SO THAT IT NEVER HAPPENS AGAIN(homage to Helen Haines’s way of practising politics)
Source: AAP/James Ross
The cruel attack on Helen Haines this week reminds us that no one, not even the most innocent or best amongst us, is ever truly safe. The shock of hearing details of this unbelievably savage act has, naturally enough, unleashed a torrent of calls for greater police and security service protection of public figures.
Those calls for more protection often end with the hopeful expectation of being able to engineer a world where such events “can never happen again”. That’s a forlorn hope, a mission impossible. Such terrible, unfair, unjust, random, crippling events are unstoppable – unless we want to live in a gated – police state.
Where millions of people congregate anything can, and will, happen. Some of those things will be good, some bad, some ugly. Some of those things will be inspiring, good and beautiful. It’s always been this way. It’s human nature. Humans are driven by different motivations (some rational, some unhinged) and different values (a number of which contradict each other).
Dealing with the unhinged amongst us takes us into the world of mental illness, (an area most of us are unqualified to talk about). But we can talk about values.Values are the building blocks of any culture. In a society like ours the values of many different cultures intermingle. Some of those values are religious, some ideological and many based on customs and traditions that have defined daily living for centuries. When times get tough those differences can eat away at the glues that bind us together. When friction rises, violence often follows.
In 2026 Australia’s standard of living is in retreat, the prospects of fast economic recovery slim. The demonisation of immigration is at a generational peak. Everyone’s nerves have been unsettled by a succession of out-of-the-blue surprises including Russia’s attack on Ukraine, the Israeli/Palestinian war, the Bondi massacre, Trumpian madness and an increasing fear of China. The signs of division are spreading. We feel the glues that hold us together are melting away at a frightening rate.
Ordinary people like us can see it happening. So too can our political class. So too did Helen Haines, and she did something about it by going about politics in a different way.
In an attempt to ‘fix’ things our party leaders have tried to pull us back together by promoting the need for everyone to uphold ‘Australian Values’. It’s a reflexive call to arms….one that fades in effectiveness the wider you spread its usage.
The shooters at Bondi were incontrovertibly unaustralian. Pro-Palestinian marches are unaustralian. Threatening anyone in public office is unaustralian. Paying deference to ‘tall poppies’ is unaustralian. Rorting the NDIS is<br> unaustralian. OneNation’s policy on immigration is unaustralian. Wearing a kippah anywhere outside a synagogue is unaustralian. Swimming at the beach in a burkini is unaustralian. Not fiddling your tax return is (a little bit) unaustralian.
Indeed, it’s become commonplace to describe anything you don’t like as UNAUSTRALIAN. Soon it might become unaustralian to vote without signing a declaration to prove you’ve snacked on a sausage sandwich(with tomato sauce) before leaving a polling station.
The word UNAUSTRALIAN has become a magic wand of great pretend-moral authority that can sweep away any ‘difference’ that discomforts us.
We insist,<br> for example, prospective new Australians complete (and pass) an Australian Values Statement. Such tick the box affirmations are little more than theatrical props to help us look like a homogenous – a one for all, all for one – society. In reality we are not a monoculture-and can’t, anymore, become one. If we are to survive as a nation it will be as a functional, multicultural one.
Accusing fellow citizens of being unaustralian is more likely to further divide, not unite us.<br> Trying to force everyone in a democracy to march to the same drumbeat is a recipe for failure. We know Jingoistic approaches (fly the flag, Make Australia Great Again movements, disparaging ‘foreign’ ways, dismissing other than Judaic-Christian religions…etc.) don’t work. Both ancient and modern histories attest to that.
So, is there a better way to address the problem of divisiveness? Helen Haines definitely believes so. She (in large part) became an ‘independent’ MP so she could focus her efforts on representing and seeking to improve the lot of people living in her electorate – and serve to advancing the national interest. She focuses her efforts advancing the interests of people, not improving the electoral prospects of a Party or the factions within them seeking to hold power. Some of the words associated with her way of practising politics are NON PARTISAN, CONSULTATIVE, EVIDENCE BASED, TRANSPARENT, HONEST and RESPECTFUL.
We ordinary citizen/voters don’t have the time,<br> experience, skills or interest to pursue politics the hard way professionals like Haines do. But we can cut through all the ‘noise’ by applying a few litmus-like-tests of our own to insure we too are working toward building a robust and stable democracy. As individuals we can,
1. Start by accepting that ALL HUMANS ARE OF EQUALVALUE, have equal rights and responsibilities,<br> equal strengths and weakness, the same hopes and fears. We can look beyond <br>(there’s nothing new in this suggestion. You find variants of it everywhere, in the teachings of all religions and the constitutions of secular governments, including the American Constitution.<br>‘Equal’, ‘equality’, ‘sameness’ an ‘alikeness’ are the cornerstones on which to build empathy and a productive dialogue.
2. Try and understand why people think differently to the way you do. The fact that a variant of the expression ‘STAND IN THEIR SHOES FOR A WHILE’ spontaneously pops up in nearly all cultures attests to the power of this idea. It opens the door to finding mutually satisfactory solutions to problems where parties start out with differing viewpoints.
3. When the complexity of a situation overwhelms, take a step back. Take a breath and apply the Golden Rule that’s served even the greatest of the Greek philosophers, ‘DO UNTO OTHERS AS YOU’D HAVE THEM DO UNTO YOU’. Everyone can do that. Confucius did. Matthew and Luke attest to the fact this was also a favourite maxim of Christ. Egyptians were saying it back in 1850 BCE.
4. Never take the easy way out by BLAMING OTHERS for everything that goes wrong (‘it’s the bloody fault of the …). That approach to discourse only throws petrol on a fire. Playing the blame-game not only exacerbates division, it ends any chance of developing a productive dialogue. And without dialogue you can’t have democracy. Life isn’t a cage-fight on the lawn of the White House – a fight where the winner expects to take all. Only Trump thinks that.
Helen Haines practises politics the right way. Too few politicians do. We need more of her kind. May she get well soon. We need her back asap.