DAVID PENBERTHY
been a perjurer himself, using the name of a dead friend to dodge a $77 speeding fine by claiming she was driving his car when he exceeded the speed limit, an indignant Einfeld claimed to be the victim a media witch hunt, and his powerful friends fell in behind him.
Einfeld’s ultimate downfall was a remarkable morality tale, which went to the valid Australian suspicion that there are often two sets of rules, one for the plebs, one for the people in power. If the privacy provisions that are demanded by media critics were in place, Enfield’s act of conceit could not have been exposed.
At the federal level, the lamer politicians will oscillate between being chummy with the press when things are going good, and downright hostile when their governments are on the nose.
Kevin Rudd is the best example of the phenomenon. When Rudd was in his unstoppable ascendancy ahead of the 2007 election, his obsequious desire to ingratiate himself with editors and proprietors was so profound that he beand as a last resort offset impacts, and, critically, enhanced emphasis on involving Aboriginal communities in the environmental approval process for major development. We’ve seen some of these new green shoots already – huge solar farms, an expansion of Indigenous Ranger programs and growth of the eco-tourism industry. Our new environment laws set a foundation where a better future for the unique and precious Top End environment can be built upon.
This future will need to be built on sustainable industry and respectful environmental came the stuff of jokes in media circles. When his government imploded – largely as a result his deeply irritating personality – Rudd’s foil for his own failings was to blame his demise on a vast conspiracy involving the Murdoch press.
The next time someone tells you that talk of press freedom is a Canberra bubble story, they’re lying, because it’s actually about you – and about your right to know the truth about how people in power are truly operating. It is for this reason that the Morrison Government is on thin ice over its ambivalence about the appalling raid of my colleague Annika Smethurst’s home. Her “crime” was to break a genuinely important story revealing that the heads of the defence and home affairs ministries had discussed new powers to allow the Australian Signals Directorate to spy on Australian citizens for the first time.
If that’s not in the public interest, nothing is, and if Scott Morrison thinks it’s a “Canberra bubble” issue that Smethurst was raided, well, ScoMo is living in a bubble himself. management, not the rampant unchecked industry that has damaged our rivers, coastlines and landscapes in the past. This is an important moment in political history – not just for those currently in government, but for the countless individuals who pushed hard for a delivery of election commitments.
It shows the community and political momentum for strong environmental action and is an important step in ensuring that the NT is up to speed with law reform.