I have to admit to being fascinated at times by politics in Australia. One big reason is how the political environment in those countries seems to be several times more civilized than ours. Granted, Australian parliaments are notoriously rowdy, with parliamentary sessions characterized by insults and catcalls. Yet, there are certain things that go on here that simply would not be tolerated there, mainly because there is a basic agreement on the rules of the game.
The most recent example of this happened a few weeks ago, in the federal electorate of Charlton. It's located roughly 75 miles north of Sydney, and is ridiculously safe for the Australian Labor Party, the social democratic party that is the main center-left force there. The closest parallel I can draw here in the States is the Iron Range of MinnesotaIt's been held by Labor ever since its creation in 1949, and Labor won it with 62.7 percent of the vote in the last election. The main center-right party, the Liberals, would need a swing of 12.7 percent in order to win it--a Herculean task. I know, it's a little confusing. However, the Liberals include a broad range of non-socialist viewpoints. They range from people who would be moderate-to-liberal Democrats in this country to uber-conservative Republicans. The current Liberal leader, Tony Abbott, would probably be a Republican here.
A few weeks ago, the Daily Telegraph of Sydney discovered that the Liberal candidate in Charlton, Kevin Baker, had run a Website for Mini enthusiasts called "Mini-Mods" since 2006. The message boards there were a cesspool of racist and sexist jokes, as well as jokes about child abuse.
Among other things Mr Baker used the site to highlight his 'humour', including jokes about having sex with strippers.
Some of the banter, it was discovered, included jokes about the Pope being a paedophile, women having sex on pool tables and what Mr Baker himself calls "tit-banter".
Hundreds of sexist and racist jokes, some making light of domestic violence and incest/child abuse appeared on the forum.
Rather than rein this bile in, Baker actually encouraged it. On one post, he wrote, "Seems a bit like 'Tit Banter' in here to me at the moment. Bwahaha, if only ;)." But Abbott didn't find it at all funny, saying that Baker had "absolutely done the wrong thing" and promised a full inquiry into the site. But behind the cameras, he didn't wait to take action. Before the weekend was out, Baker had shut the site down and apologized for it.
But that wasn't the end of it. Not by a longshot. When Prime Minister Kevin Rudd found out about it, he dispatched Finance Minister Penny Wong (who along with Treasurer Wayne Swan, splits the duties that would be held by the Secretary of the Treasury here) to demand that the Liberals yank their endorsement from Baker. Wong rightly said that what happened on that site was as far from a laughing matter as you can get, and argued that Baker had to go even though nominations had closed. Less than 24 hours later, Baker announced he was pulling out. Anyone who believes this was voluntary, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell you.
Based on the current lay of the land, if Labor were to lose Charlton, it would be the 55th Labor seat to be won by the Liberal Party and its coalition partner, the rural conservative National Party. In other words--the roof will have had to have fallen in on Rudd for Labor to lose this seat. So why would Rudd feel the need to have one of his ministers ramp up the pressure on Abbott to dump a candidate in a seat his party is likely to retain in any event? To my mind, it says a lot about the culture of Australian politics. Here in the States, something like this would be blown off as the rantings of a guy who has no shot of winning in any event. But it's apparent that our friends down under have a much higher standard of fitness for office than we do.