The Liberal Party of Australia's inability to avoid adding more rigthwing hardliners to its ranks is disturbing

“Plus  ça  change, plus  c'est  la  même  chose”

John Howard's quasi military protégée during his prime ministership, former "special envoy" for a later Australian prime minister, Tony Abbott, 'speaker and entertainer' for hire, border control hardliner, retired major-general Andrew James "Jim" Molan formally took up a Senate seat on 5 February 2018 as Liberal Party Senator for New South Wales.

Having failed to be elected at the last federal election he came to the Senate after the High Court of Australia ruled Susan Nash was ineligible to continue sitting in the Senate due to holding dual citizenship.

The senator from Royalla near Queanbeyan NSW has created a new Facebook page now he has been sworn-in, however the original page still exists. As does his Twitter account where he has a tendency to retweet praise of himself.

A right-wing warrior with an imperfect understanding of human rights, a controversial war record and an apparent antipathy to est. 2.6 per cent of the Australian population is now a member of the Turnbull Coalition Government.

This is how the mainstream media saw him on the day........

ABC News, 5 February 2018:

Newly-elected Liberal senator and retired senior Army officer Jim Molan is defending his decision to share anti-Muslim videos posted by far-right UK group Britain First on Facebook.

In March last year Mr Molan, who was sworn in as a senator this morning, shared posts from the group on his personal, public Facebook page.

One of the Britain First videos purports to show Muslim men attacking a police car in France, while the other purports to show Muslim men harassing and assaulting young women in France and the Netherlands.

The second video has been discredited by online fact-checkers.

Today Senator Molan said he did not remember sharing the videos, but upon watching them again, was shocked by the violence within them.

He said the videos were not inflammatory, and not racist.

"I have no apologies, I have no regrets," he said.

Senator Molan said he rejected any suggestion he was racist……..

​Britain First shot to global attention when US President Donald Trump shared anti-Muslim videos from the group in November last year.

It prompted outrage in Britain, and he was criticised by UK Prime Minister Theresa May.

Last week Mr Trump apologised for re-tweeting the posts, saying he knew nothing about the group.

Senator Molan has also shared posts made by far-right figure Milo Yiannopolous and controversial cartoonist Larry Pickering.

Those posts were not anti-Muslim in nature.

A spokesman for Senator Molan said the senator shared content online to provoke debate, and was not endorsing anything.

"The senator often posts material in order to generate debate," he said.

"The sharing of any post does not indicate endorsement."

Senator Molan has not posted commentary with the more controversial posts, and does not regularly respond to comments made on the posts.

But he did respond to a comment on one Britain First post, which read: "Charming. And we're meant to be tolerant, accepting and welcoming of this 'breed' in our country."

Senator Molan replied "Unbelievable".