Idiotic assault unites fractured forces but divisions were inevitable

THE search for the man who headbutted Tony Abbott is well underway and there are some unlikely partners in the posse.

OPINION

IT’S the biggest manhunt in Tasmania since the bushrangers were bad and there are some unlikely partners in the posse.

“I’m from Tassie and I made a bunch of calls last night,” Paul Oosting, the Sydney-based director of activist network GetUp, told news.com.au today.

“It’s a small place and I thought there is probably a one-in-25 chance I will know someone who knows who it was,” he said, condemning the Hobart attack on former prime minister Tony Abbott.

When you’ve got Tasmanian Police, No-case activists, Eric Abetz, Yes-case campaigners and GetUp united on the same mission you know something serious has happened.

The knucklehead who headbutted Mr Abbott on the Hobart waterfront late yesterday has done more to get the fractured forces of Australian social debate on the same theme than months of street rallies, pulpit pounding, speeches in Parliament and talkback exchanges.

He did so without once, apparently, saying anything about same-sex marriage before or after nutting Mr Abbott. The only evidence this cowardly thug was in any way part of the same-sex marriage debate was a Yes badge.

But already this is being presented as proof the Yes folk are out of control and hypocrites and nasty.

And the episode of what might unfortunately become known as a Hobart Kiss on Mr Abbott has highlighted the inevitable and toxic divisions which are going to be linked to this debate.

It has made this clear in a way which didn’t happen after Qantas chief Alann Joyce copped a pie in the face for pro-SSM views, after a young woman lost her job because of her Facebook support for No, or even after the brutal bashing of Kevin Rudd’s godson.

One reason is that politicians are always unified by apparent threats to their physical safety. They are swift to respond.

The other reason is the skilful management of the assault aftermath by Mr Abbott, who almost immediately plugged into his usual media connections to break the news and — in tones more of sorrow than anger — bemoan the instance.

It was a “political attack”, according to Mr Abbott, as he and Eric Abetz worked hard to portray all Yes campaigners as Hobart brutes.

The message from Senator Abetz was significantly uncomplicated by fact. The incident was “yet again another example of the ugliness of the Yes campaign”.

Mr Abbott said today: “It’s just a reminder how ugly this debate is getting.”

And if so, he is in large part to blame. Tony Abbott, as Prime Minister and back bencher, has demanded a national ballot on SSM and has ignored warnings of the division and distress it would cause.

“But I don’t think enough attention has been paid to the biggest risk a plebiscite brings — the danger and the damage of unleashing a divisive, drawn-¬out debate,” Labor leader Bill Shorten wrote in October 2015.

So is this just a “left wing” view?

“It could be angry and spiteful and divisive, the last thing we need,” said right wing broadcaster Alan Jones.

That by no means is an argument that Mr Abbott deserved to be clocked in Hobart. But there is an ugly irony to the fact he was.

But further, there is as yet no evidence the attacker was driven by a passion for same-sex marriage. More likely he was a random galoot who gets violent without provocation and thought Tony Abbott was an easy target.

Whatever his motives, he should tell them to officers in his nearest police station should he ever want redemption.

There is still a long way to go before the postal ballot results are announced on November 15, and the atmosphere will continue to be tense even after that.

That tension will remain heightened by the continued arguments that one side of the debate has a moral superiority over the other, and by facile attempts to claim every violent episode is emblematic of the attitudes of all on a particular side.

It just might be some Australians can be violent and idiotic without a sensitive debate being underway.