The ‘OK’ slogan is known to be associated with far right groups and social media trolls.
This morning Finance minister Mathias Cormann apologised, saying his team only supported it because of an ‘administrative error’.
So how does that work, an administrative error in the Senate?
It looks something like this, according to Cormann: an internal process that lets senators know just how they should vote on various bills that come up during the day went haywire.
“There is a process involved in determining the position of the government in relation to 50 to 60 motions a week,” he said this morning.
“Yesterday, as a result of an administrative process failure, the government senators in the chamber ended up, on advice, voting in support of the motion.”
Being asked to vote on 50 to 60 motions a week — when it’s your job that you’re paid well to do — shouldn’t be that difficult.
And given the outcome of such motions can have significant consequences on the lives of Australians — even when they are defeated— given the powerful message a large number of votes in favour can send, you’d think politicians could pay attention, without having to rely on a ‘how to vote’ card.
It always hurts…every vote, every time 😓 #auspol https://t.co/17EWPk2PAO
— Ming Long (@MingYLong) October 15, 2018
Independent senator Derryn Hinch was paying attention, labelling the motion as “obscene” and something that could have been written on toilet paper. He said he’s starting to see Hanson and Senator Fraser Anning (you might remember from the ‘final solution’ speech) as in a race to see “who can be the biggest, the loudest, racist bigot.”
This One Nation motion was defeated, but only just. Twenty eight senators voted in favour, and their names are now recorded for all of us to see. Accidental or not, the outcome was hurtful, unnecessary and inflammatory. This isn’t good enough.