Amy Remeikis makes some telling points about the Liberal and National Parties blaming Anthony Albanese for the events last Sunday and why using a massacre for political opportunitism represents a huge shift in the way our political leaders once behaved:
Never before has there been an opposition that has blamed a government for an act of terror and mass murder. Before Sunday, the rule for both major political parties was to place national unity ahead of any political gain.
In modern political history, Labor has been in opposition when Australia has experienced these nation-shaking acts. It has, in response, held firm to whatever line the Coalition government of the day was promoting.
This included in 1996, when Labor immediately pledged support for the Howard government’s gun laws; 2002, when then-Labor leader Simon Crean travelled with John Howard to Indonesia after the Bali bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.
In 2005, Kim Beazley followed Howard’s denial of reality and refused to label the Cronulla race riots as “racist”, as Howard had immediately responded by saying “I do not accept that there is underlying racism in this country. I have always taken a more optimistic view of the character of the Australian people”. The thinking at the time was that political unity was more important than sparking a political fight. Even if it meant denying an all-too-obvious reality.
After the 2014 Lindt Cafe siege, where two of the 18 hostages held by Man Haron Monis were killed after a 16-hour stand-off with police, Bill Shorten gave full support to Tony Abbott.
In 2019, when a right-wing Australian extremist murdered 51 Muslims at two mosques in New Zealand, Labor did not jump to question the government’s inaction on what had been growing security agency concerns about the right-wing threat in Australia.
Never has there been a time where politics has been played so blatantly, so openly at the expense of a terrified, traumatised community and the wider nation at large.
Howard, Morrison, Abbott, Frydenberg, Ley, Joyce, Hanson, Littleproud, McKenzie...the whole gang have jumped on a divisive bandwagon using a terrorist event for political gain. It has never happened before. They know it will inflame anger and hatred in certain parts of our community. It tears at the very fabric of our society.
Never before has there been an opposition that has blamed a government for an act of terror and mass murder. Before Sunday, the rule for both major political parties was to place national unity ahead of any political gain.
In modern political history, Labor has been in opposition when Australia has experienced these nation-shaking acts. It has, in response, held firm to whatever line the Coalition government of the day was promoting.
This included in 1996, when Labor immediately pledged support for the Howard government’s gun laws; 2002, when then-Labor leader Simon Crean travelled with John Howard to Indonesia after the Bali bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.
In 2005, Kim Beazley followed Howard’s denial of reality and refused to label the Cronulla race riots as “racist”, as Howard had immediately responded by saying “I do not accept that there is underlying racism in this country. I have always taken a more optimistic view of the character of the Australian people”. The thinking at the time was that political unity was more important than sparking a political fight. Even if it meant denying an all-too-obvious reality.
After the 2014 Lindt Cafe siege, where two of the 18 hostages held by Man Haron Monis were killed after a 16-hour stand-off with police, Bill Shorten gave full support to Tony Abbott.
In 2019, when a right-wing Australian extremist murdered 51 Muslims at two mosques in New Zealand, Labor did not jump to question the government’s inaction on what had been growing security agency concerns about the right-wing threat in Australia.
Never has there been a time where politics has been played so blatantly, so openly at the expense of a terrified, traumatised community and the wider nation at large.
Howard, Morrison, Abbott, Frydenberg, Ley, Joyce, Hanson, Littleproud, McKenzie...the whole gang have jumped on a divisive bandwagon using a terrorist event for political gain. It has never happened before. They know it will inflame anger and hatred in certain parts of our community. It tears at the very fabric of our society.
