At what point will so much of Australia’s mainstream media, and the press gallery in particular, stop pretending what’s happening in politics is even remotely business as usual?
One of the lessons of the last four years in America was the struggle of a media class resisting the normalisation of Trump’s behaviour — the open corruption, the constant new lows of presidential misbehaviour, the trashing of institutions and centuries-old political norms, the attempts to intimidate the media, constant attacks on science and facts, indifference to the deaths of hundreds of thousands, culminating in his incitement of an effort to overthrow a democratically elected government.
We’ve not plumbed anything like those depths in Australia, but nor is much of the media resisting the rapid deterioration in political standards.
This week alone has brought a succession of moments that demonstrated we’re far beyond business as usual. The prime minister has been shown to have clearly lied to Parliament. Coalition staffers have been revealed to have engaged in lurid sex acts that would shame the private school boys whose ranks they’re drawn from. A Coalition MP defended one of them.
There were revelations of sex workers being brought into Parliament House for a then-minister. The prime minister erupted with rage at a journalist and invented allegations of sexual harassment at a media company, then openly lied about why he’d done so in front of the same group of journalists.
Now, talk of “orgies” in the house during question time — though at least that means someone was enjoying themselves between 2.00 and 3.15. Plus the pending reshuffle that will see two of the most important ministries reallocated because it’s no longer politically or ethically tenable for them to remain.
This has all been in the last three days. It’s only the latest instalment of revelations about the truly sick culture in Parliament House and, it has to be said, predominantly within the Liberal Party — and only the latest steps in Scott Morrison’s effort to cover up, distract from and trivialise alleged sexual assault in the hope that the whole thing would just blow over.
This is not normal. It’s not normal in Australian politics. It’s not normal in any workplace, not in this century at least. There is no doubt that if Scott Morrison was the CEO of any decent-sized corporation, major investors would have spoken out and the board would have sacked him. That’s now the standard in corporate Australia, supposedly the sector that the Liberal Party so enthusiastically represents.
But many press gallery journalists continue on as if this is all stock-standard stuff, not a government and prime minister in crisis. Their coverage continues to be about political tactics, why Labor is playing this wrong/has its own problems, why this isn’t resonating outside Canberra, what announcements will give substance to Morrison’s genuine change of heart.
Most of them are male. The last six weeks has demonstrated a stark gender divide in political journalism, with female journalists grasping the significance of what has been happening and older male journalists and commentators struggling to see what the fuss is about. The divide is all the more apparent because Scott Morrison appears to have an aversion to female journalists, persistently refusing to speak to Leigh Sales but happily talking about the footy yesterday with Ray Hadley.
Morrison is no Trump. He’s a devout Christian and a lifelong political insider. He could never pledge to “drain the swamp” because the swamp has been his ecosystem for most of his adult life.
But he has many of Trump’s personality flaws: the molecule-thin skin, the predisposition to lie, the lack of substance. And many of the effects are the same: the degradation of political standards, the trashing of institutions, the normalisation of behaviours below even those of the worst governments of the past, and the setting of a terrible example that everyone in government, including staffers and public servants, feels free to follow.
Plenty of journalists, mostly female, have been prepared to call this out. When will the laggards of the press gallery see that this isn’t normal? Or are they too deep within the culture to see it?
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Peter Fray
Editor-in-chief of Crikey
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We need the decent politicians currently in the House to support a no confidence motion in the Government and then the GG can call an election. Stop the rot!
And if Albo can step aside for Tanya the electorate would have a clear choice, regardless of any policies on offer.
Tanya Tanya Tanya Tanya! And Penny too please!
I think Albo is a good leader and a decent bloke who will do his level best to correct the many deadly serious failures that have characterised the last three coalition governments…..but now does seem to be a moment in history where he could magnanimously hand the leadership to Tanya and Labor could surf a huge wave to electoral success….
And of course create a government with a swag of talented and remarkable women at its core.
Imagine him announcing that he believes that Tanya would be a better leader, which I think she would be, and in keeping with the times and as a sign that the Labor Party has ‘got it’, he is going to step aside so that she can lead Labor to the next election.
Albo seems a good bloke, but struggles with the cut through. Tanya manages it without playing the nasty male games, and keeps focus on the issue.
