One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson today announced she would propose a motion in the Senate that acknowledges male suicides increase significantly over Christmas and that discriminatory aspects of Australia’s family law system which  separates children from parents and grandparents at Christmas contribute to this increase in male suicide.

Pauline Hanson, since her return to Parliament in 2016 has spoken regularly on men’s rights issues, even mentioning it in her maiden speech in the Senate. Hanson has also become known for using pulpit of the Senate to generate publicity on other political issues on her agenda.

She famously turned up to Question Time wearing a burka before asking a question about if the federal government would ban it. This led to a triggered George Brandis accusing her of ridiculing a religion and mocking its garments. There was also her ‘It’s Okay to be White’ motion in October to condemn anti-white racism. The government reversed its support for the motion blaming it on an administrative error and would never support a ‘white supremacist’ motion.

Given that these stunts in the Senate have sent the political and media class into outrage it’s given Pauline Hanson the motivation to keep them going. So far Hanson’s motion has not come up for a vote in the Senate as they are dealing with both Labor and the Greens’ legislation to mandate the transfer of asylum seekers of Nauru and Manus Island for medical treatment and the federal government’s encryption laws.

The results this motion will be interesting given the reaction to her maiden speech, then Minister for Women Michaelia Cash was criticized for embracing Hanson afterwards by the media who claimed Hanson’s speech excused domestic violence. If any government MP voted for this men’s health and rights motion they would probably be accused for condoning domestic violence. But how could anyone object to father’s who have done nothing wrong other than suffer through a bitter marriage breakdown?

Pauline Hanson’s other political activity before Parliament ends for the year were to give notice to move motions to call on the government to implement a travel ban on countries that are known sources of extremism and to immediately withdraw from the United Nations’ flawed and damaging Paris Climate deal. She also moved to introduce a bill for banking reform and gave a speech in the Senate during the refugee medical treatment bill arguing that Australians are the ones who should be receiving subsidized medical care before economic refugees who’ve paid people smugglers.

Hanson clearly wants to end the year with a bang and also capitalize on the dysfunction within the Morrison Government with the moderate and conservative factions at war with each other. However, it would seem it is the dysfunctional government and parliament that has made most of the headlines today. But certainly men’s mental health and rights would certainly be a refreshing real life issue to put on the political agenda.

Author Details
Tim Wilms is the Founder and Editor in Chief of https://theunshackled.net. the Host of Tim’s News Explosion, the WilmsFront interview program and The Theorists with Andy Nolch. He based in Melbourne, Australia where he also conducts field reports.
×
Tim Wilms is the Founder and Editor in Chief of https://theunshackled.net. the Host of Tim’s News Explosion, the WilmsFront interview program and The Theorists with Andy Nolch. He based in Melbourne, Australia where he also conducts field reports.