Amid the cacophony of righteous indignation from the left over the second coming of Barnaby Joyce, you have to wonder why they are so shocked. Did they really believe Turnbull’s Bonk Ban?
Or is it that their cancel culture is proving counterproductive? Do they really think that the wider electorate can keep up any moral outrage for longer than the latest news cycle?
Did they really believe their own media that the Brittany Higgins case or Christian Porter allegations would mark a turning point in tolerance for sexual misconduct in Parliament?
Or were they so wound up chasing the QAnon conspiracy and the PM’s family friend that they failed to grasp the sheer appallingness of Michael McCormack’s parliamentary performance?
Ignoring his comments on climate change (which a large section of the voting public already do), when the then-Nationals leader said he hoped mice would be sent to inner-city apartments to “scratch their children at night”, that should have been cause for his immediate removal. Even if it meant the return of The Beetrooter.
(That august organ The Sun (UK) gave it more coverage than here, under the shock horror headline “Rodent hell – mouse plague army should be sent to scratch the faces of animal activists’ children, says Australia’s acting PM”.)
If the Twitterverse had been paying close attention, it might have noticed that not only conservative politicians, but the voters themselves, seemed to have missed the media’s memo about the Me Too revolution. Or the moment has gone.
Indeed for many there is no such thing as personal propriety in politics any more — the sin bar is now just too low.
Take the awful George Christensen, for example. Dubbed the “member for Manila” by his own colleagues because he spent so much time visiting his fiancée in the Philippines (and some girly bars, according to the SMH), it didn’t stop him winning back his LNP seat at the 2019 election with an increased majority.
And remember, alleged upskirter Andrew Laming of the LNP still sits in federal Parliament.
It’s as bad, if not worse at a state level. Only last month Victorian papers were regaled with stories of Labor MPs in a “Spring Street sex romp”. Or take NSW Nationals MP Michael Johnsen, who was accused of raping a sex worker and photographed sending obscene texts to another while he was in Parliament voting against an abortion reform bill.
While Johnsen was eventually dumped by the state Nats leader, the ensuing byelection last month was not only won by them against all odds, but resulted in a swing to the party.
And for gender balance, let’s not forget the NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, whose clandestine love affair with a corrupt colleague revealed in the witness box of the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) only sent her popularity ratings soaring.
So, probably no surprise then that her latest romance was strategically leaked on social media by her own sister last weekend with a too-cute photo of “Glad and her Boo” or, as he is more commonly known at the NSW bar, Arthur Moses SC.
In fact she has metaphorically jumped the bar table by moving her affections from the accused to the barrister who was representing her at ICAC. But that’s all we know because, as we are told by her office, “the premier will not discuss her private life”. Except when facing negative ICAC stories, apparently.
To be fair, Bonking Barnaby’s political resurrection is not just an Australian phenomenon.
Just look at British PM Boris Johnson, whose own extramarital bonking has been so prolific that even his former Fleet Street colleagues have no official tally of his total number of offspring by various partners.
He’s also screwed everything from Brexit to COVID, but it hasn’t hampered his political fortunes. Not only did he win a resounding victory at the 2019 general election but only last month he achieved an even more astounding electoral feat by snatching the working-class seat of Hartlepool from Labour for the first time since it was created in 1974.
Soon afterwards Johnson married his latest baby mama, and in the Catholic Church no less — because you do have to set some standards in political life.
Some subtle psychology in this piece. While most of the bad actors and perpetrators of appalling behaviour described are right-wing politicians, the only wing of politics expressly named is left-wing – in the very first sentence of the first paragraph, no less. The impression given to an uncareful reader is that immoral, unacceptable behaviour is to be associated with the Left, rather than the Right.
And of course, the Left is ‘they’, not ‘we’ or ‘us’. The Left is ‘the other’, strange and alien. Nothing to do with us sensible folk.
Uncle Rupert would be proud.
I think it is tragic. The public appears to have lost all faith in the integrity or morality of our representatives. The political system has become so hollowed out that, in the main, only sociopaths achieve preselection. With each new outrage the bar is set a little lower. The fragmentation of the media and the proliferation of outlets encourages people to take refuge in whatever echo chamber suits their prejudices. My hope now is in the various community coalitions seeking to elect community-based independents. My fear is that the time is becoming ripe for the rise of some ocker Mussolini.
Your are probably closer to O.M. than most.
We need an ICAC yesterday.
Some of these shonks need to be put in gaol.
A clear proof that it is needed ‘yesterday’ is that Porter’s lamentable proposal for a toothless watch-poodle included a provision that it could not investigate anything that occurred before it is set up.
But with Porter replaced by Cash who knows what wonders we may see? I’m not holding my breath.
Bla bla bla poodle breath will not mean anything in the conversational comments.
Ha ha ha. Yesterday is too late and tomorrow may never happen. Your wish for tomorrow will not happen.
If the rumours are true that the Victorian Labor MP was involved with a Liberal staffer, the feeding frenzy should be interesting to watch
Sex “Uber Alles”.
And probably ‘Unter’ too.
consenting adults but the wrong desk
Isn’t the current adult world still trying to define what consenting adults are in a power paradigm as well as an age cohort paradigm? I mean age 10.you consent to criminal activities. Age 16 sex. Age and sex whatever after that in whatever situation according to money available for lawyers. Before precedence maybe there is hope for the underdog. After that you are the meat to be chewed on.
Oh FFS, why this obsession among opinionistas with framing every single issue in the dreary and binary left-right framework? That people are outraged over this man’s reascension is because it is outrageous. When Crikey trolls its own readership by writing these boilerplate culture wars takes on issues of appalling governance and outright corruption it’s time to pull up the drawbridge. Put the paywall back up and spare us the desperate attempts at clickbait.