“Gratuitous unprovoked violence is being perpetrated by individuals looking for victims” Tony Abbott. Given his Government’s recent performance he should know, says Political Correspondent Paddy O’Cearmada
Last week was a low point in Australian political discourse.
It began with a narcissist in limelight, Cory Bernardi, publishing his book The Conservative Revolution (wholeheartedly endorsed by Andrew Bolt). I have yet to read the work, although a copy is on order, but the general thrust seems to be that heterosexual Christian families are the basis of a good society, that capital should be allowed to hire and fire labour without interference from minimum standards, and that all expressions that might offer alternatives to this view are simply wrong. From accounts in the press Bernardi asserts that non-traditonal families, which in his definition includes blended families, single parent familes, same sex couples raising children or parents with surrogate children, produce promiscuous daughters and criminal sons. Just with whom the daughters are being promiscuous and why this is restricted to one gender is not yet clear.
Bernardi unleashed a cacophony of criticism. The Opposition Leader, a partner in a blended family, was understandably offended, and Bernardi’s conservative colleague Warren Entsch wondered aloud about whether his protesting about homosexuality betrayed a deeper suppression. Bernardi responded with a threat to sue for defamation. Just how you can be defamed for suggestions over something that is not illegal is an interesting point, and should such an unlikely action be successful it could yet unlock a lucrative avenue for gays assumed to be straight.
Bernardi could be laughed off as a ratbag on the right and properly he is, only the danger remains that his louder claims could mask a more subtle prosecution of his cause. Tony Abbott’s muted response leaves it open to see these ‘conservative values’ given more bite.
Not to be outdone, Scott Morrison extended the punishment of asylum seekers who arrive by boat by refusing access for any found to be refugees to the family reunion program. The decision applies retrospectively, so any genuine refugee, who happened to arrive by boat, cannot make such an application. Sarah Hansen-Young did her best to make the injustice of this cruel policy clear, but she was a lone voice. The merest murmur from the opposition, and a shrug from the press.
And in a final act Christopher Pyne announced a two person panel made up of conservative critics to revise the National School Curriculum. Anticipating a report in June the panel will unpick a curriculum that has been framed after four years of consultation. Cries of political interference were brushed aside. Pyne even said that since we all go to school we are all experts on education. I wonder if he would like me to extend that thought to surgery and on him? Predictably history was in the firing line with a desired emphasis on European Progress and the triumphant success of such events at Gallipoli.
Successive studies have shown that Australian students are bored to death with Australian History and as soon as they are given the option cease to study it. Current policy would suggest we have learned it too well. We now have our own system of transportation for life and places of secondary punishment under the banner of border protection, and Afghanistan continues a tradition of heroic failure in the service of a greater imperial power.
To cap it all, Tony Abbott, ever mindful of the hot topic in talk-back radio weighed in to the controversy over street violence and the spate of deaths accompanied by heartbreaking pictures of beautiful young men and grieving parents. Calling on State Governments to act he said: “Gratuitous unprovoked violence is being perpetrated by individuals looking for victims”, given the performance of the government he leads, he should know.