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Two Wongs don’t make a right….

Well, I was damned proud of that title, and if I want to make a whole blog post around it I shall.

But on to serious matters……

When a Liberal Senator “meow’s” at Penny Wong when she is trying to answer a question the reaction should never have been from the Libs and their supporters, but she had it coming. Nor should it have been, but it is all fair in politics. Nor should it have been, you need a thick skin to play the game. What should have happened in the first place was that a well paid elected representative of the people of Australia should have acted like a grown up. And a big congrats to Penny for calling the situation as it was.

But no, modern politics is about the sound bite, the quick reaction and the quick snark. It is no longer about a mature debate around the subject. #carboncate was a classic reaction, not to the subject, but to a spin and byline.

Worse was still to come, like Scott Morrison and many politicians from both sides of parliament, the “apology” wasn’t an apology as you or I would expect, but was a saying sorry without saying sorry statement. I only hope that the in person apology was better than what David Bushby said on twitter:

“I am sorry that Senator Wong has felt offended by my reaction”

Sorry but WTF. That isn’t an apology for ones actions, that is a transference of blame to the other person for their reaction to what was a childish act.

Of course the #auspol crowd and a number of Liberal senators jumped on previous comments that Julia Gillard has made saying what is the difference. Which goes back to my extremely pun ridden title. Two wrongs don’t make a right. I know it is old school, but pointing out that someone else did bad to justify or shift blame isn’t acceptable as an excuse in the playground, yet in politics it is.

It is time for Australian politics to grow up, we pay you a lot of money to do the best for not just yourselves but for us.

The increasing vitriol and outright hatred in poke insults at each other, then saying but “she/he did it first” not only lessens you, but lessens us all.