David Leyonhjelm

The David Leyonhjelm–Sarah Hanson-Young brouhaha rolls on, with Senator Hanson-Young having issued a demand for an apology and financial compensation, as well as a deadline ahead of a potential libel action, and Leyonhjelm so far refusing to offer an apology. So far.

Since the Sky News appearance that prompted Hanson-Young’s legal demand, Leyonhjelm’s defenders have melted away. That is aside from a typically whacky item from former Leyonhjelm staffer, Helen Dale/Darville/Demidenko in the Oz, which suggests that women Green senators had started it by “going low”. “Going low” apparently involves making arguments about the nature of male violence against women, which is apparently equal to Leyonhjelm making allegations about Hanson-Young’s personal life.

What has been little remarked on is the fact that this is another chapter in what appears to be David Leyonhjelm’s central purpose: to discredit libertarianism as a real political philosophy, and confirm the suspicions of many — that libertarianism is simply an ideology into which a few tightly wound, psychologically isolated white men pour their frustrations and project them onto a changing world.

[Don’t mistake Leyonhjelm’s hate for ideology]

Leyonhjelm was gifted a Senate seat by the AEC waving through his party’s name — Liberal Democrats — and by a lucky No.1 ballot draw. He had the opportunity to use that to build a movement, instead he took the chance to take his neuroses for a walk. Whether it was having a meltdown when The Chaser team created some personalised Wicked Campers after he had defended the company; noting that there wouldn’t be many Western Sydney Wanderers fans at the funeral of Rebecca Wilson (age 54), who’d criticised the team’s fans; or wondering if the driver in the Bourke Street drive-through (six dead) had been using a “semi-automatic assault car”.

These and other delights undoubtedly gain Leyonhjelm a degree of right-wing anti-politics support, which may help him stay in the Senate, but a movement it ain’t. Many of Leyonhjelm’s newfound fans will be One Nation-style statists longing for tariffs, the revival of the Grain Elevators Board, and more cops (whom Leyonhjelm thinks, if wounded, should be left to bleed to death).

Anyone who might have been attracted to libertarianism as a philosophy of human freedom has long since been repelled by this hypocritical, tightly-wound, misanthrope as the representative of the movement. More power to your arm, David — or your hand perhaps — and we wish you well in your current choice: a grovelling apology to Senator Hanson-Young, or a draining libel defence with a possible malice loading (on a matter for which Sky News has already issued a grovelling apology).

Nothing the left could do to discredit libertarianism could compare to what David Leyonhjelm does everyday, simply by being ambulant and responsive. We’ll watch how this plays out with interest, and with popcorn.