While styling himself as a champion for his north Queensland electorate of Dawson he earned the nickname the “member for Manila” when it was revealed he spent a stunning 300 days in the Philippines between 2014 and 2018.
The Sydney Morning Herald andThe Agereported the devout Christian was a regular at Pony Tails,an adult entertainment venue in the red-light district of Angeles City.
Loading
After examining the trips,the Australian Federal Police found no evidence of illegality but raised concerns he had put himself at risk of being compromised.
Christensen,who was ordained as a deacon in the Anglican Church after converting from Orthodox Christianity and Roman Catholicism,met his wife April while in the Philippines. The couple has a daughter,Margaret,born in 2020.
Even before entering Parliament,Christensen was regarded by fellow Nationals as being at the far-right of the party’s ideological spectrum. Pauline Hanson’s One Nation would have been a more natural political home for him.
By the time of the 2016 US presidential election,Christensen was a devoted fan of Donald Trump train and an avid reader of alt-right websites such asBreitbart News andZero Hedge.
Mirroring the radicalisation of the American conservative movement in the Trump era,Christensen’s views became increasingly extreme and conspiratorial over time.
By 2017 he was parroting Vladimir Putin’s talking points on Ukraine;a year later he appeared to glorify violence by posting a Facebook photo of himself pointing a pistol with the caption “do you feel lucky,greenie punks?”
The COVID-19 pandemic further accelerated his drift towards the far fringes of the culture wars.
After praising himself for securing upgraded netball courts,bridges and highways for his electorate,Christensen soon moved to more scintillating ideological terrain.
Loading
Taxpayers,he said,should not be funding a “biased fake news media outlet” like the ABC. He then hit out at Aboriginal welcome-to-country ceremonies,“woke” corporations and “globalist” elites. Taxation,he said,is a form of theft.
While Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce praised Christensen for having the courage to stand behind his divisive views,most of his colleagues are simply saying good riddance.
To those who believe he brought both the Parliament and Coalition into disrepute,Christensen chose a good term for himself in mongrel – if not in the self-aggrandising sense he intended.