Moselmane resigns as assistant President of the NSW Parliament’s Legislative Council
NSW Shadow Treasurer and NSW Parliamentary Friends of Israel deputy chair Walt Secord has welcomed and long-term anti-Israel activist and Labor MP Shaoquett Moselmane’s resignation as Assistant President of the NSW Parliament’s Legislative Council over his “extremely stupid” pro-Wuhan COVID-19 comments.
Shaoquett Moselmane
The resignation was announced on April 6 by the NSW Legislative Council’s Clerk, Mr David Blunt in an email to NSW parliamentarians.
Moselmane has in the past compared Israel to Nazi Germany in parliament and has refused admission to an invited leader of the Jewish community to a multicultural event.
Last week, it emerged that Moselmane – in a press conference to local Sydney Chinese media and in on a public MP blog – defended Chinese President Xi Jinping’s handling of the coronavirus crisis. Moselmane also praised China’s “unswerving leadership” in handling the coronavirus crisis.
Moselmane said Xi Jinping had “fought [COVID-19] and contained it”, describing the nation’s response as “emphatic” and “decisive”.
Moselmane stated that a nation needed “tough, unswerving leadership, focused on the mammoth task ahead” in order to contain the virus. “For the Peoples Republic of China, President Xi stepped up and provided that leadership,” he wrote. Footage also emerged this week of Moselmane giving a speech at a restaurant in Sydney’s Chinatown earlier this year, where he declared the “Chinese government should be commended for the immediate action it took.”
Furthermore, Mr Secord applauded NSW Labor leader Jodi McKay and Shadow Transport Minister Chris Minn’s strong and unequivocal condemnation of Moselmane – when they both appeared on separate interviews on 2GB with broadcaster, Ray Hadley.
Mr Secord described the China COVID speech by Moselmane as “extremely stupid” and said it was part of a “bizarre and long pattern of defending China and attacking Israel”.
“We have clashed many times on Israel and China and I am pleased that he has resigned the Assistant President position.
Walt Secord
It is a matter of public record that respected health experts and public health authorities have widely criticised China for downplaying the extent of the outbreak in Wuhan, the original epicentre of the pandemic, and silencing whistle-blowers such as Dr Li Wenliang, who later died from the disease,” Mr Secord said.
On April 3, Ms McKay, in a Sydney press conference said that Moselmane would “never be a shadow minister” in her administration and in a separate interview on the same day with 2GB broadcaster, Mr Ray Hadley, Ms McKay said she “pissed” at Mr Moselmane’ s latest outburst.
Ms McKay said: “I’m pretty pissed about it… I’m really angry about it.”
“I can assure you… he will never be in the shadow cabinet. These comments are inappropriate, they’re unacceptable. His actions have been appalling; I can’t say that to you enough.”
On April 6, Mr Minns revealed to 2GB’s Ray Hadley that Moselmane voted for Minns for the party’s leadership over current Labor leader Jodi Mackay.
“If you had’ve taken the job,” Mr Hadley asked, “despite his vote for you as leader of the opposition, would you be calling for his resignation from the Labor Party today Chris?”
“I’ve known him for a long time Ray, but I’m not going to defend stupid comments.
The comments are wrong. They’re just inappropriate, and the Chinese government’s response to the coronavirus crisis has been absolutely appalling.”
Moselmane was also criticised by former Federal Labor Communications Stephen Conroy; Federal Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton.
On April 1, Mr Conroy told Sky News this week Moselmane was an “absolute disgrace to the Labor Party”.
In the NSW State Parliament in March 2013, Moselmane described Israel’s independence as a “corruption of justice”; and compared resistance to the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon with that against Nazi Germany. At the time, Mr Secord and Moselmane clashed in the NSW Parliament
Vic Alhadeff
Between 2012 and 2016, Moselmane hosted an annual Multicultural and Indigenous Media Awards event at Parliament House to which Jewish media were not invited.
He has also appeared at a rally where Hezbollah flags flew openly and hosted controversial former University of Sydney academic Tim Anderson at Parliament House.
In February 2016, Moselmane dropped a defamation suit against SKY News and News Corp journalist Sharri Markson when she criticised him in an opinion piece over his comments on Israel.
In August 2018, Moselmane refused entry to Vic Alhadeff, chief executive of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies to the launch of the Labor Union Multicultural Action Committee launch — despite having received an invitation from then-NSW Labor general secretary and the secretary of Unions NSW Mark Morey.
Previously, Moselmane courted controversy for a speech he gave at an event in NSW Parliament in 2018, in which he declared: “The only way for China to reach its potential is for China to force a change to the rules and create a new world order.”
NSW Jewish Board of Deputies CEO Vic Alhadeff commented: “Apart from his offensive remarks about China’s role in the pandemic, Mr Moselmane has taken deeply problematic views on Israel and our community over the years, drawing an analogy between Israel and Nazi Germany, and refusing entry to the CEO of the Board of Deputies at the launch of a Labor multicultural group.
“His jaundiced views on such issues have reflected poorly on the many fine members of NSW Labor for far too long, and we don’t believe many will shed a tear at this development.”
Congratulations to Walt Secord; he has always acted in a principled way.
Congratulations too, to Jodi Mckay and to Chris Minn.
Some questions do need to be answered though: how did a person like Shaoquett Mosolmane ever get to be elected to the NSW State Parliament; why did it take so long to get him to resign as Assistant President of the Legislative Council; what pressure groups need to be countered to enable Labour to rid itself of types like Mosolmane and his supporters?
We are with Mr Moslemane we support him as Australian& Arabic Background we all with him
Good call