Member for Unley

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE (Wright) (16:48): On Tuesday of the previous sitting week, the Leader of the Opposition was again embarrassed by the member for Unley. He has embarrassed and torched successive Liberal leaders and you might think they might be used to it by now but, by the look on the leader's face, clearly not. He was obviously unimpressed by his shadow minister's exploits—again.

The member for Unley—who was, until very recently, the Liberal shadow minister for multicultural affairs—gave the tick of approval to the Twitter site 'Mohammed WazzaPaedo'. So keen was the member for Unley to 'Like' a tweet he thought attacked the government, it mattered not what else it contained. If you can believe the excuse he proffered on the Channel 7 news, he did not read the handle.

Is the Liberal Party so devoid not just of talent but, importantly, of decent people that they have senior people in their ranks who have no moral compass, no regard whatsoever for content but who will 'Like', retweet and 'Favourite' unseemly and derogatory sites as long as they think they are having a go at the government?

Is the Liberal Party content with the explanation from this senior frontbencher that he sometimes does not take the time to read Twitter handles before liking a comment or retweeting it? Really? Are we really expected to believe that an alternative minister of the opposition does not read a Twitter handle they like? How long would he last as a minister, for goodness sake?

'MohammedWazzaPaedo' denigrates people of Muslim faith. We have wonderful communities here in South Australia that deserve an apology from the member for Unley, not the pathetic excuse for an apology that we saw on Channel 7 news on that Tuesday evening. The site also denigrates refugees, referring to them as 'rapefugees'. Refugees are people who have fled their native homelands because they are in genuine fear for their lives.

Our own Governor and his wife were refugees. They, like so many others, are incredibly grateful to their new homeland and work every day to give back to our community. I expect the member for Unley would be happy to stand in front of this good and decent man to be sworn in as a minister. I suppose the member for Unley will claim he did not see this either, but he liked it.

It takes deliberate action to like a tweet or to favourite a site. How does the member for Unley explain to his leader and other members of the Liberal Party why he favourited a post, 'Found her on sexyf…book.com, retweet if you like her'. The handle was 'I like girls daily'. Was this another mistake? Did he not read the handle? Did he not read the post either, or was it like the member for Schubert's membership of Ashley Madison—just a bit of fun?

This man was the Liberal spokesperson for education and child development. He tried to promote himself as some sort of crusader for the protection of children, yet has favourited 'I like girls daily'. I checked the site: it is offensive and it is sleazy. I have no idea why anyone would make it a favourite, let alone a person in public office. I gave the member for Unley the opportunity to provide an explanation. Was it a slip of the finger or a momentary lapse? He received a letter from me on 25 February, but to date no explanation.

The Leader of the Opposition was clearly unimpressed with the member for Unley's antics, but, really, how much is the leader going to put up with? How much embarrassment to his party can he tolerate by the member for Unley? 'I like girls daily' is just one example, and it seems there were more. After being caught out on Tuesday with 'MohammedWazzaPaedo', the member for Unley got busy and deleted 224 posts—224! Why? Why did he delete them? What was in them that was so bad he had to delete them the day he was caught out?

I know that members of the Liberal Party are constantly embarrassed by the member for Unley. They apologise for his behaviour, but none of you do anything about it. His shame is shame on you all. His shame is shame on the Leader of the Opposition, and his shame is shame on the Liberal Party.