If you can’t handle robust debate then perhaps political life is not for you

The so-called “independents” have resorted to the same tired old narrative where criticism or hostility is interpreted as “misogyny”.

It’s been a rough week for the Teals; the group of entitled, tone-policing women who represent some of the richest electorates in the country.

Not satisfied with being bystanders in the Lower House where their votes are largely irrelevant, they are lashing out at the Coalition and Labor over what they claim is poor parliamentary behaviour.

On Wednesday Zali Steggall, Kylea Tink and Sophie Scamps held a joint press conference to decry “unacceptable” behaviour in parliament.

Displaying a complete lack of self-awareness, Steggall, who just last week called opposition leader Peter Dutton “racist” in the chamber before withdrawing the comment, only to repeat it on Sky News later on the same day, demanded that the leaders of the Labor, National and Liberal parties set a higher standard.

Zali Steggall has displayed a complete lack of self-awareness. Picture: Martin Ollman

“Stop it at the top, at the end of the day we hear a lot of talk about commitment to better standards, better behaviour but that can only be modelled by the leadership,” she said.
“All those MPs take their cues from their leaders, they are elected leaders of their party from David Littleproud as leader of the nationals, Peter Dutton leader of the Liberal Party, Anthony Albanese leader of the Labor Party.”

Curiously, she didn’t name the Greens whose MPs are guilty of some of the most noteworthy antics in the Australian parliament.

But while the glasshouse-dwelling Steggall did at least mention both Labor and Coalition MPs for heckling members of the crossbench, some of the other so-called “independents” resorted to the same tired old narrative where criticism or hostility is interpreted as “misogyny”.

Their complaints would have a little more credibility if they took a stand for the likes of Pauline Hanson when she’s monstered in the Senate or when the “mean girls’’ attacked a clearly shaken Linda Reynolds.

But it seems only Leftist women can be victims of bullying or misogyny in the eyes of the Teal’s Karen brigade.

“I’ve become used to this type of condescending, unprofessional and often misogynistic behaviour from a number of male MPs from the Liberal and National parties,” Tink said.

Teal Monique Ryan has backed the Greens 61 per cent of the time. Picture: Martin Ollman

The member for North Sydney then launched into the sort of personal attack against Dutton that she had earlier claimed would be unacceptable in any workplace. Tink condemned Dutton as weak and lacking “the backbone” necessary to address what she called the Coalition’s “woman problem”.

Scamps also objected to the “unnecessarily aggressive behaviour” of Coalition MPs in the chamber and called for “respectful debate”.

Ours is an adversarial system where ideas, policies and outcomes are robustly debated. If you can’t handle robust debate then perhaps political life is not for you.

This isn’t a gender thing, some of the most forceful parliamentary performers are women, and the “mean girls’’ proved that one does not need to raise their voice to cause enormous harm to their political opponents.

It’s worth remembering that these MPs were elected pretending to be conservative substitutes but they are in fact a variation on the Greens.

A number of the candidates boosted by Simon Holmes a Court, the firstborn son of a man referred to as Australia’s first billionaire, seem to share a similar worldview to the most radical, far-Left activists in the Australian parliament.

It’s little wonder that they so often vote in support of Green motions. Scamps has backed the Greens 66 per cent of the time since the 2022 election while only backing 53 per cent of Labor and 49 per cent of Coalition motions, as revealed in a Sky News investigation.

Scamps’ defence of her voting record suggests she has either a healthy sense of humour or an interesting interpretation of what it means to be a centrist.

“The data shows that I am a centrist – as my community expects – having supported motions by each of the major parties about 50 per cent of the time,” she said in a statement.

Member for Kooyong Monique Ryan has backed the Greens 61 per cent of the time while the figure is 58 per cent for Steggall and member for Goldstein Zoe Daniel.

At a time when Australia is in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, exasperated by exorbitant energy costs, the Teals are whining about having their speeches interrupted and attempting to “tone police’’ their fellow MPs.

Talk about being tone deaf.