There’s much speculation that the upcoming federal election will be battled out on the characters of our prospective leaders.
But I can’t help feeling it’s a risky strategy for the Prime Minister, with an unending spate of grave allegations and fingers pointed in his direction over the past three years, surely impossible to cast aside in favour of his own, singular claim that Labor leader Anthony Albanese is “gutless”.
The latest allegation is one of the most sinister yet, with reports that Morrison told Liberal preselectors in 2007 that they couldn’t risk backing his rival candidate Michael Towke, because “a candidate of Lebanese heritage could not hold the seat of Cook, especially after the Cronulla riots” and there was a “strong rumour” that Towke was a Muslim.
While Morrison has flatly denied the claims, first raised by outgoing Liberal Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells last week, Towke has broken his 15-year silence to confirm the account, first made in a statutory declaration signed in 2016.
Towke says preselectors told him Morrison was “adamant and explicit that a candidate of Lebanese heritage could not hold the seat of Cook, especially after the Cronulla riots”.
“It was also brought to my attention that in some of these meetings Morrison informed the preselector that he was aware of a strong rumour that I was actually a Muslim,” the statutory declaration noted.
Towke told the Nine newspapers on Sunday: “I stand by the declarations I asserted in my statutory declaration.”
“Amongst many unedifying tactics used to unseat me from my preselection victory for Morrison, racial vilification was front and centre and he was directly involved,” he reportedly said. “Racism is divisive, creating hate and hurt, and should have no place in Australian society.”
Certain commentators and media honchos were quick to jump in over the weekend to argue that if this indeed took place (as outlined in multiple LNP statutory declarations including Towke’s) and Morrison conducted himself in this way, it was still something that happened years ago. At what point do we build a bridge and move on?
But as a young, brown woman living in this country (who knows what racial profiling feels like), my point would be this: Do we really think these are depths that our Prime Minister wouldn’t sink to now, given the chance? And are we really okay with that?
Popular media personality, journalist, podcast host and author of best-selling memoir ‘Of Middle Eastern Appearance’ Jan Fran made an excellent point on Twitter when she said, “ethnic minorities have known since forever in this country. Those in power (and it ain’t just Morrison) will use you when it’s politically expedient. The solidarity, appreciation, respect they show is always, ALWAYS conditional. They will turn on a dime.”
She’s right. This brand of racism isn’t unique to Morrison, but it is unique to a certain type of manipulator, who knows the power of division for political gain. Our former PM, John Howard (who was incidentally leader during the 2007 preselection in question) was the master of it. His entire legacy was defined by his ability to create a festering sentiment in the Australian electorate of an “us versus them” battle. Normal, suburban white folks versus everyone else. Double the fear factor for anyone Muslim.
It’s an effective tactic, but one that does nothing to strengthen us as a country. In truth, it achieves the very opposite, and as we learnt in the early 2000’s, it’s something that can have lasting, horrifically damaging consequences for years to come.
After everything that’s happened over the past three years; the challenges we’ve all been through, the heartbreak we’ve witnessed and the desperation we’ve felt, the single biggest triumph is our collective resolve. Our capacity to come together to help each other out and stand in for our neighbours has been truly beautiful to witness.
Scott Morrison has never been part of this victory. In truth, we achieved it in spite of him. But if he’s voted in again, we may not hold so strong when divisive politics are employed.