We’ve become a pretty dehumanised lot if we resent the humanisation of actual humans we’ve elected to make decisions on our behalf. Without opportunities to see politicians as real people, it’s easy to forget that democracy is something that involves all of us directly.
Season seven of Annabel Crabb’s Kitchen Cabinet has ignited so intense a Twitterstorm that Crabb had kept a safe distance from the awkwardly renamed social media platform until last weekend, when she emerged briefly to thank viewers and respond to criticism.
By then, the “orgy of outrage/Hitler memes etc” that Crabb predicted in response to her episode featuring Opposition Leader Peter “Not a Monster” Dutton had already come to pass: he must not be “humanised”, roared the people!
But what role should television play in helping us to understand those we elect?
Humans elect humans to make human(e) decisions
Kitchen Cabinet takes us into politicians’ homes, asking them to prepare, serve and enjoy dinner for two while being interviewed by one of Australia’s most curious and prolific political journalists. Presented since 2012, we’re now three episodes into this series; the first was Vietnamese-born former refugee, now independent MP Dai Le; then former immigration minister, now Opposition Leader Peter Dutton; and just last night Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney.
We learn a lot about people when they cook for us: how they welcome us into their home, what they have chosen to prepare and why, and how they respond under pressure.
While we find Le very much at home with a broad array of ingredients and utensils, Dutton wields a cooking knife with a distinct lack of ease, peeling and chopping vegetables as though for the first time, before almost burning some crushed garlic from a jar. Burney meets Crabb in a borrowed kitchen, and the two prepare lunch while in consistently deep and revealing discussion.
In his own kitchen, we learn Dutton sees “10% of society” as criminal, and was afraid to let his children go to the park or public toilets for fear of them being “abducted or assaulted or whatever it might be”. And when asked what moves him most about Indigenous culture, he describes a narrow continuum from “functioning society” to “absolute squalor” and “complete breakdown”.
Let’s look more closely at that last point, noting Crabb’s question in full. By this point, she’s confronted him on his “African gangs” comments and encouraged him to think about their impact. Then, in this year of the Voice referendum, Crabb asks: “Politicians, particularly senior ones, get to travel through Indigenous Australia much more than most Australians do. So what is the thing that kind of blows you away most about Indigenous culture in this country?”
Even after needing to have the question repeated and explained, Dutton shows himself incapable of conveying any understanding of the cultures of Australia’s hundreds of First Nations. Instead, he doubles down, suggesting that “the squalor” is what strikes him most, and that the arts “masks an underbelly” in some communities. It’s remarkable viewing — and it’s hard to imagine any straight interview that would have elicited it.
Glamour, celebrity and infamy
In contrast with Kitchen Cabinet, there is no shortage of shows that repackage politicians in ways that should concern us.
In 2004, Pauline Hanson was a contestant on the TV game shows Dancing with the Stars and Who Wants to be a Millionaire? In 2011 she appeared on Celebrity Apprentice, and last year she was announced as a contestant on SAS Australia.
Each promotion of Hanson’s appearance on these shows referred to her racist views as “contentious”, “controversial” or “outrageous”, without venturing any critical lens or analysis. These appearances have benefitted Hanson’s profile — and were lucrative enough to help fight her latest defamation cases.
By contrast, lockdown-era UK health minister Matt Hancock, who resigned after “admitting breaking COVID-19 guidelines by kissing and embracing an aide in his office”, while married, was suspended from the Conservative Party after he announced he’d be starring in I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!.
Beyond any attempt at humanisation, these appearances are merely glamorous: they play up all the positives and none of the negatives of character, presenting politicians as superficially charming and appealing. No tough questions; nothing beyond the performance.
That glamorising effect isn’t limited to the person profiled, either. By celebrating vilification and racism as mere controversy, those shows platform this behaviour as entertainment, normalising it as an attribute of celebrities.
To humanise, on the other hand, is to make someone more approachable, engaging with them in ways that avoid catchphrase talking points and seek instead a relatable authenticity. Unsurprisingly, none of these uncritical shows attracts the vitriol directed at Kitchen Cabinet.
Expanding the civic space
Domestic values inform civic values and ground political convictions; they’re what made it possible for people of one gender to dominate politics. And the way that politicians keep their homes — the ways they partner up, cook and clean, raise their children and extend their hospitality — have long been missing from the Australian conversation.
Unique among Australian political journalists, Crabb has developed a significant body of work grappling with civic values: Ms Represented, a four-part series on the history of Australia’s female politicians; The House, a six-part series on what goes on inside Parliament House; Australia Talks, with Nazeem Hussain, a demographic look at Australians’ political opinions. Her books and essays, such as The Wife Drought and Men at Work: Australia’s Parenthood Trap, actively inscribe a feminism into Australian politics that normalises the domestic as a key civic space.
After watching an episode of Kitchen Cabinet, perhaps you’re left frustrated at unasked questions. Of course, because that’s entirely the point: this is a show about starting conversations. In July, Charlie Lewis summed up some of those frustrating moments where Crabb could have pushed further, especially with Scott Morrison. And he’s right.