I thought they should have gone to her last time, but it was Albo’s turn, which is a terrible reason.
Actually Tanya declined to run for the leadership because she said it would have meant even more time away from her young family.
Her time will come, and it will be at her own choosing.
Forget the drover’s dog, a feral cat could beat Smirko if the election were tomorrow.
Albo strikes me as a thoroughly decent human being, which is refreshing, and a pandemic makes it tough for any opposition to cut through. And why trash your opponent when they are doing a stellar job of it themselves?
Agrre that Tanya and Penny are the two best leaders this parliament has to offer the country.
Whatever happens, the contest will be against Frydenberg, so Albo needs to start spending that working class cred he has spent a lifetime saving – on Josh – now.
Frydenberg may lose his seat at the next election. He is not as comfortably placed as some like to think.
Tanya declined to stand last time. I think she cited family as the reason. She had been deputy leader and said it is tough time-wise, when she still has children at home. Remains to be seen if she wants to step up now.
Trouble is Albo has the Charisma of a wet lettuce leaf. I’ve been a Labour Voter for ever BUT never again. There is SFA difference between both parties.
I’ve never trusted charisma. Albo shares leadership so that it is a very talented team that is functioning in the LaborParty. We don’t need big showmen who take all thenoxygen and centre of attention. Whilst we have shared leadership there is hope, and most women who are leaders are good at collaboration as is Albo.
If you believe there is no difference betwen the parties, you are adopting a generalisation of those who are not looking.
Try health funding / medicare, industrial relations, education funding, NDIS, the LNP’s Robodebt. There are so many examples of rorted funding, allocation to mates/donors, massive numbers of their unqualified ‘own’ to highly paid govt sinecures.
I’ve been closely following politics since the late days fo the Vietnam War. This is the most corrupt government I have ever seen.
No-one comes near them, and Keane scorns the mainstream media / press gallery accurately. CRISIS, WHAT CRISIS?
You would be hearing the daily or hourly media screams in Fiji if this was an ALP govt.
How do you rate Smirko’s charisma? Like the Energiser Bunny is used to think. A bit like Ted Bundy’s now.
That’s exactly what I think … Albo is the most lack-lustre leader we’ve seen for a long long time.
But what does he believe in? Is he offering anything in real opposition to the current mob? Will a Labor Government be just the other wing of the same old bird as it mainly has been for some decades now? Will Albo piss off the Lib’s corporate mates or are they also his mates?
I think Penny is leadership material, but she has indicated in the past she does not want that role, and would not move to the lower house to do so. In which case Tanya is probably quite suitable, particularly at this time.
I don’t see the correct leadership abilities in Albo, and think that Bill Shorten was a better leader than him.
Did not both she & Roxon, about 10yrs ago, withdraw from more intense front bench involvement in order to spend more time with their preschool children.
That suggests that they could not be freer and getting ready to return to the fray.
Not sure that the electorate deserves them but, needs must?
At the time that Margaret Simons wrote a biography about Penny Wong, late in 2019 I think, Penny indicated she had no intention of pursuing that sort of role or a lower house seat.
She would probably come up with decent policies, so she wouldn’t get voted in in Australia anyway.
I was referring to Plibersek (& Roxon) but, as you reminded me, the understandable desire to spend those inimitable and too brief early years with one’s children applies equally to Wong.
Yes, yes.
Penny and Tanya. Penny would carve it up.
No not Tanya… I had a chat to her, and Tanya told me. A lot of people had told her Julian Assange was a horrible person.. She agreed with the persecution, torture and cruelty towards Julian Assange. And thinks Julian Assange has been treated fairly.
If only Albo would step aside for Tanya.
Why would the ALP draw negative attention to itself by changing leaders right now? It woukd be a strategic error. This constant focus on the ALP leadership by the progressive and politically engaged is dumbfounding.
This week of all weeks, when the Liberal Party once again show themselves to be vile incompetent bullies, the discussion is on Albo?
Exactly, chookie. Correct focus is for Morrison to stand down for ….ummm, well, not Porter, Cormann’s gone, a female would be good. Hmmm, Bishop’s gone, a lightweight anyway, nope the females cupboard is pretty bare too.
Last man standing is Frydenberg, who must have trouble hiding his huge grin at Porter’s career being shattered, and discreetly having a champers tipple, relishing Morrison’s crisis.
