Higher education works theoretically as a collegial enterprise. In denial of the culture-history nonsense, a collegial process does not end up in a mess of indecision, if the principles of collegial dialogue are adhered to. There are more agreement than disagreement among intellectuals, and it is only the nonsense of the culture-history ‘know-nothing’ that says otherwise.
The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) broke the story that the Prime Minister had made a “captain’s call” in relation to new questions about a person’s gender identity for the planning of the next Australian Census. The Prime Minister (PM) ‘singularly’ thought the new questions were inappropriate. The view of the PM was that he was annoyed by “complicated questions about people’s sexual orientation and gender status proposed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) for the 2026 census.” The first ‘captain’s call’ was when Albanese (the PM) shutdown the planning for these new questions in the ABS, just as the PM was about to fly out to the Pacific Islands Forum in Tonga (i.e. a decision made on the run). The second call was made by Albanese to allow one question on sexual orientation after there was a community outcry, organised by the “professional thinkers.” The political retribution came for the PM in the cabinet room with a cohort of its members, crying out against ‘the second call’ and arguing, without any intelligent argument, “we’re not having these questions [in the census].”
Did any of these politicians have the intelligence to singularly make the ‘call’? The answer, for common sense, is NO. Those with the intelligence were the “professional thinkers.” In this particular case, it was those ABS professional workers doing the planning for the next census. Did the PM and Cabinet have the intelligence on social inclusion, on the necessity of the widest set of data as possible (with opt-out questions for privacy reasons), and on gender studies?
It is informative to compare the SMH story on the PM and cabinet fiasco with the SMH story on the CFMEU fiasco. Would the PM and cabinet be so careless about intelligence in the case of the CFMEU fiasco? My point is that the PM and cabinet are self-interested when it comes to intelligence.
REFERENCES
James Massola, Frustrated Albanese vents in cabinet over census fiasco, The Sydney Morning Herald, September 4, 2024 — 5.00am.
Nick McKenzie, David Marin-Guzman and Kate McClymont, ‘I love a cunning plan’: How crime boss cut CFMEU-endorsed and tax-dodging deals, The Sydney Morning Herald, September 3, 2024.
Paul Sakkal, ‘The last thing we want’: Deputy PM says LGBTQ census questions ditched to avoid division, The Sydney Morning Herald, Updated August 28, 2024 — 4.52pm first.
Featured Image: Politics stupidity Napoleon. In politics, stupidity is not a handicap – ancient French military and political leader Napoleon Bonaparte quote printed on vintage cardboard. ID 222595406 © Yuryz | Dreamstime.com
Neville Buch
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