I have never been cynical about politics. At my 1980s high school, I confused many by having then Prime Minister Bob Hawke plastered across my A4 binder instead of Bruce Springsteen or Boy George. After starting life in journalism, where there were plenty of cynics, I horrified my editor by leaving to work for the Federal ALP. He dubbed the move the worst decision I had ever made. But I was unmoved.

Even after seven years working day and night, in opposition and in Government, through the Kevin07 landslide and the anarchy that followed, I still believed.

I took pride in being pragmatic, not pure, and understanding that politics is about making tough choices – in the national interest – not making everyone happy all the time. I thought hating politicians as a group was lazy, unthinking and blame-shifting. I believed that, mostly, parliamentarians had good motives, and wanted to change things for the better, even if they had radically different views about what needed changing.

That is why these past weeks have made me sad, and angry.

This week, the ALP has made much of fast-tracking asylum-seeker visas for members of the Iranian women’s football team: see Immigration Minister Tony Burke signing their documents at 1.30 in the morning. In the very same week, the government has made it much harder for another group, with similar claims, to be treated likewise. On Thursday night the government passed laws to suspend, en masse, temporary visas approved, but not yet used, by Iranians and others, in case they come here and seek asylum – just like the Iranian women footballers did.

The Albanese Government has, on our behalf, extended the hand of friendship to one group, while cruelly pulling it way from another.

And they did it cynically. They knew the Iranian women footballers had captured us with their heartbreaking story of defiance and courage. They knew that Australian women (and men) like me would see our daughters in those girls, with their wide-open faces, and their shining courage as they stood up to a murderous regime and refused to sing their national anthem on the soccer field.

Or perhaps even worse, the Government kowtowed, again, to the US, after President Trump reportedly spoke with Albanese, and urged action, later saying on social media: “The US will take them [the Iranian women] if you won’t.”

Either way our government played it for all it was worth. They wasted what could have been a moment of strength and of national leadership. They used the moment for maximum political advantage, playing the big man, while making sure they could stay safe, and remain small.

And, let’s be frank: the party has some ground to make up. Many who do not hang on to my perhaps naïve tribal loyalty lost faith in the ALP and politics long ago. Gaza, our overhasty support of the US/Israel illegal attack on Iran, I could go on.

But with oil takers burning in the Strait of Hormuz, and at least 634 killed in Lebanon, there is so much more to pay attention to. We will continue to offer an alternative to the underwhelming mainstream media coverage of the US/Israel war on Iran, and the growing conflict across the Middle East. As long as the war continues we will deliver up to the minute coverage on the website. None of this disrupts the delivery of the Daily and Weekly Mail – it just gives you early access if you want it.

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Until next time