If, as the old adage goes, the truth will set you free, then reading anything written by a politician must be the intellectual equivalent of house arrest. Half-truths provide the comfort and assertion sustains the facade, but the bars of ideology jut like ribs behind the wall.
Despite having this warning in mind (or perhaps because of it), I sat down with Tony Abbott’s epic tome: A Strong Australia – The Values, Direction and Policy Priorities of the Next Coalition Government. Sadly, it contains no wizards or elves, no Catholic Church conspiracies (which was surprising) and very few shades of grey. Rather, between the agitprop and the polemics, it simply paints the picture of a lead character, Tony. Tony is a man who cares. See Tony care. Care Tony Care. Tony wants to make our country better for everyone ... *terms and conditions apply. The narrative twists on the asterisk. For it is in these terms and conditions that Tony is unmasked by his own language – the facade collapses to reveal the skeletal cage behind. It’s almost Shakespearian.
Something wicked this way comes
Early in the story, Tony talks about immigration. It is, he argues, a good thing – it’s what Australia is founded on. Brave man that Tony. Then, bullied from the success of that break-through, he continues:
“Every migrant has chosen Australia in a way that no Australian-born person has ever had to. No migrant takes Australia for granted in the way that some who were born here do. The vast majority of them choose Australia not because they want to change us but because they want to join us. Nothing makes me prouder to be an Australian than the eagerness of people from all over the world to swap their life for ours.”
So now we have a definition of the “good migrant” – one who comes here not to change but to be changed, not to enrich but to forego. One who wants to swap out who they were to be like us – trading up to the superior model.
Tony is quite explicit, however, that this definition of the “good migrant” does not apply to asylum seekers. We are told that those arriving on our shores illegally are “bad”. By focussing on the means of arrival, rather than the reason, Tony dehumanises and misrepresents the entire plight of the refugee. Seemingly, unlike those who have the resources to exploit the immigration system through more traditional means, those who circumvent the system out of desperation are not fit to “join us”.
But, even there, the “us” they are joining is heavily qualified. It seems we have an enemy within: no migrant takes Australia for granted in the way that some who were born here do. Those traitors! Please, Tony, tell us who they are. They are, of course, those who oppose the apparently self-evident assertions that infest this “book”. Those who would support a carbon tax. Those who would support onshore processing of refugees. Those who would support organised labour. Those who would bludge on our welfare system. Every real citizen of Tony’s dehumanised “Australia Inc.” (as he puts it) knows who the traitors are: those who don’t share Tony’s vision for our organisation.
Having marked out the divisions in society, Tony continues with his noble tale of building stronger communities:
“After all, the measure of a decent society is how it looks after its most vulnerable members. Once the budget is strongly back in surplus, our aim is to provide the additional services that Australians yearn for...”
Decency it appears is a luxury (as discussed in my previous post The Discretionary People). Once again the most vulnerable and at-risk members of our community will be left swinging in the wind, pondering (like the rest of us) what “once the budget is strongly back in surplus” actually means.
In this act, Tony drops character from caring nation-builder to become the miser doling out indulgences as he sees fit to those he sees as fit. And that definition of “fitness” is clearly one based on Social Darwinism, because the most vulnerable – take, for example, those with a disability – are not at the front of the line, but at its rear. Tony makes it clear that, putting all motherhood statements aside, the National Disability Insurance Scheme (one the most important policy innovations this country has seen) “cannot fully be implemented until the budget returns to strong surplus”. Middle-class and corporate welfare, however, are to be expanded in the interim. Perhaps those with a disability also need to stop taking this country for granted?
Like any great story, however, there are a few twists and turns along the way. Just when we feel we have the character sussed, Tony demonstrates his human credentials, saying: “Should I become prime minister [sic], I will spend at least a week every year in a remote indigenous community.” This is no act of trivialisation. This is no vainglorious publicity stunt. This is sensitivity and compassion writ large. After all, as Tony tells us, “I was part of a government that sent in the army to improve infrastructure in remote Aboriginal communities, launched an intervention to get ‘the booze out and the police in’.” I am sure those remote indigenous communities will look forward to his arrival.
As Prime Minister Gillard announces that we shall go to the polls in September of this year, the most concerning aspect of this ideological diatribe is that we will almost certainly see it enacted. It is more than likely that Tony will be our next Prime Minister and the effects of this worldview will become real. Not a stronger Australia, but a harder, colder and more divided country. Australia Inc. Not a nation, but an incorporation of individuals bound in self-advancement. A society (like our character Tony) that has forgotten: it is who you don’t care for, not who you do, that truly reveals you ... [fades to static].
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