Afterwards,speaking to an old colleague about Gillard’s misogyny speech to parliament,he told me how amazed he had been that the press gallery largely missed its significance – choosing instead to focus on the brute politics of that day.
Illustration:Jim Pavlidis
The events we remember tend to be proxies – stand-ins for larger stories. The media’s decision not to focus on what Gillard was saying about misogyny serves as stand-in for those whole three years:the stubborn refusal of the country,especially the media,to address what was happening in front of us.
This,as it happens,is a topic ABC journalist Laura Tingle touched on in her recent John Button Oration,discussing “the question of licence and just what a political leader like Tony Abbott unleashed on Julia Gillard. He didn’t just unleash it on her though,I suspect. What licence did it give to the growth in the sort of misogyny we have seen ever since?”
And so it is unsurprising that Tingle made a similar point two weeks later,about Peter Dutton’s political criticisms of migration potentially licensing abuse of migrants. Tingle also said Australia was a racist country.
Much has been written on whether Tingle was correct about Australia,and on whether she did something an ABC journalist shouldn’t do. These are important questions. Right now,I think they are distractions from more urgent issues. As with Gillard’s speech,Tingle’s experience has become an event because of the broader stories it mirrors.
The first lies in the fact the pile-on against Tingle was led by News Corp,and that it so neatly reflected several of News Corp’s well-known habits. It hates the ABC,retaliates against critics,and often targets high-profile women.
Most notable,at this moment,is the media organisation’s seeming determination to police accusations around racism and its history. Recall the coverage of Marcia Langton’s
comments about racism during the Voice debate,or Stan Grant’s comments about colonisation and the monarchy. It is not the only organisation following such stories,but its role is significant.
The second is that the ABC has,in recent years,sent some terrible signals to its journalists – and,again,this is particularly the case around race.
Parsing the ABC’s various statements,it seems Tingle was “counselled” not so much because of the content of her comments,but because she had made them without at the same time providing sufficient context – even though she had provided that context previously. These grounds seem weak. Far more importantly,they seem unpredictable:difficult to guess at in advance. This bears an unfortunate resemblance to public discussion of the sacking of Antoinette Lattouf,who is suing the ABC,and says she was “fired for posting a fact the ABC itself was also reporting”. When journalists are forced to guess at rules,they are more likely to become timid.
Now consider that Tingle’s comments were about race. Lattouf alleged her own race and cultural heritage were a factor in her dismissal (the ABC has denied this). Stan Grant,when he walked away from the ABC – after being targeted by News Corp – said.
These are potent forces. A powerful commercial news organisation,prepared to go after individuals,exercising a chilling effect on public discourse,especially around issues of race. And the public broadcaster,which seems intimidated by that commercial news organisation,and (at the very least) risks appearing easily intimidated when it comes to issues around race. All this as we head into an election in which migration may be a central political issue.
The country’s opposition leader has linked migration to,. The potential consequences of such words for individuals shouldn’t be off-limits – they should be central. On Saturday,new comments from Dutton:“There are millions of people who want to come to our country,be law-abiding,help their neighbours,not rob them,go to work,not turn up to a Centrelink office.”
If the Tingle affair was not good for the ABC,it was arguably not great for News Corp either. Journalists often steer clear of directly discussing the company. The past week has been notable for how many have talked about it bluntly. Both Margaret Simons and Niki Savva wrote that News Corp’s attacks on the ABC should be ignored. AAP journalist Kat Wong asked the
organisation’s executive chairman,Michael Miller,about reporting causing women to be bullied (he said the work “wasn’t intended to bully”). Patricia Karvelas asked Miller about his organisation’s “obsession” with Brittany Higgins (he said other media had covered the story).
These are also important issues,worth naming – and ones that too often have been glossed over in national debate. At the same time,we should be careful not get too caught up in discussions about the Murdochs,or the ABC,or Peter Dutton or Anthony Albanese,or even Laura Tingle. To do so risks a debate along predictable lines – missing broader and more important questions that should concern everyone who lives in this country.
What type of national discourse do we want? Are we really willing to make migration and migrants the focus of how we talk about Australia’s problems? Have we considered who will suffer if we do? Is this the country we want to be?
Between 2010 and 2013,a certain level of sexist abuse was normalised;as Tingle suggested,that has had lasting impacts. But my own belief is that Gillard’s decision to fight back was even more important:that it made a certain type of public commentary about women far less acceptable. Naming what is going on,describing it accurately,choosing to see pile-ons as what they are and nothing more:we have seen some of this in recent weeks – but certainly not enough.
A decade ago,a leader of the opposition deployed damaging political rhetoric as though it were unremarkable. We failed to talk about it properly or draw the lines we should have. With almost a year to go in this ugly lead-in to an election,there is every chance we are about to make the same mistake again.
Sean Kelly is a regular columnist and a former adviser to Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd. His partner is artistic director of the Melbourne Theatre Company,which is stagingJulia.