Miranda Devine: No one should be treated this way

TO see how degraded our political culture has become, look at how appallingly MP Kelly O’Dwyer was treated, days after giving birth, writes Miranda Devine.

“Attacking” Kelly O'Dwyer while she is on maternity leave, and days after giving birth, is not right. (Pic: Nicki Connolly)

TO see how degraded and callous our political culture has become, you only have to see how appallingly Revenue Minister Kelly O’Dwyer is being treated by some Victorian Liberals, days after giving birth to her second baby.

She worked right up until the birth and is planning a paltry six weeks off, so you’d think efforts to steal her prime seat in Melbourne ritziest suburbs could have waited.

But no, the wannabe Machiavellis of Higgins decided to strike while she was in no position to defend herself and when they could inflict maximum havoc on her peace of mind.

The villains from central casting popped up on the ABC this week, a QC and a property developer, outraged about superannuation changes that were hardly the fault of O’Dwyer, a junior minister. The policy was the brainchild of Treasurer Scott Morrison and signed off by Cabinet.

The policy was the brainchild of Scott Morrison, not Kelly O’Dwyer. (AAP Image/Julian Smith)

But the entitled ginger group in Higgins, which calls itself Save Our Super, had whipped itself up into a burning frenzy about the minor impost on their retirement plans.

And thus SOS became a vehicle for all sorts of nefarious get-squares with O’Dwyer by others with a variety of motives, none to do with superannuation.

The agitators claimed their campaign was not timed to interfere with her maternity leave, but the language of SOS founder Jack Hammond, a Higgins barrister, was disrespectful of new mothers and trashed the social niceties which usually accompany the great gift of a new life.

“It’s a complete, if you pardon the pun, misconception. It’s got nothing to do with her being on maternity leave” he told the ABC.

“They gave birth to an appalling policy.”

It was gross, also, to drag in Peta Credlin, Tony Abbott’s former chief of staff, who doesn’t even live in Victoria anymore and has said emphatically that she’s not interested in going back into politics.

You’d think if you wanted to stage a preselection coup you at least could find a candidate who wants the job.

With supporters like this no wonder the Liberal Party is on the nose.

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AT least Yassmin Abdel-Magied apologised for her disrespectful attempt to hijack Anzac Day for her political agenda. She deleted her Facebook post: “Lest We Forget (Manus. Nauru. Syria. Palestine)” after an outcry.

But there has been no such restraint from the ADF’s Defence Gay and Lesbian Information Service, which laid rainbow wreaths yesterday in an attempt to co-opt Anzac Day for the LGBTI agenda.

It is enough that we commemorate all of our war heroes on Anzac Day. Keep identity politics out of it.