 1984 and 1995, 40 per cent of all migrants coming into this country were of Asian origin. They have their own culture and religion, form ghettos and do not assimilate.”

Of course, John Howard never denounced this blatant race-baiting and xenophobia. He just stole Pauline’s policies and made this country an embarrassing one to live in (yeah yeah, the right-wing morons reading this are probably thinking “If you don’t like it, leave!” Get fucked. That’s such a lame-arse response and you know it).

The same old bullshit continues today, courtesy of the doddery dribbling fuckwit Bill Heffernan:

Liberal senator Bill Heffernan later told reporters that Australia was at risk of being swamped by millions of climate-change refugees in the future, declaring it “absolute lunacy” to change the border protection regime.

The sooner Heffernan and his mob piss off, the better.

What’s the worst bit of this video produced by Australia’s equivalent of the British National Party, the Australian Protectionist Party?

• The Fred and Sharon-esque production values;
• The Prodos-esque midi music; or
• The hideous messages of hate and intolerance?

I’ll tell you what’s the funniest bit, though — it’s when the APP muppet in the Q&A audience tells Bob Brown that Islam is not a race so being anti-Islam is not racist, but then in the same breath tells Brown that “in Islam” he’d be hung. (I’ve looked on Google Earth and I can’t find “Islam”.) Even funnier is that the rabidly anti-homosexual APP call themselves a “credible alternative” to “rainbow extremists”, so Brown being hung in the country of Islam would probably be celebrated at APP headquarters with a round of watermelon Bacardi Breezers.

Back in May of this year, it was decided by Council that there was not to be any Islamic school built in Camden on “planning and development grounds”. Others said this was bullshit: the rejection of the proposal was to appease the racist and xenophobic sentiments that were running high and out of control at the time. Religious intolerance was blatantly feverish. Who can forget the gutless, lowly act of putting the heads of two pigs on stakes on the site of the proposed Islamic school in November last year? Who can forget the pin-up girl of racism and bigotry, Kate McCulloch and her horrid statements such as, “We don’t want [Muslims] not only here, we don’t want them in Australia. They’re an oppressive society, they’re a dictatorship… The ones that come here oppress our society, they take our welfare and they don’t want to accept our way of life.”

Religious intolerance is well and alive… well, unless there are plans for a Catholic school to be built in the same area.

The same dickhead who objected to the Islamic school, the president of the Camden/Macarthur Residents’ Group, Emil Sremchevich, has not seen the Development Application for the Catholic proposal yet. However, he reckons they’ve “ticked all the right boxes” and that “Catholics are part of our community so we should be supporting it on this basis alone. We have to welcome them. To become part of a community, you need to live in the community. You can’t just turn up.”

You can’t just turn up? Then, Mr Sremchevich, go back to wherever you came from! You weren’t invited either. No one ever gets an invite. We all just turn up, one time or another.

The Quranic Society correctly pointed out that Mr Sremchevich’s comments are racist. How did he respond to that? Very, very poorly. Who the fuck made him the president of the Camden/Macarthur Residents’ Group?! The guy is absolutely hopeless!

This is how he responded: “Why is that racist? Why is it discriminatory? It’s very simple: people like some things but don’t like other things. Some of us like blondes, some of us like brunettes. Some of us like Fords, some of us like Holdens. Why is it xenophobic just because I want to make a choice? If I want to like some people and not like other people, that’s the nature of the beast.”

My reaction, upon reading his feeble rationalisaton, was one of utter disbelief. People, it seems, are nothing more important than a mere car model or a hair colour.

And it’s not xenophobia but a choice for this wanker? Wrong. There are no choices in liking some people and not others. Singling out one group of people for condemnation based on religion is xenophobia, not a choice. Xenophobia being the fear of the “alien” or foreigner. Many Catholics in Australia are foreigners, come to think of it.

What a fucking idiot.

After being reported missing yesterday Kim Beazley has been sighted on the opinion pages of The Age. Accusing Amanda Vanstone of distracting attention from work visa issues by calling him a racist, Kim does the same, distracting attention from his being called a racist by focusing on work visa issues. Apparently it’s a race to the bottom in the brave new world of WorkChoices — and I can’t much argue with that.

