Opinion
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Steve Smith was captain of the Australian cricket team when he told David Warner and Cameron Bancroft "I don't want to know about it" after seeing them plotting to tamper with the ball.
Gladys Berejiklian was Premier of Australia's most populous state when she told her lover, Wagga MP Daryl Maguire, "I don't need to know about that bit" when he spoke of how he stood to gain personally from a Western Sydney land deal.
Smith lost his job. The Premier has not (yet, as of 5pm Friday).
Japanese swimmer Daiya Seto had an affair and has now been suspended from the Olympic team under that country's strict sportsmanship rules.
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Australian "sanctity of marriage" politician Barnaby Joyce had an affair with an employee, they had a child, and he eyes a comeback to the party's leadership.
A US reality TV politician boasted - on tape - that he walks up to women and "grabs 'em by the [private parts]" and his campaign was unswayed. He became President.
A manager who said that at a work Christmas party may well lose his job.
Energy Minister Angus Taylor's office pushed false documents to a compliant newspaper alleging Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore travelled a lot by plane (heavy emissions). Neither the minister nor the staffer paid the price with their jobs.
It appears the best way to survive a scandal of inappropriate conduct is to be a politician.
Ms Berejiklian continued a "close personal" relationship with a Liberal colleague who she sacked over ICAC revelations - and she kept the relationship secret. She's refusing to quit, finding that (unlike her predecessor) she has balls of steel and the hide of a rhino.
If I was shown to have colluded with a government source to fabricate information and put it on the front page? That probably would - and certainly should - cost me my job (although I have seen people get away with it before, elsewhere).
But it doesn't seem to undo the politician.
This is strange, given that politicians are expected to make decisions, make laws, spend our money, and further the good of the people, on our behalf.
Seems there's a higher (or do I mean lower?) integrity threshold before a politician is forced to resign than just about any other profession. Given we trust them to represent us in public office, it should be the other way around - they should have a higher ethical standard.
No wonder the Morrison Government hasn't established the long-awaited federal integrity watchdog. Don't believe the line about being too busy fighting COVID. They're on a pretty comfy paddock as it is. Why broke what ain't fixin?
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