If you’re a schoolteacher, police officer or nurse you’d probably get the sack for missing work to sleep off a hangover, or being convicted of sexual assault. It’s a different story if you’re a politician, however. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
Kiama MP Gareth Ward’s political career may be toast – or it may not. Time will tell.
NSW Premier Chris Minns says parliament will move to expel Ward following his conviction for sexual assault charges.
There is little to prevent Ward from running for his seat in future, however. Ultimately, the fate of his career sits where it always has – in the hands of the Kiama electorate.
Former Labor Party leader and One Nation MP, now independent MP Mark Latham is currently in court opposing an application of an apprehended violence order from an ex-girlfriend.
In 2024 MP Barnaby Joyce was filmed lying on a Canberra footpath. He said he ended up on the footpath after he mixed prescription medication with alcohol.
Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott admitted he missed a vote on the Global Financial Crisis as opposition leader in 2009 because he drank so much the previous evening he fell asleep on the couch in his office and did not wake up in time for parliament the next morning.
“I think I famously slept through several divisions,” he told journalist Annabel Crabb in 2017.
I find this fascinating.
I remember as a kid in a country town I was told many times by adults around me how careful I had to be to avoid “ruining my future”.
Public intoxication, rowdiness and any hint of sexuality – let alone sex crimes – were all identified as behaviours that could close career doors forever.
I don’t think the warnings from those well-meaning adults were wrong, but I do think they were based on the idea that Australia is a much more egalitarian society than we truly are.
What I have witnessed as an adult, in various workplaces and on our national stage, is that money talks and everyone else can take a hike.
If you come from the right background, if you went to the right schools and have the right connections, there’s very little you can do to “ruin your future”.
Missing work because you’re pissed, being busted blind drunk in public, and being charged with sex offences have few consequences beyond a round of media uproar.
If things get really bad you might have to take a less publicly facing, but probably equally well-paid, position until enough time has passed for you to launch your fresh new image.
If you don’t belong to this cherished strata, however, don’t expect the same safety net.
I don’t know anyone in a blue-collar job who would expect their employer to keep paying them while they serve time for a criminal offence.
And while we’re pretty lenient on the bad behaviour of adult politicians, children as young as 10 in NSW can be sentenced to youth detention.
If you’re a 10-year-old kid who’s committing crimes, you probably don’t have the money to retain one of the state’s top barristers to defend you.
While there are plenty of examples of high-profile blokes behaving badly, kids in the criminal justice system are rarely reported on.
That’s an attempt to protect their privacy, their future. But when you’ve served time before you’ve finished school I can’t imagine it’s easy to build a positive life.
Our worry that young people will ruin their futures through a moment of reckless decision-making isn’t unfounded, but isn’t it a pity we hold them to a higher standard than our leaders.