So some ticks for Kim’s efforts to turn the debate around and have it on his terms, but some crosses for his continued oversimplification of the IR debate with lines such as this:

And in the end, this is not about xenophobia or rogue bosses — this is all about the Prime Minister’s wages race to the bottom. Labor will halt the race to the bottom by ripping up the mechanism that allows it — Australian Workplace Agreements.

And Kim even found the space in his article for an opportunistic plug for his pathetic and xenophobic values pledge policy:

But I am strongly of the view that workers who come to Australia should understand the Aussie work ethic, and a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.

It’s one of the reasons I want these workers to sign up to these values when they come to Australia.

But most offensive is Kim’s ongoing pursuit of mediocrity, with his continued pitching of all policy to “middle Australia.” The article was bookended with claims that John Howard and WorkChoices are “delivering a one-two punch to middle Australia.” Can’t really argue with that, but I’d like to think that a Labor government would govern for all Australians, not just the middle, with a vision for greatness, not ordinariness.

Sorry, Kim Beazley, I’ve had enough. You’ve been opposition leader for the better part of a decade and I thought you’d have got your act together by now. Fair enough, you still feel bitter about having the win snatched from your waiting paws in 2001 but isn’t it time to move on? You’ve been leader this time around for over 18 months and we still don’t know what you stand for. John Howard’s advice on the weekend to state Liberal opposition leaders was this: “You’ve got to develop, over a longer period of time, an alternative policy, an alternative story as to how you want the state governed.” Good advice, Kim.

I’m a fairly keen political observer and all that comes to my mind when I try to think of your policies is: abolish AWAs, set up some sort of ISP porn filter, and boost politician superannuation to pre-Latham levels. Oh, and of course your latest split-second brainwave: put an Australian values checkbox on immigration forms.

That has got to be the lowest of the low, Kim. Instead of developing proper, considered and grown-up national security policy you put on your racist hat and populist pants and try to out-Howard John Howard.

You’re an embarrassment, Kim. Almost every single one of your policy announcements seems, at best, ill-considered and, at worst, totally reactive. It’s hard to think of anything you’ve said of any substance that wasn’t a knee-jerk reaction to the Government, the unions, or somebody within your own party. And worse is the distinct impression that I get of you being somewhat disinterested and lacking passion in the job. I know you started shouting more in Question Time earlier this year but it’s quite obvious that your increased volume is nothing more than an attempt to prove that you are in possession of “ticker”.

You see, Kim, I really want to vote for Labor. I desperately want to vote for Labor. It would take something very, very big to make me vote Liberal. But, Kim, you’re doing everything you can to make me cross to the dark side.

It’s time to go, Kim, before it’s too late. Quit now so that your successor has half a chance to establish themselves before the ‘07 election.

Say what you like about Mark Latham, but at least he had a vision for the nation and the entire electorate knew exactly what he stood for. And we knew he believed in it himself.

UPDATE (6.55pm): SBS News has just reported that about 3.5 million tourists arrive each year on electronic visas and don’t fill out any visa paperwork on the plane or upon arrival. So, Kim, did your homework then?

On September 11 the slippery argument of whether Australia is safer or not after five years of “war on terror” was always going to pop up. John Howard says yes, we are safer and has called on Muslims to learn English, integrate, and denounce terrorism. Kim Beazley says no, we’re not safer and has called for tourists and immigrants to sign up to Australian values (”respect for each other, mateship, fairness, freedom and respect for our laws”), along with the teaching of Australian values to immigrant children in schools.

You see, if only all of them Muslims would become more like Steve Irwin everything would be okay and you could throw your fridge magnet out. Steve Irwin was so Australian he even died like an Australian. Does anybody else find this populist and xenophobic attitude offensive that “if only they were more like us, instead of more like them” our Way Of Life™ wouldn’t be threatened?

And what is this Way Of Life™ anyway?

But back to the point, and the superiority of Australians and Australian values. All Muslims should became Australian (because, you know, Muslim is a nationality, not a religion) because no Australian’s ever done anything contrary to our Way Of Life™ before.