It’s generally the cover-up that hurts the most… although the photo itself is pretty damaging.
Over the weekend, an image emerged of Greens NSW MP Jeremy Buckingham at a recent function. Buckingham is standing at the rear of a group of people, and for reasons that will possibly only ever be known to him, he decided to pull an obscene gesture for the camera.
For those not in the know, the pose Buckingham is pulling… in a public place… in front of a camera… is supposed to simulate oral sex on a woman. It’s also, obviously, quite juvenile and, well, misogynistic.
Perhaps Buckingham thought it was funny. Perhaps he forgot he was a democratically elected politician serving a party that prides itself on social justice issues. Or perhaps he just thought nothing would happen.
Something has happened.
Inevitably, the photo has made its way onto social media… specifically, an unofficial Greens Facebook page.
It was promptly deleted not long after, but not before a fairly lengthy and heated discussion about why a Greens politician would behave in such a manner.
And now, today, the photo is back again, with the poster, Lauren Gillin, seeking an explanation as to why it was deleted in the first place.
Which is an excellent question. In the meantime, we’ve put a call into Jeremy Buckingham’s office for a more fulsome explanation.
We’ll keep you posted.
UPDATE: We have received a response from Buckingham’s office. It’s published in a separate story here. And an update to the question above, re why was the post removed? Page administrators report an error, which Facebook won’t let them fix.
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