When we are children, we are taught that it doesn’t matter if you win or lose, it’s how you play the game – or at least we used to be. Do your best, play by the rules, show humility in victory and graciousness in defeat. Share in the joy of other’s successes fairly won.
Likewise, we teach our children the importance of being truthful, trustworthy and respectful – crucial elements in any successful relationship whether personal or professional.
But how can we ask this of our children when the example set by our government is the exact opposite?
It started with Howard’s core and non-core promises. He saw nothing wrong with promising to match Keating’s superannuation guarantee increases and then immediately abandoning them as soon as he was elected – a strategy also used by Abbott with his “no cuts” lies.
Howard lied about weapons of mass destruction. He lied about children overboard. Both of these lies seemed entirely political, designed to regain electoral support by scaring the population into thinking they needed protection – with devastating consequences.
But we really hit rock bottom with the advent of the Credlin led Opposition.
Anything and everything proposed by Labor was to be opposed, not with reasoned debate and better alternatives, but by unleashing the hounds.
The Liberals started looking for dirt.
In 2010, Credlin’s husband, Brian Loughnane, recommended James McGrath as Queensland campaign director. In 2011 it was revealed McGrath had paid disgruntled former Labor staffer and candidate Robert Hough for dirt on government MPs.
The LNP dirt file detailed a minister’s epilepsy and childhood adoption, claims about some politicians’ sexuality, sex lives, drinking habits and health matters, and included details of the schools of the children of government MPs.
When the media broke the story, McGrath was “strongly reprimanded” but apparently only for getting caught because he is now a Senator.
And who could forget Credlin striding around the House with her huge white folder titled Gillard/AWU. A ridiculous amount of time was wasted in Parliament trying to smear the PM for some legal work done almost twenty years ago. Not to mention the expense of the grilling both Gillard and Shorten received at Abbott’s union-bashing Royal Commission, only to be found to have done nothing wrong despite Heydon’s prejudicial comments.
Then there was the parliamentary time spent in pursuit of Thomson and Slipper, and more recently, Dastayari.
Add to that the shameful attacks on Gillian Triggs’ character for daring to tell the truth and the demeaning dismissal of Sarah Hansen-Young’s claims.
This is how we play the game now. Forget about policy, forget about keeping promises, forget about goals – hit the player with low blows. Abbott proudly told us that, to be the best and fairest, you have to throw the first punch. No need to tell the truth as Scott Morrison revealed when he said the debt and deficit disaster was “politics”. Attack people’s character and identify scapegoats to blame. Boo and hiss and point fingers. Question Time is a disgrace.
Any hope that this would change with the ousting of Credlin and Abbott has been dashed. Malcolm Turnbull has great ambition. Sadly, it is personal, which has meant abandoning all trust people had in him to drag us out of the gutter – and there we will remain until we remember what we used to teach our children was important.
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