This is ‘politicising’? Give us a break The Australian Defence...

  1. 26,350 Posts.
    lightbulb Created with Sketch. 21
    This is ‘politicising’? Give us a break



    The Australian Defence Force never had a problem when Labor MP Mike Kelly campaigned with photos of himself in Army uniform in the last three elections.

    Liberal MP Andrew Hastie was sacked by the Australian Army over campaign photos featuring him in uniform. (Pic: Colin Murty)
    The ADF never had a problem when its personnel marched in uniform in Sydney’s highly political Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade for the last three years. Alongside Queers against Detention, Bronny Takes a (helicopter) Ride, Australian Marriage Equality, the Greens and the usual anti-Catholic floats, we have marchers from the Army, Navy, Air Force, and the Defence Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex Information Service (DEFGLIS).
    No politicisation here, folks, just “diversity”.

    Defence personnel marching in the Sydney Mardi Gras parade. (Pic: Supplied)
    The ADF never had a problem when senior Naval officer Mona Shindy engaged in Islamic politics, promoting theocratic Islamist Imams, criticising Tony Abbott, and campaigning against the Australian Liberty Alliance using the Official Royal Australian Navy Islamic Advisor Twitter account. That was just “diversity”.
    The ADF only had a problem when adverse publicity forced it to close down @navyislamic, but not before Captain Shindy was showered with awards for promoting “diversity and cultural change”.
    Even after the Twitter account was deleted, the ADF never uttered a word of reproach, but claimed it was part of a move to “consolidate” the Navy’s social media platforms.
    The ADF never had a problem when Air Force Squadron Leader Vince Chong, the head of DEFGLIS, testified in favour of same-sex marriage to a Senate Committee, describing the status quo as the “inequality in marriage law” and recommending laws preventing religious organisations from hiring whomever they want.
    The ADF never had a problem with Navy personnel engaging in “dawah” (proselytising Islam) on behalf of Saudi Arabia at the Prince Sultan International Military Holy Quran Memorisation Competition.
    The ADF never had a problem when the Army, under former chief David Morrison, launched a campaign of blatant gender political “cultural change” that destroyed the careers of many good soldiers, and hastened the retirement of many more.
    So, you see, the ADF politicised itself a long time before Andrew Hastie became a Liberal politician in the WA seat of Canning last year, and used a photograph of himself in uniform in the background of campaign billboards.
    The only time the ADF had a problem with “politicisation” in election campaigns was when the Liberal Party found as fine a candidate as Australia has ever seen in the upstanding conservative Christian ex-SAS commander.
    So, when the Department of Defence sacked Hastie from the Army Reserve last week for “politicising” the ADF, it drowned in its own hypocrisy.
    Islamist tweets, Mardi Gras, Labor candidates, Koran memorisation, Marxist gender politics — all that was fine, but along comes Hastie, and the Army goes into meltdown about its “apolitical stance”.
    Give us a break.
    The only “diversity” the ADF doesn’t embrace is conservative.

    Liberal member for Canning, Andrew Hastie. (Pic: News Corp)
    For instance, when Army major Bernie Gaynor wanted to march in uniform in the anti-abortion March for the Babies, permission was denied because the event was “political in nature”.
    The truth is that the ADF has no problem with politics as long as it is of the politically correct sort.
    But picking on Hastie was a bridge too far.
    To even up the score, the ADF has also ordered Brisbane Labor candidate Pat O’Neill, and Kelly, for the first time, to remove uniformed photographs from their campaign material.
    But Hastie, 33, was unrepentant last week. He is justifiably proud of his 13 years of service in the ADF, including three tours of duty in Afghanistan, and says the voters of Canning are entitled to know what their MP has been doing almost his entire adult life.
    “I’m proud of that and I think it’s good to let taxpayers know that their money, a lot of which has gone into my professional development, has been well spent.”
    He made the point that: “David Morrison politicised the ADF long before I ever put my mug on a billboard. In fact, he hastened my exit from the army into politics.”
    Hastie was busy fighting the Taliban when Morrison made his infamous “Jedi Council” speech in 2013 and toured every post and outpost of the Army to thunder about “systemic sexism”.
    When the then-chief of Army arrived in Afghanistan, battle-weary frontline troops, including Hastie, expected some form of acknowledgment and support for their efforts in dangerous and difficult conditions. Instead, Morrison gave them a gobful about how sexist and unforgivably macho they all were, and curtly repeated the slurs privately while sitting alongside them at dinner.
    Morrison was singing straight from the song-sheet of anti-male political feminism, undermining the morale of the troops most crucial to Army operations. Yet the ADF had no problem with that.
 
arrow-down-2 Created with Sketch. arrow-down-2 Created with Sketch.