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The thing about manipulative people is not that they lie, but they insist on others repeating those lies on their behalf.
Not long ago, the premier of NSW, Mike Baird resigned. While there is no reason to doubt his sincerity when he cites family reasons for leaving office, it should also be uncontroversial to assert that his conduct throughout his attempt to ban greyhound racing severely damaged his authority as a political leader.
I never thought the issue of greyhound racing could cause so much political turmoil, a Deputy Premier forced to resign after a disastrous by-election and a gravely wounded, soon to be ex-Premier. But this is an outcome the two men thoroughly deserved.
In my view Mike Baird was the darling of the media, particularly the Sydney Morning Herald and the ABC. In this environment it was unsurprising that it was the medium of talkback radio that did the damage. In the absence of serious scrutiny from the Herald and the ABC, it was left to the “shock jocks” at 2GB to have a crack at investigative journalism.
And they did their job. When Mike Baird announced he was banning greyhound racing, he dismissed his critics in the most patronising manner. He implored us to “read the report”, the report no-one had yet scrutinised or debated, expecting that media outlets would do no more than regurgitate the most absurd claims as fact.
But when Ray Hadley and his team began scrutinising the report they quickly found that the explosive claim that people were drowning pups was a fabrication. Most remarkably, this was the very first reference in the report, a claim made on the very first page. This was an epic failure on the part of the Special Commission and Baird and Grant should have been given no option by the NSW and national press. Overturn the ban and have an inquiry into the report.
Instead he dug his heels in and pushed the Bill through the parliament upside-down, through the Upper House and then the Lower. Neither he, nor his Deputy Troy Grant apologised for the false allegation and never insisted that the Special Commission did either.
The message to Joe Public was simple, when we lie to them it’s a crime, when they lie to us it’s just politics.
What sort of democracy are we in when people’s livelihoods and enjoyment can be destroyed by a public institution that lies about drowning puppies? Now, truth and justice are two concepts that are never too far away from each other, at least that’s what I learnt from Roger Ramjet cartoons.
How the truth was decoupled from the report written by Justice McHugh did not matter, nor did it matter who actually lied in the report, but Mike Baird and Troy Grant were responsible for correcting it.
Of course, 2GB, the Daily Telegraph, The Australian and Paul Murray continued to scrutinise the report, pushing the view that the majority should not be punished for the actions of a minority, and it was easy enough to come to the conclusion that it was wrong about pretty much everything. The lawyers representing the participants of greyhound racing were doing cartwheels in their office as they kept comparing the report to objective reality.
When the files relating to the advertising campaign by the Justice Department were released the Government found itself in a perfect storm. Comments about the standard of literacy of greyhound racing participants were seized upon by the media and fed into the perception of an arrogant, out of touch Government that was more interested in itself than the community it was to serve.
By now, well-informed rumours were rife that the public servant charged with counting the number of greyhounds for compensation had some bad news, the numbers in the report were bulldust. Baird and Grant hoisted the white flag, announced they would repeal the ban and suppressed the report of the public servant. The rest, as they say, is history.
But with all things said and done, we still don’t really know who the manipulators were. Who were the people that corrupted the process so badly that the Premier first told us to read a piece of fiction, then refused to apologise for misleading the public?
Why were the same journalists who shout “post-truth” and “fake news” at anything they disagree with unable or unwilling to “fact-check” the first reference in a document they were calling historic?
The lesson for us is that journalists and Governments have power, and people will naturally want to leverage that power for their own purposes. Leaders of Governments must recognise this and acknowledge that some worldly cynicism, rather than starry-eyed idealism, is an asset. And both journalists and politicians must be eternally vigilant against being manipulated or face the consequences.
And that’s why the 2GB-inspired successful revolt against the NSW Government over greyhound racing should be applauded as an event that will improve, not damage, governance and politics in NSW.
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