Victorian Liberal factional head-kicker and Baillieu press secretary Simon Troeth has been embroiled in a blog race row after he described Al Grassby, an Australian of Spanish heritage who was the Whitlam Government’s Immigration Minister, as an “ethno sleaze merchant”.
Referring to Australians of non-Anglo-Saxon descent as “ethno” is considered by many as a term of race-hate or racial incitement and according to legal experts could be a breach of racial vilification laws.
SLEAZE MERCHANT INDEED
Urban Dictionary defines the offensive word “ethno” as:
racist slang used predominantly by white english males to refer to members of other ethnic communities. Common serious users include brain dead white trash, see ’scally’, ‘townie’ and ‘ned’.
Coloquial slang for:
1. A person of foreign descent.
2. Any paki/asian/indian/arab/asylym seeking bastard(s) that you’d rather just fu*ked off back to wherever they came from.
In fact, Grassby was born in Australia and was considered one of Australia’s most popular political leaders of his time.
RACE BAITING
Troeth who then worked for his mother Senator Troeth’s colleague Nick Minchin wrote on the Letters Blog of The Australian newspaper critically of an ACT Government decision to erect a monument to the former minister who he described as a “handmaiden of the Calabrian mafia.” Grassby was often presumed to be Italian because he came from an area with many prominent Italian families and because he championed cultural diversity.
The highly controversial blog-remarks will be considered to be extremely ironic by many state political observers who blame Troeth and his employer current Liberal leader Ted Baillieu for blowing the Liberal anti-Ted blog controversy out of all proportion for factional advantage.
The two bloggers Simon Morgan and John Osborn were said to be aligned with the Kroger/Costello grouping, a fact widely believed to be crucial in Baillieu’s decision to give the incident his full attention for weeks.
THE UGLIES
Worried party insiders are concerned there is a pattern of racial intolerance in the Baillieu grouping “that might just have to be dealt with severely”.
They point to Baillieu faction associate Susan Chandler being forced out after emailing anti-semitic comments to colleagues as just one example of the Baillieu group acting like the notorious NSW Liberal faction in the 1970s, The Uglies.
I’m so proud.
So much for Ted’s overtures to the multicultural community.
You are full of shit Landeryou
Try harder next time
a word to the wise if you are going slag ethnics don’t use your real name!
Now Fuck Off
Petro is an ethno sleaze merchant.
Andy - not sure where you are going with this story.
The term “ethno sleaze merchant” re Grasby was not a reference to Grasby’s ethnicity, rather, it was a reference to type of sleaze that scumbag Grasby peddled.
That is, Grasby peddled sleaze relating to is involvement in multi-cultural affairs.
Time to apologise to Simon Troeth, andy.
Grassby. Not one ’s’ but two, chump. Time to apologise to Al.
Grassby/Grasby/whatever - he is still a scumbag.
Simon Troeth is a geeky twerp
I wonder how Chairman Liu feels about this - I wonder if she would fit Simon’s definition of an ‘ethno sleaze merchant’?
***referring to Australians of non-Anglo-Saxon descent as “ethno” is considered by many as a term of race-hate or racial incitement***
Since when? The only persons who would cause a fuss over that are the professionally aggrieved.
Landers, so far off the mark with this one, you’re damned near out of the room.
Landeryou needs to get a life
Australia’s defamation laws allow extra-ordinarily corrupt individuals to preen, prance and preach in life. Heaven forfend that we should talk about what they’re really like after death. PC double speak about “race” is usually a ruse to prevent ventilation of the truth - in this case the lie of Grasby’s non-sleaziness. Well done Simon !