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Rectitude

By Tania Cleary - posted Monday, 22 December 2025


Last Sunday swept aside the remote self-assured country that most of us have been lucky to call home.

Two years of sinister omens ignored.

What country did we wake up to when the Prime Minister didn't stand up to mob hostility and the chanting 'gas the Jews' on the steps of the Opera House on 9 October 2023? And we all heard it and were appalled by it and the public service gaslighting that followed.

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What country did we wake up to when the Prime Minister didn't call out senator Thorpe's bullying rant in front of the King, and invited guests, in the Great Hall at Parliament House? We all heard it and were stunned by his impassive inaction.

What country did we wake up to when the Prime Minister didn't react to two nurses openly boasting they would kill Jewish patients in NSW hospitals? When we heard their laughing voices we were shocked.

What country did we wake up to when the Prime Minister didn't blink when Tony Burke facilitated the return of ISIS brides and enabled people who hold toxic views to enter and remain the country?

The list can go on. So on this day of national mourning and reflection I reflect on Anthony Albanese's complete and utter inability to call out anything. I reflect on his government's political torpor and lack of mea culpa. I reflect on the complete hypocrisy of the Greens, the Teal's self-serving political gambles and the Coalition's prevarication.

A Prime Minister who will cry "I have been fighting Tories all my life", will not cry for 15 murdered Australians?

So what will a memorial to the Bondi slain say?

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What will a memorial to the injured, sad and angry country say?

For all the iconoclasts out there hell bent on pulling down statues, defacing memorials, reflect on that sea of flowers and remember the dead and injured.

Remember today's mood.

Nothing joyous, nothing celebratory, nothing short of unmistakable convulsions for political change.

 

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About the Author

Tania Cleary is a Brisbane-based independant curator and author.

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