David Penberthy: The idea that someone could be pushed to carry around a noose might be the dumbest thing I’ve heard

Arguments like the ones blaming people like Dan Andrews for disgusting threats are not just stupid and dangerous, they hurt our country, writes David Penberthy.

There has been a disgusting level of indifference and in some warped circles even mirth at the fact that some random nut was walking the streets of Melbourne with a noose for Dan Andrews.

I have heard people say that Andrews himself has contributed to this man’s conduct by pushing people to the brink with the world’s longest lockdown.

It is not just a stupid line of argument, it is a hugely dangerous one which has ramifications for the future of politics in our country.

I would say from the get-go that I have not been impressed with Andrews’ performance over the past year and a half and regard the “I Stand With Dan” brigade as a funny little cult. I would also say the same of those right-wing fruitcakes and citizen “journalists” who proliferate on Twitter and attend these mad rallies with their mishmash of QAnon nonsense and scientifically-bereft anti-vaxxer gibberish.

Gallows with nooses at a rally in Melbourne on Saturday. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Daniel Pockett

But there is an issue here which goes beyond what should be a manageable back-and-forth argument about the political capacity of Dan Andrews, or indeed anyone in public life. It’s an issue which has an international complexion across other democracies like ours.

It goes to the fact that a scary hardcore of people are now mentally ill-equipped to deal with people on the other side of politics, be it on the Left or Right, with whom they disagree.

As debate gets dragged further into a mindless barracking game opponents get dehumanised. The end result of all this will be twofold. The chances of any normal people going into politics will go down, and the chances of demented people visiting actual harm on those in politics will go up.

My own views on this are partly personal as until recently my wife was a politician and, like every politician, had to deal with zealots from time to time.

On one of our first dates we went to the cricket, and it was a cracking day as it involved two words that are close to every Australian bloke’s heart: free beer.

I was punching the pints in after tea, watching Mitchell Johnson do a number on the Poms at the Adelaide Oval, after which I suggested to that we wander up the hill to grab some burgers at a North Adelaide institution, the Blue and White fish shop.

While we were waiting for our food some bloke walked past, recognised my wife and came into the shop and started giving her a gobful about how he had emailed her office seeking a meeting to explain his theories about how climate change was a fabrication.

He was very agitated and just as I was about to give him a drunken spray to his eternal credit the lovely Greek bloke who owned the fish shop did it for me. “Hey! What makes you think she’s working now?” he shouted. “Leave her alone!”

As I went to join in my wife gave me a ‘shoosh’ sound and calmly walked out onto the street and spoke to the man about his concerns. When I asked her how she put up with being hassled like that, she said she didn’t regard it as especially impertinent and that it was nothing compared to some other situations she had found herself in, all of which I now know about but will not go into here.

In Britain earlier this year the conservative MP Sir David Amess was stabbed to death by a constituent.

British Labour MP Jo Cox

Thomas Mair following his arrest accused of the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox.

In 2016 British Labour MP Jo Cox was shot and stabbed to death by one of her constituents.

The assailant in this year’s killing was a suspected Islamic terrorist, the killer of Ms Cox a white ultranationalist terrorist.

I know many people believe politicians are useless idiots. I would agree that a number of them most definitely are. But I know enough about politics to know that most people go into politics for the right reasons and spend most of their time working on humdrum matters helping their electorate.

A huge part – almost the entire part – of their work involves two things. Sitting around with a couple of staff in their suburban officers tending to questions about cost of living concerns, pension and welfare payments, health issues in terms of accessing hospital care, local planning and road safety. And standing around completely unprotected in public parks every other Saturday, answering questions about anything, from anyone who cares to turn up.

This is how it should be in an open democracy.

Victorian Premier Dan Andrews. Picture: Ian Currie

I have seen and heard a few of the usual Twitter types say the menacing behaviour towards Andrews is the result of media criticism of his performance.

It is a rubbish argument, aimed in part by his defenders at shutting down scrutiny. Politicians need scrutiny.

The last 18 months has been the most emphatic demonstration of the power of the state most of us have ever seen.

Call me old-fashioned but I reckon if a Government is going to shut down every business in the state for 270 days, that’s something worth having a serious discussion about. Indeed it is worth having a really heated argument about.

The sickness comes in with those who are ill-equipped to recognise and behave accordingly within the confines of an argument and go down the path of confrontation and even force.

The idea that someone can be “pushed to the brink”, and that the understandable effect of that pushing is their decision to wander around Collins St with a noose, is quite possibly the dumbest and most dangerous thing I have ever heard.

It’s an inexcusable line of thought, and one that makes this husband much happier with his new domestic arrangements than the ones that existed before the last federal election.