As truth becomes subordinate to political narratives, democracy itself is at risk. From Australia to the US and Israel, defending ethical principles increasingly demands courage from those willing to speak.
Andrew Hastie was subpoenaed to testify in a court case involving Ben Roberts-Smith. He was obliged to tell the truth about what he had seen or heard. Consequently, he has been caricatured as a traitor not simply by Pauline Hanson and One Nation but by its backers, notably Gina Rinehart. How can someone subpoenaed to tell the truth be classified as a traitor for doing so? Those on the right who defend Hanson and her organisation do so on the basis that they are defending freedom of speech. Has defending freedom of speech now become a licence to abrogate truth, morality and ethics? It appears so.
This is far more significant than a single issue focused on Andrew Hastie. It is no less than a battle for the soul of civilisation, not, as one might expect, in autocracies, but in democracies. Telling the truth, standing on ethical principles, is now not considered a virtue by many who hold power or those who seek it. The battle here is real. In the US and in Israel, it appears lost.
Amongst the ridiculous statements made by Donald Trump at the recent Republican convention was the statement that if the Republican party wins both houses in November every adult American will receive $5,000. Leaving aside what this will do to inflation and to the US’ rapidly climbing indebtedness, this is bribery on a mammoth scale.
Apparently, this is OK? From where will we hear a voice of correction? How can a leader who makes such a statement remain in power in a so-called democracy? That the statement has not shocked the media to its core is the issue. Such statements have become normalised in Trump’s America.
The fact that Netanyahu had advanced warning that Hamas was planning a significant attack on Israel prior to 7 October has long been known but is now authenticated through evidence outlined in the Israeli paper, Haaretz. He failed to alert his military to this warning. He is threatening to sue Haaretz for telling the truth; in turn, Haaretz asserts it will double down on truth. Netanyahu refuses to allow an enquiry.
As Peter Hartcher said in a recent podcast, the aim of terrorism is to provoke an overreaction. Netanyahu wanted a situation to which he could respond with the terrifying and ongoing slaughter with which we are now too familiar. On the West Bank the illegal Israeli terrorist/settlers would love a major reaction more broadly across the Palestinian population in order that a Gaza-like razing of Palestinian life could occur. The Zionist narrative that this land is theirs by divine right to the exclusion of others, and that it justifies Palestinian slaughter, is grotesque and has absolutely nothing to do with faith, religion, morality or ethics. That this narrative is the only one permitted through Sky News, The Australian, etc, is equally grotesque.
Hillel Newman, the Israeli ambassador to Australia, lectured the Australian government over the ‘official’ Israeli finding that no one was accountable for the death of Zomi Frankcom and her fellow humanitarian workers. This was outrageous; the response from the Israeli ambassador should have resulted in his expulsion from Australia. It is not acceptable that a narrative defending illegality, even genocide, should be arrogantly asserted without censure.
Statements such as those Andrew Hastie has had to endure are defended on the basis that freedom of speech is a higher principle than truth.
I do not agree.
But leave that aside for the moment. This is not primarily a matter of freedom of speech; it is a battle being fought to gain possession of the dominant narrative.
Instilling fear is a proven way of securing a dominant narrative, as is feigning victimhood in order that anger can be vented on a supposed cause.
The narrative being defended in the Hastie case is that Australian soldiers cannot be accused of war crimes because they are Australian soldiers, in service on behalf of the Australian government. The same argument is used by Israel; its soldiers cannot be guilty of crime because of the cause they are ‘defending’. Clearly Hastie, who has been a serving soldier, disagrees. A war crime is a war crime.
The one in power is the one who has gained possession of the dominant narrative.
Trump has achieved this through his MAGA narrative. So persuasive has he been that his followers appear still to believe the narrative despite the reality that the US has been severely diminished and Trump has himself become a focus of derision, even pity. US international standing is at a low ebb, and its economy is in spiralling debt, saved from worse by an AI bubble.
Netanyahu controls the Israeli narrative by conflating Judaism with Zionism. The fact that Zionism is in the process of destroying Judaism is increasingly understood by many Jews, both in Israel and in the diaspora.
The extreme right of Australian politics is seeking to gain possession of the dominant narrative on several fronts:
- By blaming a complex set of problems on immigration without appropriately recognising that significant aspects of the economy and civil life depend on immigration.
- By linking certain racial groupings, geographical places of origin, or people of non-Christian belief to ‘loss of Australian values’.
- By insisting that transition to renewable energy is a root cause of the financial stress experienced by many Australians.
- By pushing penal incarceration as the solution to juvenile crime.
- By opposing an option to opt out of algorithms on the grounds it limits freedom of speech and a legitimate arm of business marketing.
None of the above positions is acceptable; in fact they are dangerously wrong. They are positions dependent upon the manufacture of fear.
Will democracy survive, or will it be killed by those who believe the right to defraud, mislead, or defend one’s own narrative is a higher priority than truth itself? May there be sufficient voices of courage to protect Australia’s standing as one of the few countries that can still be appropriately described as a democracy.
George Browning was Anglican Bishop of Canberra Goulburn 1993 – 2008. He was President of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network 2013 – 2022. He is now its Patron. He is also Patron of Palestinian Christians in Australia, and of the Palestinian ecumenical liberation theology centre -Sabeel.