I try to refrain from using this site for reasons outside of showcasing your letters and the amazing amount of support in the community for an end to the draconian and cruel practice of indefinite detention, however yesterday I received an email that I felt deserved a more considered response. 

“Thank you for contacting me with your offer. I really appreciate it, however, as a cabinet minister, it would be inappropriate for me to be added to the list.

I wish you well with your endeavour.

Best wishes,
Tanya”

This was an email I received from Tanya Plibersek in response to my offer to add her to the Honour Board on The House.

Before I begin, I want to thank Minister Plibersek for her honesty and availability to her constituents – she is a Minister who I have great personal respect for and I don’t want this to be perceived as an attack on her or her character. The mere fact she has responded to both my correspondence and another letter from a constituent puts her above the many who have ignored the question completely.

I debated releasing this email at all as I don’t want this campaign to become about politician bashing. I believe that many, if not most, politicians understand the problems that Ranjini’s case highlights – a sheer denial of justice and life in a a legal black hole – but are unable to comment publicly for a variety of largely political reasons. Many have simply ignored the letters sent to them by constituents in the hope that it might just go away, so I again commend Minister Plibersek for her response.

The reason I decided to publish this was that it raises some questions that I think are worthy of consideration. The nature of politics can often mean that the line of what is ‘appropriate’ becomes blurred, sometimes breaking a promise in favour of achieving a better outcome for the country is an ethical decision for example.

What I find remarkable is that in the face of a baby growing up in jail, a mother facing her life in prison without any access to justice – it can be considered more appropriate to stay quiet and let it happen than to possibly rock the boat so close to an election. I’m glad that we have fantastic people like Russell Broadbent and Steve Georganas who are brave enough to say ‘what we are doing is wrong’, but i’m disappointed that it happens so rarely. Dissent should be natural in politics, issues should divide parties and it shouldn’t be a media circus when it happens. Rather than sniffing around the backbenches for the slightest taste of a leadership struggle – wouldn’t we be better served to have a media chasing the people who refuse to say what they believe in?

The big story shouldn’t come from political disagreement – it should be about MP’s who, through a lack of courage or an excess of ambition, insult us all by staying quiet when their voice is needed. Leadership demands courage, and as voters we should demand it too.