Has Prime Minister Scott Morrison just revealed his true colours?

Scott Morrison says an Australian man massacred worshippers in an act of “extremist right-wing terrorism” which was streamed on the internet.

I am deeply troubled by the words employed by the Australian Prime Minister as it could incite violence against so-called right-wingers.

As it turns out, it appears that the terrorist is not even a right-winger. He is a self-described anarchist and a radical environmentalist, and an admirer of Communist China.

In his own manifesto the terrorist gunman who killed 49 Muslims at a mosque in New Zealand

• wanted “no part of” conservatism
• described himself as an “eco-fascist”
• admired Communist China

The gunman said in his own manifesto that he wanted “no part of” conservatism, describing himself as an “eco-fascist” and expressing admiration for Communist China.

Answering the question “Are you a conservative?”, Brenton Tarrant wrote, “No, conservatism is corporatism in disguise, I want no part of it.”

“Conservatism is dead, thank god,” he also wrote.

Describing the arc of his political journey, the killer said: “When I was young I was a communist, then an anarchist and finally a libertarian before coming to be an eco-fascist.”

He also expressed admiration for Communist China.

“The nation with the closest political and social values to my own is the People’s Republic of China,” he wrote.

He claimed that he was left wing, writing, “Depending on the definition, sure.” He also disavowed President Trump from the standpoint of his policies and decisions.

In answering the question: “Were you a supporter of Donald Trump?”, he replied: “Dear god no.”

In his mind, the world is dying from over-population, but over-population of the “wrong” kind.

As can be seen, the murderer hates capitalism, free markets, and free trade but he loves the Communist Chinese government and fascism, which is actually a form of nationalist socialism.

In sum, the gunman is a racist who deeply despises liberalism and mainstream conservatism. Hence his strong condemnation for mainstream conservatives, whom he dismissed as “milquetoast civic nationalist boomers”

So why would our Prime Minister choose to blame “right-wing extremism” rather than left-wing extremism?

As noted by a good friend of mine, “It could only be that he subscribes to the leftist narrative himself which seeks every opportunity to undermine conservatives and link us to violence. It’s as if this incident has caused him to nail his colours to the mast. It seems that when push comes to shove that Morrison will side with the left every time”.

It is certainly incongruous for Scott Morrison to lead what is supposed to be a right-wing government, but falsely associate his own government and political party to a murderer by calling him a “right winger”.

This is simply beyond the pale. Scott Morrison owes an apology to every supporter of his party and to every person in this country who considers him/herself a conservative.

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Dr Augusto Zimmermann LLB (Hon.), LLM cum laude, PhD (Monash) is Professor of Law at Sheridan College in Perth, Western Australia, and Professor of Law (adjunct) at the University of Notre Dame Australia, Sydney. In addition, he is a former Law Reform Commissioner with the Law Reform Commission of Western Australia (2012-2017). He has also served as Director of Postgraduate Research (2011-2012 and 2015-2017) and Associate Dean, Research (2010-2012) at Murdoch University.

Augusto is an internationally known legal scholar, a prolific writer and author of numerous articles and academic books, and is broadly recognised as one of the nation’s strongest proponents of free speech. His academic books include No Offence Intended: Why 18c is Wrong (Connor Court, 2016, with Joshua Forrester and Lorraine Finlay) and a three-volume collection on the Christian Foundations of the Common Law in England (Volume 1); the United States (Volume 2); and Australia (Volume 3) (Connor Court, 2018).