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Nation at crossroads: who’s steering SS Australia?

There’s a rising sense of instability as an emboldened activist class runs rampant.

Pro-Palestine activists near the Victorian Parliament in May as police stand guard to avoid clashes with the other groups. Picture: Diego Fedele/Getty Images
Pro-Palestine activists near the Victorian Parliament in May as police stand guard to avoid clashes with the other groups. Picture: Diego Fedele/Getty Images

In my day job we often talk about the difference between perception and reality. The pitched battle between what people perceive to be the truth, and the truth in the cold hard light of day.

These conversations are taking place in the murky waters of a post-truth environment that we are all trying to paddle through with varying degrees of success.

Varying perceptions are very normal, don’t get me wrong. We all perceive through the lenses we bring to our days and our worlds. Family of origin, experiences – they all play a part. This is very normal at a human level.

What happens when, for example, a disconnect grows between perception and reality, creating so vast a chasm that things begin to get dangerous? Is that what we have been seeing in the past 18 months? The fraying of social cohesion, rising division, as a country and in our communities, a sense of being directionless. Nobody steering the ship.

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This brings me to my next question, and I’ll pose it to anyone who reckons they’ve got an answer: Who is running the joint right now? On the SS Australia, who is at the helm and where are they trying to take us?

Perception would have us believe it’s the government (dummy!!) and everything is fine. There’s a democratically elected government in place. The fat wheels of bureaucracy continue to turn, slowly and with nothing resembling efficiency, and life goes on.

I want to propose that this is a perception we are being asked to believe and that reality tells a different story.

Before I go on, this isn’t some partisan, provocative or political comment. The question popped into my mind during the week when reading how the electoral office of our Prime Minister hasn’t been open in months because of the persistent presence of pro-Gaza, anti-Israel protesters outside. From my understanding, they’re not blocking or obstructing, they’re just there, day in, day out. So why the closure? How utterly bloody ludicrous. Is anybody in charge, I found myself thinking.

When the Albanese government was elected, I was on record many times as saying that if the Prime Minister and his cabinet would lead well, we would all prosper, and even though my team got a well-deserved thumping, solid leadership and a nation that can thrive is what every Australian should wish for regardless of their politics. If you don’t believe me and you’re bored enough, go look for yourself. I said it and I meant it.

B

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ut here we are. It would seem that the CFMEU has indeed been running much of the country via proxy. Others have written and will continue to write extensively about that scandalous, corrupt and duplicitous organisation and its inextricable links to Labor.

It’s not just corrupt unions seemingly running the joint. Enter the emboldened activist class.

First it was just the climate cultists, the likes of whose fact-free, attention-seeking caused the shutdown of the West Gate Bridge earlier this year, forcing a Melbourne woman to give birth on the side of the road. You know them. They want us all to eat bugs and dress in hemp because, you know, the planet, all the while posting on social media from their mobile phones that of course couldn’t exist without fossil fuels.

In the nearly 10 months since the October 7 pogrom in Israel, the activist class truly has crawled out from under its rock. The vile anti-Semitic among us who have brought fear and hatred to our streets and university campuses. They have desecrated war memorials and Jewish graves, and made a mockery of security at Parliament House.

The activist class in this country is skipping merrily over the thin blue line on the daily, flipping the bird at the rest of us chumps as they go.

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These are the same people who are demanding the government cut ties with Israel, who are demanding universities divest Israeli research projects and cut academic ties. Just a question, though: were these demands made via email? Because the code still used today for sending emails was made by an Israeli who worked at Ben-Gurion University in Be’er-Sheva in 1980. And did it get sent from desktop or laptop? The Pentium and Celeron processor chips were developed or manufactured in Israel. Tad awkward, isn’t it?

Across the board, professional (a novel concept) activists have been bullying everyday Aussies, silencing different views and spectacularly gaslighting anyone who has the audacity to say: Look, I have a different opinion, but you do you.

Where are the consequences? Where are the police? Who is running the joint? It’s not the grown-ups. The other week, when I encouraged the silent Australians to speak up, I was flooded with responses and various messages from people saying: I can’t speak up. I’m afraid for my job.

I hate that this is what we have become.

Australia today feels like it’s experiencing birth trauma. Rebirth trauma. Minus the good drugs that allow women to pose for post-partum photos with a lovely hint of blush and perfectly styled hair. That’s not said in judgment, more as an observation that pushing a human out of your nether regions without any kind of medicinal support is a herculean effort that’s gonna mess with your makeup and make your blow-dry all sweaty.

We are a nation at a crossroads. It feels and looks like we are wrestling with who we were and who we desire to be. The unmatched prosperity, peace and stability of the Howard years lulled us into a long cultural nap on the couch. While most of us were asleep with the telly on in the background, fringe elements managed to sneak in the back door and tie our feet together while we were napping.

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And before you get stuck into me for talking about the Howard era, why wouldn’t I? It’s not as if anyone on either side clothed themselves in glory since. It has been a sushi train of varying degrees of disaster, frankly.

So, as often is the case, a sense of instability has woken many up. Some still have sleep in their eyes but most are working out that things we took for granted are under threat.

Freedom to happily disagree with our neighbours and colleagues without retribution. The ability to hold a faith-based view (any faith) without being similarly punished. The refusal to buy into the zeitgeist of the age that would have us place feelings over proven science.

I’ve spent the week standing on the outside, looking in, so to speak. Trying to remove myself from my day to day as an employer, a writer of sorts, a mortgage holder and someone who, like most of us, quietly swears under her breath when she does the weekly shopping.

What I’ve seen is this: there is a shifting, a stirring and a restlessness at play. And the perception that everything is OK at a social level, at a societal level, is no longer cutting it. The question is, what are we going to do next?

Gemma Tognini
Gemma TogniniContributor

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Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/inquirer/nation-at-crossroads-whos-steering-ss-australia/news-story/a8b6847442ff7991e8465d167577f1e6