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comment: Time to stand up for our friends

November 6, 2024

EDITORIAL COMMENT

Politics is a dirty game – always has been and always will be.

It takes a special kind of person – with super tough skin – to live in that dog-eat-dog world.

And when the proverbial s**t hits the fan, the media, as media always will, piles on big time.

As someone who has worked both sides of the media fence, as a reporter and editor and as a public relations ‘spin doctor’ I know very well that when an allegation or an unfounded claim surfaces stress levels rise and people with no knowledge of the facts pile in.

And it is much, much worse circa 2024 than it was 20 or so years ago when social media didn’t exist.

Everyone has an opinion – but almost everyone will also have no real knowledge of the facts, or even know the person being attacked.

Last week a good friend of this publication came under the spotlight – with a one-sided story, quoting an unnamed former staff member who had claimed bullying was rife in her workplace.

Now if this claim had been made public as result of an official complaint, the media would have every right to report that.

But, and we have checked out the facts, no claim to the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service was made.

And we have since learned that accuser was actually lent money to help out in tough times – hardly an act of bullying.

Ibnews.com.au has spoken to several former and current employees and not one has spoken about inappropriate behaviour – all saying they were untrue.

The article in a Sydney newspaper was, said one, ‘misleading because it was based on an unsubstantiated and unsent complaint’ that my friend was not made aware of.

So was there an underlying reason for speaking to a journalist before making any complaint official through the appropriate channels?

An axe to grind? Political reasons? Almost every media outlet likes to beat up the Greens.

Industry perhaps – good politicians representing their people hold big mining companies to account. And quite rightly so.

And as someone said to me this week, and this is abhorrent and racist – because you have the wrong skin colour or you are a woman?

Yes folks, there are still nasty, racist, misogynistic people like that out there.

My friend – and it is here I will acknowledge it is Senator Dorinda Cox we are talking about – was clearly shocked and shaken by the veracity of the attack. And the almost impossible way to respond.

Senator Cox is a passionate campaigner for Indigenous rights and for women in our community.

A straight shooter, a woman who wants to make change for those who deserve better.

A politician who stands up for Aboriginal values in an often hypocritical parliamentary process that continually says a lot but actually does very little for First Nations people in their struggle for equality.

Lots of money, some might argue, but so much going to waste – as we still see some of the worst living conditions in the western world.

Senator Cox is aware she cannot now proactively defend herself – as the allegations will be investigated by the parliamentary process.

And, as often is the case, mud sometimes sticks.

So here at Ibnews.com.au we want to stick up for those who stick up for you our readers, for us.

From our experience, Indigenous peoples could have no better person working in parliament for them.

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