The Jobs That Need a 3 Year Warranty

As an avid rugby league fan, it seems no job in

the world is more cut-throat than coaching. Of the NRL’s 16 head coaches in 2012, 9 are still coaching. That means that in a three year period, a touch over half kept their jobs. For a number of those, they were sacked by one club and rehired by another. The amount of coaches who will start next year at the club they coached in 2012 is… 5. Less than a third are still at the club they coached when I started university. And when clubs change over coaches, it can be detrimental to the success of the team. All the time the players spent getting to know the coach, learning the plays, setting the coach’s structures in attack and defence, and with one swift move from inside the club, that’s all gone. For the fans of these clubs, this creates confusion and frustration, and often a drop on quality from the team they know and love.

Now, imagine your favourite team is Australia. Not the Australian rugby league, netball, cricket or whatever else. Just Australia. Imagine that in the last 8 years, we’ve had 5 different coaches. Do you honestly think that’s a healthy team? Because sadly, that’s the rate we’re burning through Prime Ministers.

Since the fateful Kevin ’07 campaign, no Prime Minister has managed to win an election, and even be a candidate in the next. It seems this is the one job in Australia which has become more cut-throat than coaching in the NRL. And largely, I feel this is due to a lack of respect. Going back to the NRL for a second, when newly appointed Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull stood up to present the Cowboys with their premiership rings, he was loudly and proudly booed by the crowd. Where did our natural apprehension towards those with authority come from? Well, as I touched on last year as I studied Political Communication, I believe the media can wear a bit of the blame here.

See, it was Laurie Oakes who brought up what I believe is the issue. He said; “The real bias of the press today is not a partisan one but a pronounced tendency to report what is wrong

with politics and politicians rather than what is right.” This was apparent with Kevin, when the media tore him to pieces, and Julia Gillard took over. During her first term, she herself was subject to extremely intense and often sexist journalism. Looking back on how the infamous ‘Bob Brown’s Bitch’ saga was reported back in 2011, all the attention was towards Abbott’s foolishness in speaking to protestors. No mention of sexism. No mention of misogyny. I’m no radical feminist (I don’t even have

Tumblr), but that to me is wrong. That is a broadcaster who is so engrossed in tearing down political figures it can’t see that the leader of the opposition is leading an incredibly offensive campaign against the Prime Minister no less. How did that go under the radar?

Now, to the sore point. To the man who drew criticism from comedians here and worldwide (all be it in quite terrific fashion, I recommend both highly). The budgie smuggler himself; Tony Abbott. I could reference thousands of media articles from Broome to Byron saying that Tony Abbott is the single worst thing to happen to anything. Countless people have parodied him throughout social media, my favourite being At Home With Tone.

But can I ask a hugely controversial question? Did he deserve it? For what he did to us politically, he deserved to be at the centre of a grounded, informative political discourse. But the personal attacks on his speaking, his demeanour, his family and so on were unprofessional, hardly fitting the role of the fourth estate. He deserved every criticism politically, he did not deserve it as a man.

So to summarise all this, the media is to political leaders what Simon Cowell is to music. It should be a strong voice of authority which dictates what’s done well and what’s done poorly. Instead it’s so obsessed with its own looks and ratings that it just criticises everyone for everything, and stirs up a bit of controversy. And the worst thing is, this is having a massive effect on our political system in an economic climate that should have us standing united.

I won’t argue that every time a leader changes, we go backwards (especially in Tony’s case). In fact, higher confidence can often give the economy the jump-start it needs in times of recession. But it also means, typically, a new ministry, and new people looking at old tasks. When we have so many crucial issues overdue, like refugees, do we really have time to constantly be moving files to someone else’s office? This is a good time to remember that these changes are never made in the interests of the public, they’re made to win an election.

I get there will be as many opinions as there are people in Australia, and this is just mine. But I honestly feel journalism mistakes its role as the fourth estate for a right to criticise. Discourse in the name of public interest is imperative, but this relentless tearing down of leaders is slowing Australia’s progress significantly.