Wooley: Best thing we can do is show how we can all get along

Here in the new world, we should strive to become an example to the old world rather than its reflection, writes Charles Wooley

I’ve been to a few war zones in my time but only when I felt the uneasy obligation that it must be my turn.

I can’t think of any conflicts I observed where I could reasonably and decisively pick a side.

My father Charlie fought both Hitler and Tojo and never had any doubt he was on the right side. But since World War II the relativities of modern technological warfare can make it harder for reasonable people to make an absolute adjudication.

How much can the closely monitored population of a tyranny be held responsible for the actions of those who rule them?

And with battles remotely fought with long-distance technology, when a missile explodes in a children’s hospital how much blame can be apportioned to an individual soldier, to those who gave the orders, or collectively to every citizen?

In the superficial political theatre of the Australian parliament Peter Dutton had no problem. The Liberals picked sides in the Middle East to the extent that this week a simple motion of condolence for the death toll in Israel as well as in Gaza and Lebanon could not pass unanimously through federal parliament.

NSW Police stand guard during a vigil outside Sydney’s Town Hall on October 07, 2024. Organisers said the event was to remember lives lost in Gaza and Lebanon since October 7 last year. The organisers, Palestine Action Group, invited people of all faiths to “unite in solidarity in our call for justice and solidarity”. Picture: Roni Bintang/Getty Images

Unlike most democratic parliaments much closer to the Mediterranean powder keg, the Australian parliament failed to unite on a simple matter of humane concern.

A world away do we really need to pick sides and not show united sympathy with the innocent victims caught up in both sides of a cruel conflict?

The PM talked about “shared humanity” while the leader of the opposition condemned the motion and Albanese for attempting “to walk both sides of the street”.

I can’t know if Dutton really wants a side to be picked or is he just politically driven to be the best opposition leader since Tony Abbott?

Abbott got to be PM by opposing absolutely everything, even the idea of a female prime minister. He had a considerable intellect but was a surprisingly bad PM. He certainly knew how to oppose, but consensual ruling was beyond him, and in power he was soon sacked by his own party.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton this week, accused the Albanese government of “walking both sides of the street” in relation to the unfolding issues in the Middle East. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Dutton is a most effective opposition leader and looks like he might next year displace Albanese, who has hardly distinguished himself as a prime minister.

But that doesn’t mean that Dutton will be any more successful than Tony Abbott.

Too often in politics if you live by division, you die by division. Consensus politicians like Hawke and Howard last much longer.

As we have seen in our streets this week, picking sides is dividing our community. When we decided to become a multicultural society, we saw the wonderful dining opportunities but certainly didn’t foresee the social and political discordance.

As a deputy mayor (absurdly in Tasmania one of 29) I ask prospective new citizens to repeat after me these words: “I pledge my loyalty to Australia and its people, whose democratic beliefs I share, whose rights and liberties I respect, and whose laws I will uphold and obey.”

My inductees are lovely folk, and I couldn’t decently ask them: “In coming to the new world, leave behind the ancient ancestral hatreds and intolerances of the old world.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who was unable to convince the Coalition to support the government’s motion marking the first anniversary of the October 7 attacks in Israel, this week. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

But given the nastiness in the streets of some Australian capitals this week … I wonder?

Unless you are an Indigenous Australian (983,700 at the 2021 Census) the remainder of the 26 million of us, all come fairly recently from somewhere else.

My mob come from Scotland. They were MacGregors who picked the wrong side and fought with Prince Charlie against the English at the Battle of Culloden in 1746.

It was a disaster which resulted in the English troops marauding through the highlands, murdering, raping and butchering. It was a clear genocide of the clans.

My MacGregors were outlawed and could be killed on sight. Their name was expunged, and the wearing of the tartan was also punishable by death.

The English set about exporting the Scots, firstly to America and Canada and later to Australia.

This deportation of a whole people was ironically called “The Improvement of the Scots”.

Tasmanian Frank McGregor is the head of Clan Gregor in Australia. He estimates that although the population of Scotland is only about 5.5 million there might be as many as 40 million Scottish descendants around the world.

Scottish-Tasmanian journalist Charles Wooley with Tasmanian Honorary Consul for the United Kingdom, Frank McGregor. Picture: Supplied

He says that many people might not even know their Scottish ancestry, “If your name is Jones or Wooley or whatever and you have red-haired kids, you might actually be a MacGregor who had to change your name after 1746.”

My friend Frank is an authority on the darkest chapter of Scottish history, yet he has left the old ancestral hatreds far behind. As should we all. There is nothing we can do in Australia better than demonstrating how in the new world we can all get along.

Frank McGregor, an Australian descendent of Scottish rebels who fought the British at Culloden now actually represents the King of England as the British Consul for Tasmania.

While we should always applaud historical atonement, my experience tells me at a personal level things are often more complicated.

When I was a kid in Launceston my old mum, Ella, a fierce Scot who would live just short of 101 years, banged on about the horrors of Culloden.

Finally, I said, “Gee Mum, 1746 is a long time ago”.

And she said, “Och son, it was only yesterday”.

And it was compared with the conflicted Middle East where they have been fighting over ancient grievances for more than 3000 years.

Here in the new world perhaps we might do better to develop shorter memories and to become an example to the old world rather than its reflection.

Charles Wooley is a Tasmanian-based journalist