Last weekend Malcolm Turnbull was booed at his own party’s state conference. Turnbull was heckled by his own party after he told delegates there were “no factions” in the Liberal Party; an amusing concept from a leader who just used his own faction to depose of a sitting Prime Minister.
While Turnbull may be the first Prime Minister to be booed by his own party, at least in living memory, he is certainly not the first Prime Minister to receive the treatment. So, when is it okay to boo the Prime Minister?
Australians love to heckle Prime Ministers. Last year for example, Tony Abbott received all of the wrong headlines after he was booed by a 80,000-plus crowd at the NRL Grand Final. Whilst some of Abbott’s enemies were highlighting this as a show of how disliked our former leader was, nearly all of Abbott's predecessors faced the same fate at some point. John Howard seemed to be booed at every event he went too, and yet still managed to win four successive elections.
When not booing our PMs we like to throw (literally) other abuse towards them. Howard, again, famously had a shoe thrown at him on Q and A, while Julia Gillard was the victim of a vegemite sandwich. John Howard also had delegates turn their back on him in a very public display during his speech to the Corroboree 2000, a tactic some (unsuccessfully) tried to employ during Kevin Rudd’s apology to the stolen generation.
The list goes on and on. The point though is that we Australians don’t seem to have a very respectful relationship with our national leaders. But is that a good, or a bad thing?
For some these indignities shown to our political leaders are a step too far. Our leaders, whether we like them or not, at least deserve our respect. This deference to authority is, at its heart, a very conservative ideal, but recently has often been progressed by the left as well. Progressives for example used to bitterly complain when right wing shock jocks referred to Julia Gillard solely as “Julia”, something they said showed no respect for the Prime Minister. The same critique was used by US President Barack Obama when heckled by a LGBTI activist at an event in the White House. Obama responded by saying that if you’re eating his hors d’oevres and drinking his booze you have no right to interrupt him. Don’t raise your voice, especially when you’re eating my fancy snacks.
Yet, I tend to think there is something healthy about this question of authority, and I’m glad Australians are willing to express this as boldly and openly as we often do. While this may just look like a rude expression of Australian larrikinism, it goes much deeper than that.
Just look at where most of our booing happens: at national sporting events. Sport is a difficult place for politicians — a space they are, for some reason, expected to inhabit, but one where they can be sensed as a phoney from a mile away.
That’s what the booing really represents. It’s anger at politicians trying to act like they belong when they really don’t. When we’re booing what we’re really saying is, “you are not us, stop pretending like you are.” This can be said for Abbott, Rudd and Howard who always looked out of place at the football, or Malcolm Turnbull who is clearly very different to his own political base.
This is the power of the boo. In a time where politicians are increasingly disliked it’s not just some childish taunt but instead a reflection of our society’s view of our leaders. The boo screams of “get out of here, you are not one of us.” In doing so it is potentially the best expression of our political class I could think of.
So, when is it okay to boo the Prime Minister? Always. Have at it, I say!
Simon Copland is a freelance writer and climate campaigner. He is a regular columnist for the Sydney Star Observer and blogs at The Moonbat.
