Is it just me or does everyone think Scott Morrison has done the right thing?

Is it just me or does everyone think Scott Morrison has done the right thing?

Is it just me or does everyone think Scott Morrison has done the right thing?

Yesterday the Prime Minister declared the Liberals will preference Labor ahead of One Nation at the upcoming election after revelations of National Rifle Association (NRA) lobbying.

Mr Morrison said it was a decision he had “not come to lightly”, and he had based it on his “strong view about the sanctity of Australia’s gun laws”.

It would have been difficult for Scott Morrison, he has an election to fight in May and One Nation bleeds votes from the LNP.

Those voters might be the electoral equivalent of your drunk and mouthy uncle at a family wedding, but they’re still family.

Revelations in the ‘How to Sell a Massacre’ documentary have been terrible.

In the second instalment, Pauline Hanson has implied that the 1996 Port Arthur massacre was a government conspiracy. That a government led by John Howard would gun down children visiting a tourist attraction, because they wanted to change gun laws in Australia. It is so deeply offensive.

Also in part two, representatives of the NRA advise former member for Buderim Steve Dickson and One Nation Chief of Staff James Ashby how to undermine Australia’s National Firearms Agreement.

They suggest One Nation pens articles for sympathetic news agencies or law enforcement officers willing to put their own name on the by-line in a deliberate attempt to get people angry.

Mr Dickson then compares winning the balance of power in parliament to putting the government in a headlock and holding a gun to its head, “The thing you need to understand about the balance of power is the headlock and the 9mm to the back of the head. That’s where it sits,” Mr Dickson said.

People get very excited about preference voting in Australia, confusing it with the dark arts. The truth is, how to vote cards and preference deals are just a suggestion, your vote is still your own. They must work because political parties persist with them but in my experience voters shun how to vote cards and prefer to go their own way in the ballot box. As they should.

However, the decision by Scott Morrison to preference One Nation last is symbolic.

For the first time, the Liberal Party has acknowledged One Nation is an unacceptable political entity.

Peddling fear for votes aside, One Nation has sought money, media and advice from a US political force in exchange for trying to weaken our gun laws.

Australians are very proud of our gun laws. Last year Essential Research found just 7 per cent of Australians thought the country’s gun laws were too strict, compared to 62 per cent who felt they were “about right” and a further quarter who said they were too weak.

I knew One Nation didn’t speak for me. Turns out they hardly speak for anyone.

Caroline xx