Just months before the Australian election, campaigning has taken a distinctly American turn, with gutteral muckraking now making headlines while intelligent debate has been pushed off the agenda. It didn’t matter that Access Economics had just released a report claiming the government and opposition’s wild promises would need new taxes or spending cuts to keep the budget in surplus.
It didn’t matter that the Prime Minister just endorsed Access Economics’ report calling for a lowering of minimum wages to US levels. This first week in July saw the media focus solely on the rumours surrounding opposition leader Mark Latham’s past private life.
“Values” are now all important to the press corp. and media organisations. Support by the Prime Minister for hacking back the minimum wage is not considered newsworthy.
Just like the USA, values campaigning is purely about image. Politicians are judged, not by their actions, but by their frequency and decibel level of their calls for family values.
John Howard started the ball rolling by declaring public schools were too “values neutral” back on January 20. The “values neutral” term is a darling of the Christian Coalition in the USA who blame “values neutral schools” for all society’s ills such as school shootings to corporate criminals.
Luckily Australia has not experienced any school shootings and most of our corporate criminals come from private schools, so Howard had to blame values neutral schools for something else. The exodus of students from public schools was his perceived effect of the values neutral teaching.
Very few in the media asked whether a grossly Under-funded public education system and a radical shifting of government funds from public to privileged private schools may be the cause of the student exodus.
Values debates rarely focus on macro issues, but revolve around the family unit. Just like the USA, the conservative party in Australia has taken the hypocritical moral high ground and is ruthlessly attacking their opposition on family values.
In the latest debate about Latham’s past, Howard claimed he may have thrown a punch at his brother during his childhood but he was not a violent person. Did anyone in the press corp. mention Iraq? Of course not.
After values-neutral schools, John Howard followed George Bush by legislating against same sex marriages. It was another example of wedge politics, but this time Labor supported the legislation that breaks numerous state, national and international anti-discrimination laws.
Legislating against same sex marriages was a political master stroke by Howard to attract the increasingly strong conservative Christian vote in Australia. While actively chasing some Christians, Howard has been heavily criticised by other Christian groups about asylum seekers and his unwillingness to tackle increased poverty, or reduce social inequity in Australia.
Howard’s response to the criticism involved telling critical church leaders to stay out of politics, fill their pews, or risk losing their tax-free status. Other church leaders who dabble in politics, such as Fred Nile, who wanted Islamic Chadors banned, are liked by Howard because “he speaks for many people.”
The Howard government routinely promotes its family friendly credentials, but their actions simply don’t match their rhetoric.
Australia still denies refugees the ability to reunite families, and when a father lost his three children in the SIEV X disaster, the Howard government prevented him from travelling to Indonesia to grieve with his wife.
Tax reforms in the last elections were distinctly unfriendly for struggling families and Howard has shown virtually no interest in reducing anti-family long working hours. Families in need of public housing are also ignored by the Howard government.
Some of the conservative’s actions are just immensely hypocritical. Member for Makin, Trish Draper’s political career is based on family values as she rallies against school sex education packs which don’t contain, “sections on Christian values, family values or working towards marriage and monogamous relationships” and contain, “material (that) represents a clear attempt to undermine the moral values held strongly by many parents in my electorate.”
Despite being divorced and getting caught rorting the system by taking her boyfriend on a taxpayer funded overseas trip, Draper still promotes family values and is a member of the parliamentarian Christian Fundamentalist Lyons Forum.
The Christian conservatives in the Liberal party are now starting to influence decision making, with increased censorship, anti-euthanasia legislation, and moves to ban over-the-counter sales of the morning after pill. Branches are also being stacked with Christian fundamentalists with the Opus Dei sect taking over numerous branches in inner Sydney.
When traditional family values based on religious beliefs are imposed on people who want an assisted suicide to relieve their suffering, those who are dying have every right to ask politicians to prove their religious faith.
The point about family values is, those espousing Christian conservatism are not called to justify their decisions (or their actions) and have an intellectually bankrupt ability to dismiss their critics.
When it comes to promoting family values the most important asset any political leader can have is a happy spouse (of the opposite sex of course) and a few children to wheel out for photo opportunities. A few well-timed words, homophobic legislation, and a bit of criticism of opponent’s past and single mums, is enough to get a politician the “family values” tag.
While the media has gone along with the Mark Latham feeding frenzy, the average Australian has reacted angrily and voiced their disapproval in the US style politics and media coverage.
Channel 9’s Michael Venus received one barrage after another from talkback callers when he was defending the Sunday programs coverage on Mark Latham on ABC 774’s media segment.
He offered the limp defence for Channels 9’s coverage, claiming Mark Latham was keeping the stories in the news after admitting they had invested four months worth of research for a program that produced nothing more than a rehash of old rumours from questionable sources.
Letters to the editor pages and feedback pages on web sites have also roundly condemned the decline of intelligent debate in Australia, and Sydney talkback host, Steve Price, was humiliated by practical jokers claiming they had seen a copy of Mark Latham’s buck’s night video.
Price was fed a story, didn’t check the highly dubious source, and then went on national television claiming the absolute existence of the buck’s night video. In the lead up to the next election, “values” and rumours about Mark Latham’s past will be a recurring theme. Australian conservative politicians have learnt from their Republican Brethren and we can expect to see mud periodically thrown, with the attacks accelerating in the run up to election day, with the media salivating for more.
The media’s obsession rumours about Latham’s private life represents a new low for journalism in Australia, and the country will continue to face a crisis of democracy until journalists and politicians start respecting their audience and constituents respectively.
It doesn’t look good though. Journalists have defended their actions by blaming politicians, and politicians have blamed journalists for the muckraking. Meanwhile both groups continue to be ranked one and two for the most untrustworthy professions in Australia.
Iain Lygo is the author of News Overboard; The Tabloid Media, Race Politics and Islam.
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