The recent tragic events in Norway emphasise the need for political debate to be conducted by media commentators and politicians in a rational and moderate manner.
Unfortunately, this has not occurred in Australia as instanced by the need for Mr Joe Hockey to calm down one of his supporters, who was advocating for violent overthrow of the elected government.
It has been alleged publicly on a television program that a certain “shock jock” radio announcer agreed with one of the “ratbags” who rang him up and suggested that the Prime Minister should be “put in a chaff bag, thrown in a helicopter and dumped at sea to drown”.
That kind of comment is highly undesirable and likely to lead to political violence.
If the allegations are true, and I have no personal knowledge of their truth or otherwise, the said “shock jock” would have committed the serious offence of Incitement to Murder or Manslaughter, etc.
Also, recent amendments to the Commonwealth Criminal Code have created anti-terrorism offences, which make it an offence to advocate political violence.
It may therefore be that the said “shock jock” could be investigated for terrorism offences.
In any event, this kind of conduct is so undesirable that, in my opinion, the responsible authorities should investigate to see whether the allegations are true and if true, whether any offences have been committed.
