Cotton-wool kids need to harden up

Children must learn about the real world of winners and losers, says Paul Murray

WE all fear people raising a generation of very soft kids, but sadly this week we got more proof they are.

The Victorian Parliament is telling school students they will be exposed to bullying when they watch Question Time.

Tour guides are telling teachers that children can optout of watching “disturbing verbal altercations”, with claims that some kids have been distressed by what they have seen on the floor of the house.

These are not rogue, supersensitive tour guides who have made this decision on their own — it comes from the Parliament’s Speaker who has confirmed they have set up the new guidelines.

But when news broke, rather than sweeping this social cotton wool aside, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said: “Parliament is a very robust forum and we debate, discuss and argue about very important things.

“I am sure all of us can perhaps reflect on how we conduct ourselves.

“We always need to be mindful that debate be in as respectful terms as possible.”

It is not hard to work out how we got here.

In sport, it feels like every kid gets a prize, you cannot fail kids at school and by the time they get to university we are setting up “safe spaces” where they will not be “triggered” by the nasty outside world.

It is fair to say many MPs act like children in Question Time, but we live in an adversarial political system where passions can become inflamed and they all too often compete to hit the hardest so they make the TV news that night.

While not model behaviour, this is part of the process and one that can be explained to children before they watch the battle.

We have to raise children with a full understanding of how the world works.

Sometimes you win, often you do not, and sometimes there will be harsh critics along the way.

Sadly, we cannot expect them to learn these life lessons when even our parliaments are trying to shield them from the way the world is, not the world we might sometimes want it to be. THERE’S more than one fix to live exports.

Labor Leader Bill Shorten is proving he has not learnt much since he was part of the Labor government that shut down the live-export industry.

Speaking late in the week, the Opposition Leader said he supports the move by the Western Australian Government to stop ships being able to transport animals at the heights of the northern hemisphere summer.

But this is not about saving animals, it is about setting up a fight with the Government at the next election.

It seems very likely that

In sport, it feels like every kid gets a prize, you cannot fail kids at school and by the time they get to university we are setting up “safe spaces”

there will be a vote in the Senate at least to either limit or possibly shut down the trade.

At this stage the Government will not support the vote, which means even if it passes the senate it will be blocked in the Lower House and Shorten will be able to campaign on it at the election.

This will lock in Greens preferences that, let’s be honest, he’s going to get anyway.

My solution to the current dilemma is better regulation.

Just like you cannot buy a car without a seatbelt, you shouldn’t be allowed to carry live animals unless the ship does not crowd the animals, and the places they are put have floors where waste can fall through grates and is cleaned daily.

Cameras can easily be placed wherever animals are and officials can monitor them, with strong penalties to follow.