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Dutton crowned El Supremo
Volume 32 #07
July 26, 2017
The search for justice Anyone with a basic knowledge of physics, biology or zoology would know that the universe we inhabit is not strong on justice. Even the famous rabbi from Galilee allegedly said, ‘The rain falls on the just and the unjust’, despite the wishful thinking of many of his followers. Yet the search for justice continues among most compassionate humans. In the face of the inevitability of death we hope for good outcomes for our family, friends and other worthwhile humans. Unfortunately justice is often confused with revenge, the premise of many Rambo-esque Hollywood movies, and the life’s work of DC Comics’ Justice League. One essay that has stuck with me since year 8 at high school (or eighth grade as we used to call it in the Early Jurassic) is Of Revenge, by philosopher Francis Bacon (1561–1626). In it he claims, ‘Revenge is a kind of wild justice; which the more man’s nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.’ (The essays of the Elizabethan era were not unlike modern blogs, but in Bacon’s case a few plateaux above mediocrity: http://bit.ly/baconrev. Perhaps Of Revenge is not as culturally resonant these days as Charles Lamb’s later A Dissertation upon Roast Pig, judging by the number of food blogs, but I for one am glad that Bacon wrote it.) Generally the law is firm on weeding out revenge, despite the best efforts of the Laura Norder politicians and the shock jocks. Chief among its virtues in common law is the presumption of innocence until the the accused is found guilty beyond reasonable doubt. This virtue is a human right under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that can frustrate those aggrieved by a crime. The accused’s right to remain silent also adds to the frustration but the process of gathering evidence and examining it in court offers a better chance of justice being served than the brutal frenzy of a lynch mob or the medieval trial by ordeal – combat, water or fire – which favoured the strong above the innocent and those with congenital analgesia. Unfortunately for Bacon’s theory on revenge-weeding, the law is made by legislators too often intent on wild justice – or favours for a mate – rather than real justice. They will seek to undermine the judicial system if it, and its judges, does not fit their agenda. So the search for justice continues. Those fifty-odd years ago I was required by my teacher to expound on Bacon’s essay in front of the class as punishment for a series of small, vengeful acts another boy and I had engaged in against each other. There was certainly some justice – and an education – in that. – Michael McDonald
The Byron Shire Echo Established 1986
T
he Greeks said it succinctly: the system of tyranny is only as good as the worst man who can become a tyrant. Step forward, Peter Craig Dutton, Master of the Universe. Well perhaps not yet, but he’s getting there, he’s working on it. We are told by his acquaintances (his friends are harder to find) that Dutton is effective, focused, energetic and determined. Some also describe him as a good and decent man. The latter is at least debatable, but what is beyond argument is that Dutton is ruthless, authoritarian and totally ambitious. This may be a recipe for gaining power, but it is not a safe place from which to wield it. He already has a history of overreach, of ignoring the accepted standards when and where it suits him. This is more than making silly jokes about the water lapping over Pacific islands in international forums or even verballing Manus Island asylum seekers as paedophiles; it goes to a mindset in which anything goes if it pursues his demands, the end always justifies the means. Which means that promoting him way beyond his talents and abilities is a reckless and dangerous move from our normally cautious prime minister. So that being the case, there must be a compelling, even irresistible, reason for Malcolm Turnbull to invent a new super department in what he boasts is the biggest change to the security system in forty years and use it to enthrone the former Queensland narc not only as his Home Affairs supremo but as a leadership contender, a candidate for the neo-conservatives when and if they finally despair of their former hero, Tony Abbott. But as far as we know there
isn’t; the announcement came after just about everyone who was consulted (and there weren’t very many even of these) advised against it. Turnbull’s sole justification seems to be that we, or at least he, cannot stand still; like sharks, we have to keep moving to survive. The proposal for an overriding super-ministry has been canvassed many times and has been kyboshed by two prime
he has spent most of his working life immersing himself in their company. So when he says that all the major agencies as well as most of the cabinet were against the inauguration of Dutton’s empire, we can take his word for it. Of course there may be some self-interest involved; some will not relish their previously well-defined ponds being subsumed into a greater and
Promoting Dutton way beyond his talents and abilities is a reckless and dangerous move. by Mungo MacCallum ministers – Kevin Rudd and even Tony Abbott, no bleeding heart when it comes to security matters. But Turnbull insists that it now urgent, so urgent that absolutely no details of just what the move will actually entail have actually been worked out. There have been constant reminders of the threat of terrorist attacks in Australia, and of the rare instances when they have occurred. In what can now be seen as an overture to the main theme, Turnbull mentioned Man Haron Monis and the Martin Place siege while posing with a totalitarian backdrop of what appeared to be a couple of sinister looking commandos in gas masks beside an armoured naval vessel; it is not entirely clear how they would have been useful in the Lindt Café, but presumably it was about enhancing the breathless air of crisis he was bolstering. Indeed, nothing about the ballyhoo is very clear. Even The Australian’s Greg Sheridan, who loves a good security beat-up, was sceptical. Sheridan’s obsessions can be erratic, but the man knows his spooks;
USE YOUR OTHER HAND
more amorphous lake. But the argument that separate ministers with responsibilities that co-operate independently will provide a better result than monocultural group-think is hard to counter, the more so if the minister is Dutton, a bully who has shown little interest in alternative points of view. Another objection is that Dutton is apparently to remain as immigration minister as well; if he is fully occupied with security, he will hardly find the time for such trivial pursuits. But in practice there will be no real change: ever since he has assumed his border security uniform Dutton and his equally belligerent departmental head Michael Pezzullo have regarded immigration as something of a sideline, an issue to be resisted, obviously, but hardly relevant to the real war. They inveigh ceaselessly against asylum seekers who arrive by boat as illegal (they are not) but are happy to ignore the real illegals, the tens of thousands of those who overstay their visas and simply disappear into society – much as the boat people did
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12 July 26, 2017 The Byron Shire Echo
before they were incarcerated in their offshore prison camps. The real economic and social issues about immigration will just have to continue to muddle along on their own. So there is no convincing explanation of why Turnbull has done what he has done: bluster about agility and innovation and spurious comparisons with other regimes in other countries can be dismissed as the waffle it is. Which leads us to the cynical but inevitable conclusion that it is a captain’s pick, a move to ensure Dutton remains onside as our current leader’s chief protector and enforcer against the right-wing warriors in the party room and outside it. This is certainly the overwhelming view of the commentariat. There has been almost universal puzzlement, criticism and rejection, even by those, like Sheridan, who are happy to push the security barrow to its limits and beyond when it suits them. And the threatening cloud of Peter Dutton, rising ever larger in the political sky, does not reassure the doubters. The public is not, to put it mildly, ready for Dutton; his polling figures are abysmal. The idea of him advancing still further seems absurd. But then, the idea of Turnbull – the apostle of the sensible centre – conferring such overweening authority on a right-wing zealot who would not hesitate to topple him if the occasion arose seems pretty silly also. The Greeks had something to say about that too: those whom the gods seek to destroy they first make mad. But that advice may be too late for Malcolm Turnbull. And there is no point in trying to explain it to Peter Two Planks Dutton. It is all Greek to him.
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