On the whole, however, Crabb’s questions are probing and persistent, revealing not just more than the politician imagined but a completely different set of insights. Burney’s experience of disadvantage, for example, puts to shame the superficial take that Michaelia Cash had offered in one of the episodes highlighted by Lewis. Similarly, Dutton’s discomfort in describing the trauma of policing contrasts with Le’s account of traumas she’s found many ways to address and work through.
A well-functioning democracy thrives on sophisticated insights into the people we elect, but while there’s little civic value in glamorising politicians, we do need to see them humanised. Political journalism needs to keep developing new and unexpected approaches that cut through the standard party lines to show us the humans we’ve elected. Kitchen Cabinet is just one of them.
Did you watch Peter Dutton on Kitchen Cabinet? Will you ever watch it? Let us know by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.
I admit I didn’t watch the Dutton interview, mainly because I found even the 15 second promotional snippets more than I could bear.
I have no problem with interviews that show the human side of our politicians. However, I do find it difficult to watch the humanisation of someone who has made a career of dehumanising others, often on the basis of ethnicity, and often from the safety of Parliament.
I did watch it. I wanted to know why I dislike him so much and I learned some answers. He is left-handed and did indeed wield a cooking knife with a distinct lack of ease, … as though for the first time, ….
He sees 10% of society as criminal and is afraid to let his kids out because they might be exposed to all sorts of dangers – kind of a mirror image to the way I see many MPs – particularly on the LNP side of politics.
Even dehumanisers are human. I want to know what makes everyone tick, not only the people I find acceptable.
Exactly. The secret to every good general is the ability to get into the mind of the enemy.
Dutton has a mind? I prefer the mind of a serial killer not a random child killer
The problem is not their humanity. Even Nazis and Hillter had their human sides, reportedly. The problem is when one, or a group chooses to mix culture with aggression and militarisation in behavioural and thinking patterns – ie. their habits of life. And, those with public profile, who then project this in ways that are pretty much a constant bleating dog-whistle, now to one issue, now to another. The NLP have made a seeming whole extemporaneous emprise and ‘way of life’ out of such outrages. Shows like ‘Kitchen Cabinet’ only furthers the hypocrisy and imprecision behind such people as Dutton. Dutton himself is an abnormal and toxic mix of I’m-a-Policeman aggression and a resurgent, retarded lust for personal wealth. I’m with Graeski, and chose not to watch.
I did, and had a good laugh. They say ignorance is bliss. And he showed his with glaring clarity. The cooking potatoes was a nice touch, but I would have thought fush and chups would have been more his metier, perhaps he could have got a winning recipe from his fellow Queenslander, Pauline…
hahaha – good one.
Oh look, I clicked on the clickbait article about the clickbait TV programe.
And sure enough, the author is about as wrong as it is possible to be. And in about the most middle class, middle brow way you could come at it.
Next thing you’ll be telling me that Grand Designs is a programme about architecture, not bourgeois real estate porn …
Agree
Commenting late about a puff piece show I don’t watch/won’t watch in general and one episode of it in particular. The format of it is basically a social occasion- cooking then eating with a friend. A dinner party type deal. We are ALL on our best behaviour on such occasions.
Kitchen Cabinet gives us no real insight into our politicians at all. Any that are gleaned are after the fact sound bites only, like Morrison saying he didn’t care about criticism.
Politicians are and must be judged on what they do, not how personable they are, how human, how nice to cook and eat with. I couldn’t care less how nice they are- that just makes their policy decisions a thousand times more reprehensible, frankly.
I was disappointed ABC brought Kitchen Cabinet back. It does us a disservice. How can we expect the same ABC to interrogate politicians and policy when it produces this pap? Bit too cosy altogether, Aunty.
One of the few episodes I have viewed revealed that Joe Hockey couldn’t slice a tomato, not a great look for a supposedly regular guy who always babbled on about the family life to which he clearly didn’t make much of a useful contribution. So I’m inclined to agree with the line that interviews in domestic situations can be more revealing than generic ones, as the Dutton episode seems to demonstrate.
I had been an occasional viewer (although no longer) & distinctly recall Cory Bernardi’s dysfunction when preparing a lettuce.
I liked the statement Bernardi’s wife gave when she was asked the secret to the success of their marriage: ‘We’re both in love with the same person. I’m in love with Cory, and Cory is in love with Cory’.
Very droll, & too many others… 🙂
I’m surprised to hear Dutt’s isn’t more at ease with a knife. Although he does have a patchy record on effective back stabbing.
He’s more the knuckle-duster type.
Queensland cops were known as ‘wallopers’.
We “understand” our politicians through their policies and actions. I’m really not interested if anyone in parliament has good chicken curry recipe. I am interested in taking them to task on being complicit in the illegal imprisonment of vulnerable refugees for over a decade. I’m interested in bringing them to account for the blood on their hands. Kitchen Cabinet is a disgraceful waste of scarce ABC resources.
Did you watch it? It reveals more about Mr Dutton than you would ever see elsewhere. And yes she didn’t ask some key questions but she did go hard. I despise the man but it was compelling.
The Kitchen Cabinet interview with Spud Dutton was useful in confirming what a nasty divisive, fascist hypocrite he is.
Exactly, we get to see the real Peter