Frydenberg may struggle to update emulating the (failed) economic rationalism policies of his beloved Reagan and Thatcher. You can really only get away clutching to them once, when you are a young inexperienced Treasurer. Oh, God, Buddha, Mahommet, Allah, Darwin help us.
There isn’t anyone in the IPA/Liars Party you’d trust to run the chook raffle at the pub on Friday night. The utter lack of talent, integrity, ethics or decency across the lot of them is astounding and they keep dredging them up from some subterranean dungeon at IPA HQ.
If he would just step aside and leave an empty chair it would still be a vast improvement – better presentation skills, more trustworthy, solid & dependable and certainly more useful, if only to keep the door ajar for someone, anyone else.
Neither Wong nor Plibersek wants the job. All the talk about a Wong led victory is nonsense given the rampant endemic racism and misogyny in this country. Look at how our two Indigenous female MPs and Senator and first female PM were treated.
This country has many, many miles to go before it will accept anyone but a middle aged white man in a position of authority.
Tanya is unlikely to claim the leadership as her husband had some problems with drugs in his youth. He now holds a senior position in the NSW bureaucracy. She would not want all that raked over.
I hear in the media that Morrison is in consultations with Porter to identify areas of the AG portfolio in which Porter thinks he might have a conflict of interest on return to the Ministry.
Why is he asking Porter? Morrison apparently believes himself to be incapable of making, or unwilling to make and implement such decisions. Porter is at the center of all this sordid mess for heavens sake.
What a Prime Minister – he isn’t able to independently judge if a Minister has conflicts of interest or presents a clear and present danger to the reputation of Cabinet while this sorry saga drags on through the Law Courts.
Plausible deniability, and gathering patsies are around himself to take any hospital pass, are so Scotty.
What about all the Porter chicanery he has either ignored or aided and abetted so far?
That is his problem, if he concedes Porter unfit for office he skewers himself as well.
Well we always have Michallia she is leggally clean
Compared to the Solicitor General, Stephen Donaghue QC, the legal experience of Porter is tepid indeed, a bit of commercial hackery for Clayton Utz and part time Perth prosecutor until getting on the public teat in 2008 (WA) & 2013 federally, since when he probably hasn’t cracked a law book.
Well said Bernard!!
Leigh Sales and Laura Tingle said it like it is on Monday night and I’m loving the Crikey coverage – keep going!
Plus there’s Amy Remeikis, Katharine Murphy and Van Badham at The Guardian also calling out the PM and his government. And there’s Samantha Maiden, who made the Brittany Higgins case public on 15 February, at news.com.au and Karen Middleton at The Saturday Paper. Many women journos are calling ‘enough”.
And it’s great to see that they do have many male colleagues speaking out as Crikey.com writers have been doing.
Quite a turnaround and it’s lasted more than five weeks already.
And let’s not forget The New Daily and Michael West also doing sterling work in this area and others like the sports and community development, bushfire relief fund rorting and the Jobkeeper grand larceny by corporate Australia. The largely partisan MSM on the other hand is a disgrace, as BK points out.
Plus TND has done some great work on superannuation and the absurd government proposal that women victims of domestic violence should be able to access their super in order to flee to safer accommodation.
And for how long (how many years) has Sales played along and indulged Morrison – refusing to see/acknowledge his egocentricity and shortcomings, the way he treated refugees for votes (including raging against paying for refugees to attend funerals after the Christmas Island boat disaster 2010?) for starters; his lack of humanity. Also on display with Robodebt?
His lying about “Labor’s negative gearing policy would ruin the economy and decimate the value of the family home” : while sitting on Treasury advice to the contrary?
Suddenly her pet snake has bitten someone and she’s mortified?
What role do the editors play in all this? Is it the journalists that are the problem, or the direction their media organisations want theme to take it?
At this point, it makes you wonder whether the Governor-General should step in and dissolve the Parliament and start fresh with elections.
A no confidence motion during a weak moment in numbers would reveal if any of the LNP women genuinely want the nonsense to end and allow the LNP to make some sort of fresh start.
Which Govenor General?
Has any one seen or heard from him (the GG) in the last 15 months? Is he still alive? I must check the Vice regal notices tomorrow.