It’s a shame such a vast tragedy was required to bring out the best in our parliamentarians, but it did. Yesterday’s condolence speeches, replacing Question Time, were deeply moving and a great credit to the Parliament. No word uttered in the chamber would have materially helped the survivors and the injured, or progressed the vile task of identifying and counting the dead, but they weren’t intended to. They were to give voice to the profound anguish that we all feel about those lives taken away by a capricious and terrifying foe, and that they did.
Julia Gillard commenced, her voice breaking initially. She spoke plainly, because that’s her style, telling stories from the events of the weekend, some of hope, others of grief and despair. Malcolm Turnbull then rose, also struggling to control his emotions, and gave a splendid speech about the beauty and terror of the country we live in. Wayne Swan and Julie Bishop also spoke well, the latter talking about her childhood memories of farewelling her father when he left to fight bushfires as a volunteer.
Their words echoed around a chamber still and silent. Some members struggled to hold back tears. All were stricken and stunned, but also determined to help those communities to rebuild, to comfort the survivors, to heal the injured. The North Queensland floods were also discussed, led by Wayne Swan, Warren Truss and Tony Windsor, reading a statement from Bob Katter, who remains in the affected areas.
In the Senate, too, politicians, some in tears, rose and spoke of their anguish and determination, through the morning until adjourning as a mark of respect.
At some point this week, we’ll return to politics as usual. Not today — Question Time has been cancelled again. The Prime Minister returns to Canberra today and will speak on the condolence debate. Jenny Macklin will remain in Victoria for the rest of the week. Seeing the Prime Minister yesterday on television, barely able to keep his grief and shock in check, was disconcerting but also oddly reassuring, as if giving the rest of us permission to acknowledge the unprecedented horror of what had happened. All sides will be looking to him to provide the full measure of the leadership both the Parliament and the country needs at the moment.
But sooner or later it will be back to normal. No use complaining about that. They’re politicians and politicking is what they do. However, for a while, maybe a few days, the great sense of loss will linger, infusing debate and dispute, tempering the normal tendency to attack each other. Like the rest of us, MPs and Senators will see the number of dead become names, and then faces, with grief-stricken families and friends, and then funerals, so many of them, a national nightmare from which we can’t awaken.
It’s hard to sustain petty politicking amid such anguish, and the longer that persists the better for a place too rife with partisanship at a time when we face serious enough problems even without the catastrophe Victoria has just endured.
“It’s a shame such a vast tragedy was required to bring out the best in our parliamentarians, but it did. Yesterday’s condolence speeches, replacing Question Time, were deeply moving and a great credit to the Parliament”. Perhaps. As great as this human tragedy of the Victorian fires and the simultaneous one of the Queensland floods, undoubtedly is, isn`t the Government and the Opposition a tiny bit defensive about their ETS scheme that rewards the polluters and promises vast profits to participants, whilst doing little, too little, to reverse global warming? This is a classic exercise in diverting attention and politicking!
Julia Gillard`s voice breaking in emotion as she delivers condolences; is this the same voice that proclaimed sternly that “Israel has a right to defend itself” as lives of men, women and children were stuffed out under a cowardly Israeli assault on Gaza, just last month? Is this massive hypocrisy,a double standard, or is there a stronger word in the English language? Throughout that carnage, only the Greens condemned it whilst the PM remained silent. I certainly hope that the fires of Victoria will not cleanse, nor the floods of Queensland wash away the shame that the Australian Parliament brought upon itself. Certainly, the victims in Victoria and Gaza stand in stark juxtaposition as a challenge to our humanity.
I agree that many of the speeches were excellent and all were heartfelt. Julia Gillard’s was particularly moving.
We do our shared humanity a disservice if we automatically ascribe cynical motives to politicians at a time like this. Automatic cynicism is just as foolish and unintelligent as excessive credulity.
Bernard, I often agree with your articles, but Turnbull was a shocker during the condolence debate.
Turnbull said 3 words are needed to define our response to these tragic fires. He totally avoided mentioning 3 words definitely needed STOP CLIMATE CHANGE.
We all know that the scientist say extreme fire days can happen 300% more often if we do not take action on climate change. (CSIRO, Climate Change Impacts on Australia and the Benefits of Early Action to Reduce Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Preston and Jones, 2006) (Bushfire Weather in Southeast Australia: Recent Trends and Projected Climate Change Impacts. Lucas et al 2007.)
Our politicians (Turnbull being a key player) have directly helped Bush delay world action on this and they continue to delay real and effective action to this climate emergency. When will they admit a particular tragic fire event is due to their support for no action? When will they accept responsibility for increasing the frequency of these events? 300% increase means that a least 2 out of 3 extreme fire events will be due to climate change. In other words, political inaction to stop climate change will be responsible for most of these appalling tragedies.
Our PM has said those appalling fire bugs are mass murderers. What are politicians who accept the science, accept the predictions from that science and yet continue to offer only pathetic responses to stopping climate change? By all means continue to treat the symptoms, but if they do no take action on the underlying CAUSE, then why are you not as culpable as those fire bugs? Who are the mass murderers in this situation?
The best of parliament is just words, words, words.
Politicians are natural actors. Of course they know how to express grief, along with every other aspect of the human condition. They are well paid actors.
My point is this: You wouldn’t know if it was sincere or not. You just wouldn’t know. And if you think you can pick the difference then you don’t really know politics at all!
But just remember even if it was totally sincere, it was still on a stage and words, words, words. It’s there actions that I will judge them and nothing less.
At some point this week, we’ll return to politics as usual. Why would we return to that $hit circus Bernard Keane? While Kevin Rudd was almost in tears, and I would feel the sadness of meeting with constituants who have lost everything including any future. Our Australian Prime Minister is still nothing more than a ageing Labor Party politician who served the Beatie government at a time when dirty deeds were allegedly done dirt cheep. There is another Kevin. Kevin Lindeberg a man who has remained unbowed under the weight of powerful, people with influence and something to hide. Unsilenced on the public shame of the the shredding of the Heiner Inquiry documents. Our other Kevin is not alone, there are others who can articulate those obsecure truths which we all of us pay for. Again I say why would we want to go back to a rabble of political point scoreing which has buried any chance we had of the Westminister system of government working for we the Peoples. Some times the lack of political will pales into insignifigane when up against the determnation of a few bent politicians intent on exercising their influence in their own best interest. Edward James