Double standard: PM must take action against trash talk

Anthony Albanese was right to call for a new breed of politics where people’s physical appearance is off limits and the focus is on policy but strong action is required to clean up party culture, writes Kylie Lang.

Imagine if the situation was reversed. If Peter Dutton had taken aim at the physical appearance of Labor’s Tanya Plibersek.

Women’s rights groups would be up in arms. Outrage would be rife as misogyny cards were played left, right and centre. Mostly left.

Had Mr Dutton compared Ms Plibersek to a frightening looking villain from a children’s film, he would have been crucified.

And a recording of the low-blow remark would be neatly filed away so it could be dragged out and used against him in the next election.

Yet we are meant to laugh off Ms Plibersek’s comment on 4BC radio this week likening Mr Dutton to Harry Potter’s Lord Voldemort.

Instead of being snowflakes, we should eat a spoonful of cement.

The sledge could have been said in jest, so we should harden up and get over it.

At least that’s the response from a slice of the population which aches for the age of larrikinism, not to be confused with irreverent, unchecked abuse.

Tanya Plibersek. Picture: ABC News

As one Courier-Mail reader commented after the story broke: “We have obviously become a nation of special snowflakes. Oh, for the days of Keating’s ‘shiver looking for a spine to crawl up’ (on John Hewson) or Latham’s ‘conga line of … (suckholes’, on the Coalition’s support of the war in Iraq). Those politicians knew how to craft an insult, and they were cheered for it.”

Clever barbs in political debate (and typically under the protection of parliamentary privilege) are one thing. Public insults about a person’s physical appearance are quite another.

They should not be cheered; they should be condemned for the cheap and unimaginative shots they are.

Newly minted Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was right to note that politics should focus on policies.

“We should not refer to people’s appearance,” Mr Albanese told the Sunrise breakfast show on Thursday after the swipe by Ms Plibersek, who has apologised for it.

“Let’s discuss policy differences … I want to change the way politics operates in this country … I’m dead serious about it,” he said.

“People, when they make a mistake, they should apologise and we move on.”

This is a reasonable response from a person elevated to the nation’s top office.

Anthony Albanese and Tanya Plibersek. Picture: Sky News

However, it is a far cry from the manner in which Mr Albanese, as Opposition Leader itching to oust Scott Morrison, handled – or didn’t – the bullying allegations surrounding the late Kimberley Kitching.

It was only two months ago that Labor’s Senate leadership team of Penny Wong, Katy Gallagher and Kristina Keneally (who this month failed to win the safe Labor seat of Fowler in NSW) were publicly accused of bullying their colleague.

The trio issued a joint statement denying the accusations.

Family and friends of 52-year-old Ms Kitching insisted her treatment by the women – a “cantankerous cabal”, according to her husband – contributed to her death of a suspected heart attack on March 10.

When asked what action would be taken to investigate the serious allegations, Mr Albanese repeatedly refused to hold an inquiry, ignoring a rising chorus for a thorough probe of his party’s culture.

He said there was no problem with senior women within the Labor Party.

And that was that. We move on.

Late Federal Labor Senator Kimberley Kitching.

No amount of gloss on a new government should detract from dealing with ugly issues.

Ms Plibersek’s sledge this week would suggest that Labor does indeed have a problem.

It might be more worried about Mr Dutton than it lets on, but this is no excuse to scrape the barrel.

We’re quick to call out derogatory comments by men about women based on physical appearance, and so it should be for women dishing it out to men.

Respect works both ways.

Change must be seen to be done, not merely talked about. Anything less is like, as Paul Keating famously said, “being flogged with a warm lettuce”.

LOVE

Queensland following Victoria’s lead and introducing legislation to criminalise the display of the Nazi swastika, plus other hate symbols.

Restaurateur Simon Gloftis sticking to dress codes. Patrons of the upmarket SK Steak and Oyster and Hellenika are asked not to wear shorts, thongs or singlets. “Our martinis might be dirty, your clothes may not”, he says. Good on him.

The collegial nature of volunteers at last week’s polling booths. We’re all Australians, no matter our voting colours.

LOATHE

Treasurer Cameron Dick’s excuse after a major privacy breach by the State Penalties Enforcement Registry. “I do not lick the stamp on 2.4 million letters,” he told parliament. Next election will we hear “that’s not my job”?

America’s inaction on gun violence. President Joe Biden asks, “why is it only us?” after the latest atrocity in which 19 children and two teachers were killed. The answer is legislators are blinkered by the constitution’s right to bear arms at the expense of innocent people.

Kylie Lang is associate editor of The Courier-Mail.