Australia has gone 180 on two issues I wrote about recently. Let’s start with the good one.

Adam Goodes

When I wrote the Adam Goodes blog, things were looking very grim on the subject of racial undertones in the AFL. That week, Goodes said he needed a few days of to get away from all the media heat and therefore bowed out of playing that weekend’s home game against Adelaide. What happened next completely changed my feelings on the issue.

Star Aboriginal players in the NRL (rugby league) decided to do their own traditional war dances before every game in the round in solidarity with Goodes. Support was also shown by players across other codes including AFL and by the vast majority of the media. The game against Adelaide became a sell-out and the crowd was filled with shirts and signs bearing Goodes’ playing number – 37. At the seventh minute of the third quarter, there was a standing ovation.  It felt like Australia collectively stood up and said – this has to stop. Now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZyFcuvjd4E

Goods said he was hugely touched by the support, and came back into the playing roster. Everyone was waiting for the next game in more hostile opposition territory to see what would happen. The two teams came out to a strong crowd in Melbourne and there was no booing. Not a peep. It seems like this issue had finally been put to bed and thank god for that.

Now, however, to more unpleasant territory:

Tony Abbott

Mr Abbott is the Prime Minister of Australia. You may remember him from previous achievements such as:

• Being the subject of Julia Gillard’s viral misogyny speech after running a controversial campaign against the then-PM including orating in front of signs that read “JuLIAR… Bob Brown’s Bitch” and “Ditch the Witch.”

• Putting together a first cabinet containing only one woman, and then appointing himself minister for women.
• Cutting major funding for renewable energy as soon as he came into office.
• Shutting down Australia’s Climate Commission because he didn’t like what the scientists were saying about the climate.
• Shortly afterwards announcing “coal is the future” and “good for humanity”.
• Reintroducing knighthoods in Australia and promptly giving one to Prince Philip.
• Channelling millions of dollars into a national school chaplaincy program and restricting the ability of schools to appoint non-religious councillors, even though the Australian High Court ruled it unconstitutional.

And, for an encore:

• Pretty much single-handedly killing the burgeoning push for marriage equality.

I wrote a blog a couple of months ago about how the gay marriage referendum in Ireland had inspired action in Australia. This was shortly followed by the US Supreme Court also legalising marriage equality across all states – which made Australia look pretty backward. Things moved swiftly. Labor, the opposition party, decided to allow a conscience vote for all members on gay marriage. If the Liberals, Abbott’s party, decided to do the same, everybody was pretty sure marriage equality would be passed in Australia by the end of the year. After all, it is supported by 70% of the population. But that wasn’t what Tony Abbott wanted. So that’s not what happened.

How he managed to kill it is a little bit complicated. You can skip this bit if you want – but it basically comes down to the fact that the government is actually a coalition of the Liberals and the Nationals. They have operated as one pseudo-party for many years. The Liberals are centre-right – more right than, say, Fine Gael, but still centre right when you compare them to the Nationals who are a rural party and are far more conservative. A party room meeting was held so the Liberals could decide whether to allow a conscience vote. It looked like it might very well pass, as there were many supporters of marriage equality within the party. At the last minute, Abbott dragged the Nationals into the vote, thus swinging the room much more to the right and guaranteeing that the vote to allow a conscience vote (yes, really) would never pass. It was defeated 2 to 1.

So now it looks like the only way marriage equality will pass in Australia is by referendum – Abbott has dressed it up as allowing the people, and not politicians, to decide. Well, fine. I really don’t want to have to go through another gay marriage referendum where those opposing equality get a pedestal to broadcast their bigotry and hate in the name of balance, but fine. For anyone who thinks that it should be the public’s right to decide on the civil rights of a minority group, please watch this brilliant ad that aired in Ireland before our referendum:

It’s going to happen, it’s going to be unpleasant, but it should pass. Eventually. And when it does, we can all celebrate that Australia has finally shifted to the right side of history, even if our PM is firmly rooted in the past. I’ll keep you posted.