I recently saw a story in our local paper, The Redland City Bulletin, owned by Fairfax Media, regarding Andrew Laming. It mentioned something about Laming's now infamous TikTok appearance and the supposed Chinese interference for users of the app. Apart from that, nothing to see here. It's not unusual to see articles about Andrew Laming or articles voicing Andrew Laming's nauseating opinion, mostly in tacit support of whatever that opinion might be, regardless of whether it is based in fact or not. The tacit support is not surprising to me, as Fairfax Media have been swinging more and more to the right since Channel 9 bought out Fairfax Media in a "merger" in 2018.
Andrew Laming is my local federal member for Bowman, and has been since 2004. This says more about the voting demographic in this region than Laming's actual expertise as an important political figure. Indeed, 16 years for the most part on the backbench of the Liberal party might suggest that his level of importance is as nondescript as his opinion.
Up here in my electorate Laming has been known to "harass" people on social media, in public, via SMS and in print media. I have been sworn at by Laming on social media, I have been called at home on my private landline just so he could argue with me about the free trade agreement. I have been blocked by him for having an opinion that was different to his own and then unblocked again so he could see what I was up to. I have been trolled by Laming and was sent a threatening text message from a Telstra Payphone a few hours after I made a comment on his Twitter account. And I'm not the only recipient of his bad behaviour. Our local state member for Labor, Kim Richards, is constantly harassed by Laming, trolled on social media and stalked online. Many other members of the public tell a similar story. I have been told by more than one person since Laming's win at the last election that "he has become insufferable to work with" and "they think he might be losing the plot mentally".
Laming will tell you he's in control and he's doing a great job, just ask him. You just need to look at his Wikipedia and parliamentary profiles to see evidence of this self-important thought bubble. The only thing I tend to believe is that he was a doctor at some point and apparently he's lucky he still is after a "two-year bid for re-registration was refused after the Medical Board of Australia granted six time extensions to complete the required paperwork". Laming appealed that decision at QCAT and while QCAT dismissed his appeal, the Medical Board approved Laming's second application. One can only speculate as to why it was finally approved.
Laming is not without his controversies and blatant disrespect of his position in parliament. In 2007, Laming was investigated in regard to parliamentary entitlements. This included "$67,000 for printing campaign material and Laming's five-day employment of a staff member who worked in the office of Hardgrave". Although cleared, Laming continues his disregard of taxpayer funding, continuing to spend heavily on printing and communications. His expenditure for 'printing and communications' in the January to March 2020 quarter was $58,107.19, which included 208,004 printed items at $35,946.56 and a $3,149.99 digital camera under 'office consumables and services' purchased just before Christmas on 20 December 2019. The considerable amount of expenditure per quarter does not justify the content that is seen throughout the Bowman electorate in the given time period. One can only speculate that Laming may be busy hoarding his printed paraphernalia for future election campaigns. As an aside, in the January to March 2020 quarter, Laming spent $142,459.56. As Laming likes to spend taxpayers' funding so freely, I would imagine that this figure is an indicator of his average quarterly expenses. Average working people wouldn't see these earnings in a year, let alone in a quarterly 'expense account'.
The topic of Laming's questionable choice of staff was also raised recently when he employed Barclay McGain, who was under investigation by the LNP regarding offensive social media posts. Laming was forced to sack McGain but not before McGain was allegedly involved in a few questionable social media activities. McGain, himself a Gold Coast Young Liberal Member, was suspended from the branch. I'm sure he'll be back as he was seen posting on Andrew Laming's Facebook account after he was supposedly sacked by Laming.
Apart from the many dubious expenditures Laming claims, there are also the more controversial travel expenses, such as $13,500 of public funds to take his family on a week-long trip to the Northern Territory in 2019. Laming, of course, claimed it was all a part of his work-related expenditure and that his family were vital for opening up discussions when visiting indigenous communities. It's a pity he didn't think of that strategy when demonising the Aboriginal and Pacific Islander communities in Logan instead of insulting them on Twitter as he did in 2013.
In 2013, Laming posted the above inflammatory remark on Twitter regarding the clashes between Aboriginal and Pacific Islander communities in Logan, south of Brisbane, which saw a riot squad called in. Generalising people in such a way is trademark Laming and considering he was shadow parliamentary secretary for indigenous health at the time, he showed a considerable lack of empathy or compassion for minority groups in communities. Laming, for his part, of course, was unrepentant and retweeted it again despite the twitter backlash and community condemnation. There was no apology from Laming and the Coalition moved to redirect the conversation to the "priorities of resolving issues within the community and rebuild social support networks to create a more cohesive community", which, of course, the Coalition proceeded to demolish and demonise once they came into power and throughout the following seven years.
