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Can Biden's calls for unity spark a tone shift in Australia's 'pretty ordinary' politics?

Can Biden's calls for unity spark a tone shift in Australia's 'pretty ordinary' politics?

Can Biden's calls for unity spark a tone shift in Australia's 'pretty ordinary' politics?
Jan 22, 2021 2 mins, 2 secs

It was true again this week with the inauguration of President Joe Biden.

The sense of renewal and a new beginning was only starker when you considered the drama that had taken place at the very spot where Biden took the oath of office: the storming of the Capitol on January 6; an historic second impeachment of a president a week later; and, finally, a national sigh of relief that four years of presidential mayhem was appropriately ending with a show of bad grace by Donald Trump.

The potential implications for Australia of a new regime in Washington have generally been canvassed, of course: the United States getting back on board on the Paris agreement on climate change and a wholesale shift in its energy policies being a conspicuous example.

But the heavy dominance of global terrorism has taken a back seat to these crises, and to the spectre of right-wing terror and insurrection at home for the United States.

In Australia, the Federal Government, for the first time in decades, is forced to share the day-to-day management of issues — and the politics — with the states, rather than simply having a government-versus-opposition fist fight with federal Labor.

Equally important to ponder, though, is whether what has happened to United States politics, and particularly to the Republican Party, has given our own political leaders pause to consider the long-term ramifications of particular political strategies, and what holding positions of leadership can involve.

In Australia, our leaders give implicit permission for whacky conspiracy theories and misinformation about the coronavirus and vaccines to be spread by backbenchers — who take their strategies straight from the Trump playbook — while those same leaders spend their time and taxpayers' money insisting that public confidence in vaccines is crucial.

Which raises the question: how often does our Prime Minister — or over the holidays, the man who filled in for him, Michael McCormack — ask himself what it might feel like to stand in the shoes of any particular group in the community before he opens his mouth.

In Queensland this week, Scott Morrison was putting himself in the shoes of locals in Gladstone who apparently aren't happy with the Queensland Government's idea of putting returned Australians into quarantine in mining camps in the area.

I think one of the great things about Australia — and I think we're respected for this — is we're pretty upfront and honest about our past.

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