Federal Government
BLOGGED: Simon Troeth stirs up race hate in "ethno" blog furore
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.
Discussion
14 comments for “BLOGGED: Simon Troeth stirs up race hate in "ethno" blog furore”
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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 !
Any defence of Grassby’s reputation is ludicrous to say the least and memorialising the man, a known apologist for criminal gangs, is totally insensitive to the family of Donald Mackay.
The Nagle Inquiry uncovered that in 1980 Grassby used his position as Commissioner for Community Relations to publicize to a member of the NSW Parliament and the South Australian shadow attorney-general disinformation about the death of Donald Mackay, that his family were implicated in his death.
In 1983 police found a version of this document on government paper in the home of Robert Trimbole.
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/monuments-to-honesty-and-deceit-20090215-881s.html
“The detective who arrested controversial federal MP Al Grassby 18 years ago claims the National Crime Authority bowed to political pressure not to fully investigate his mafia links. Retired NCA senior investigator Bruce Provost said he had no doubt the Whitlam Labor government minister was paid to commit crimes and do favours for the Calabrian mafia. Speaking publicly for the first time about the NCA’s inquiry, Mr Provost said Mr Grassby was firmly in the mafia’s pocket. He said there was more than enough intelligence on Mr Grassby to warrant a full investigation, but he was held back by the NCA. Mr Provost said mafia boss Robert Trimbole paid Mr Grassby $40,000 to circulate a document claiming Barbara Mackay was responsible for murdering her husband Donald, a high-profile anti-drug crusader. Mr Provost was sent on a four-week round-the-world trip in the weeks before the 1987 federal election, and was unable to charge Mr Grassby with criminal defamation until the Hawke government was back in power.
…
A Herald Sun Insight investigation can also reveal:
MAFIA supergrass Gianfranco Tizzoni, who was charged over the death of Mr Mackay, named Mr Grassby as being at the beck and call of Calabrian crime bosses.
AN intelligence report — prepared by an expert on Italian organised crime for a now-disbanded Victoria Police taskforce — identified Mr Grassby as a known associate of Honoured Society figures.
IT CLAIMED a key Honoured Society aim was to place members in positions of influence or to corrupt people in such positions — and that it had succeeded with politicians, police, immigration and taxation officers.
THE secret report also accused Mr Grassby of sponsoring an Honoured Society figure to Australia who had been convicted years earlier of killing police by exploding a hand grenade in a Calabria police station.
MR GRASSBY also granted Australian entry visas to three Honoured Society members who had previously been denied entry due to bad character. One of them had earlier been deported from Australia.
ONE of Mr Grassby’s closest associates was Tony Sergi — the man named in court and Parliament as the Honoured Society boss who ordered the execution of Donald Mackay in Griffith, NSW.
AN UNPUBLISHED manuscript written by Barbara Mackay is extremely critical of Mr Grassby. It says Mr Grassby was closely connected to marijuana growers in Griffith.
FIVE senior law enforcement officers from different agencies this week said they had no doubt Mr Grassby did many favours for the Honoured Society, which funded his various election campaigns.
ONE was the 1974 poll in which preferences from Mr Mackay, the Liberal candidate, resulted in the Country Party candidate beating Mr Grassby for the seat of Riverina… (Herald Sun, 9/5/05)