In 2017, Laming thought it would be appropriate to question Queensland teachers regarding their working hours, taking to Facebook with the comment, "Are teachers back at work this week, or are they 'lesson planning' from home? Let me know exactly". This, of course, inspired a swift and acidic backlash from many of our hardworking Queensland teachers. The irony of Laming's comments were not lost on some when making comparisons with Laming 'working' in his electorate and 'working' in parliament.
This is not the first time Laming has attacked Queensland teachers. His most recent dictates came during the Covid pandemic when the Morrison government were pushing to get school children back into the classroom. Laming called for the parents of eligible children to 'call the police' on schools and school principals to ensure their children received an education. I'm not quite sure how calling the police on schools who were concerned about the safety of children and teachers alike was going to achieve any type of resolution for anybody concerned, however. The Teacher's Union responded to Laming's foot-in-mouth affliction by suggesting that he "should be counselled". Laming, as usual, had received the desired outcome for himself - notoriety.
Laming has often claimed that he knows exactly what he is doing in regards to his actions and the negative attention he receives on social media. He seems to have developed a pattern whereby he makes an accusation, inflames intended recipients, defends it, repeats it if necessary, gains notoriety, spreads mud and innuendo onto his intended targets, makes no direct apology - but strategises and withdraws it as a last resort - redirecting an apology if needs must to stay out of trouble. Laming knows he will keep his job at this point because of his safe margin. The government would only act if Laming was in a marginal seat or he did something that was absolutely irredeemable. Laming just gives himself enough rope but doesn't quite hang himself.
In May 2020, in one of Laming's most despicable acts of self-indulgence and malice, he posted a picture of the Premier of Queensland, Annastacia Palaszczuk's head Photoshopped onto a nazi uniform. Premier Palaszczuk's family history of her grandparents suffering under the Nazi regime and her father nearly dying in a Nazi labour camp is "well documented" - and despite Laming's insistence of ignorance on his part regarding this history, I find it difficult to believe, considering Laming has often bragged in messages on Facebook that he "makes it his business to know everything about everybody".
When he's not slurring our Premier and involving himself in state politics, Laming likes to be front and centre in local politics as much and as annoyingly often as possible, as he was when spreading propaganda and misinformation continually on social media during our recent council elections. He recently became the subject of a defamation action just after the election when one of our elected Councillors, Tracy Huges, started legal proceedings regarding allegations Laming made concerning "the theft and vandalism of signs during the local government election". In the end, Laming had to apologise for the incident but replied "..I never regret my actions and would do it all again if it protected an independent candidate who was standing up to the Labor party". What Laming fails to mention is the fact that some of the candidates who stood as independent in the local council elections had resigned from the Liberal party before standing for the council elections.
Laming has recently, hiliariously and dubiously, depending on how you look at it - tried his hand at promoting his physical prowess on TikTok by attempting chin ups. I find it disturbing enough that Laming is trying to reclaim his lost and misspent youth to a largely youthful TikTok audience but his attention to detail left quite a bit to be desired when the audio he chose to accompany his now infamous fail distinctly belts out "liking d*ck with a little bit of curve". Enough said.
Laming's other stunts include standing on his head while sculling a beer and being turfed out of parliament by Bronwyn Bishop, no less, for bringing a jar of black "bunker" fuel into the chamber and pouring it over his hand - protesting about the pollution that cruise ship liners left behind. Ironic when you consider the unconscionable acts this government continue to contribute to regarding the destruction of the environment in their support of big business and the fossil fuel industry. Possibly one of the few times Laming has ever genuinely apoligised for his reckless behaviour was to Bronwyn Bishop.
The lemmings of Andrew Laming will undoubtedly continue while our docile and indoctrinated well-off retiree proportion of the population of our electorate continue to vote for him. Although I have seen some stirrings of discontent with the older and more lenient Liberal mindset of late with Laming's ridiculous shortcomings. I'm not quite sure how much longer they will be prepared to tolerate a federal member who's ego is the size of the Himalayas and his care factor for almost everybody but himself is zero. I can feel a change in the wind but we will need a strong and popular candidate to stand against him in the next election. And even then we should expect skulduggery, misinformation and misappropriation of the gullible all through the campaign.
Comments