Our Defence Department is drowning in its own hypocrisy over Andrew Hastie, writes Miranda Devine.
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.
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. …
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. …
The ADF never had a problem when Air Force Squadron Leader Vince Chong … testified in favour of same-sex marriage to a Senate Committee …
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.
But:
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, [Andrew Hastie].
And the ADF had a problem
when Army major Bernie Gaynor wanted to march in uniform in the anti-abortion March for the Babies, [when] permission was denied because the event was “political in nature”.
How inconsistent. Obviously in the ADF, PC is good but mainstream or conservative is bad. Too late to pretend:
…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.
Can you imagine that people like Morrison are commanding our defence force?
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.
hat-tip Matthew
