How to end racism in two easy steps

At least every time Peter Dutton opens his mouth, you know he knows he’s going to say something specifically designed to widen the divisions in this country.?

Anthony Albanese, by contrast, gives every impression of genuinely wanting everyone to stop shouting at him. The fact that his words and actions have a consistently opposite effect seems to leave him mystified.

Yes, he’s a victim of circumstances – he didn’t ask for carnage to be unleashed in the Middle East, has done nothing to consciously stoke the ensuing social disruption here, and undoubtedly is not personally attached to any of the racism we’re drowning in.

But he’s the, ahem, prime minister. How was he caught so flat-footed by Fatima Payman’s decision to make Palestinian statehood the hill on which her Labor Party membership would die? She telegraphed it far enough ahead.

Sure, Albanese was caught between the ancient tradition of caucus solidarity and the modern “identity politics” trend of people actually acting on their principles rather than politely waiting until the timing is politically convenient for fundamental human rights to be honoured.

But that’s no excuse – what he did to Payman was always going to look like tone-deaf monstering to a public that lost interest in the game of politics long ago and would rather stick a fork in its collective eye than pay attention to parliament (or watch Insiders).

Dutton was far closer to the money with his take on the situation, literally running to the nearest camera to proclaim an existential crisis – the dark brown peril of Muslim voters voting Muslim, and the inevitable death of Western civilisation that would immediately follow. Religion in politics! Never happened before, we wouldn’t survive it.

Say you were leading the country and were seriously concerned about the racial temperature. You’d also noticed that you keep being out-manoeuvred by a guy with the sophistication of a truncheon. What would you do next? Take the advice of the loudest, most politically connected voice in the room, the one with limitless access to broadcast its every thought through the mainstream media, and give it exactly what it wants?

Apparently, yes, that’s exactly what you’d do. Albanese’s choice – nobody forced this on him, and he’d have paid no political price for not doing it – is the appointment of a Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism in Australia.

Before we get to the specifics, step into the future and take an objective look back at this moment in history. In the name of “social cohesion”, what we need is – for the first time ever – a public servant commissioned with the protection of one, and only one, ethnic/religious group. From, exactly, who? (Ask Dutton, he won’t be so shy about telling you.)

The fact that it’s been briefed out with the whispered promise that another Special Envoy to Combat Islamophobia will soon follow does not make this better. Have we ever had a Special Envoy to Combat Systemic, Structural And Intergenerational Racism Against Indigenous Australians For The Past 236 Years And Counting? No, oddly enough, never occurred to us.

Absolutely, overt racism targeting either Jews or Muslims, Palestinians and other people of Middle Eastern extraction has been rising ever since October 7. The racism that lies under the paper-thin surface of Australia’s self-delusion doesn’t need much encouragement to come out and play, and the conditions have been rich.

But this is how to address it? Pick out one side of the argument – trying to bear in mind that it’s an argument about mass death amounting to alleged genocide, following a horrific massacre perpetrated by a terrorist organisation, in a deeply contested historical context where nobody agrees about anything – and give it a special envoy? What message does that send?

What it says – to everyone – is not that our government has no dog in this fight, nor that it wants us all to calm the fuck down. And that’s before we get to who they’ve appointed. Jillian Segal AO was President of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry and is now Chair of the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce, both groups being major players in the pro-Israel lobby. The optics could not be more obvious.

Presumably they’ll appoint a prominent and outspoken Muslim Australian as the other special envoy, which will only make things worse. They might as well call them Ethno-Champions and chuck them in an arena to fight it out for our entertainment.

Look, there is nothing more emotionally exhausting or morally debilitating than the racism that cloaks this country like a blanket soaked in shit. It would be nice if we grew up, stopped pretending it doesn’t exist and finally faced up to it.

Instead, Albanese is saying to us, the scourge of racism can be othered. It’s not us, it’s them. Or them, no, not them, the other them. Anyway don’t worry, the envoys will fix it. Go back to sleep.

And the anger rises.