The sight of Gilmore MP Ann Sudmalis sobbing during Question Time last Wednesday illustrates just how tough politics can be. Even so, it has not elicited much sympathy from those who believe the Fair Work Commission’s decision to cut Sunday penalty rates will hurt Australia’s lowest paid workers.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Mrs Sudmalis’s ill-conceived description of the cuts as a “gift” for young job seekers has triggered a storm that had no abated by yesterday. Last Wednesday, it had clearly began to rattle the MP.
Sympathy has been short, too, from her own side in politics. The government has been earnestly trying to distance itself from the independent industrial relation arbitrator but Labor seized on Mrs Sudmalis’s comments during what can only be described as a torrid week in Canberra. Her poor choice of words guaranteed the agenda would be set by the Opposition.
In Wednesday’s Question Time, she had to endure being thrown under the bus in the most public way in a point of order by parliamentary colleague Christopher Pyne. Mr Pyne told the house that just because the Prime Minister visited an electorate “doesn’t mean he’s responsible for the statements of the member”.
No one knows what was said by Mr Pyne a few minutes later when he leaned over and exchanged words with Mrs Sudmalis, who then welled up with tears and began crying.
What is clear is that for the Opposition and the union movement, Mrs Sudmalis’s statement is a gift that keeps on giving. It adds weight to their narrative that Mrs Sudmalis is out of touch with an electorate of battlers, many of whom rely on penalty rates to boost their meagre incomes.
It also brings into question the odd logic that taking something away is a gift.
Here’s what she said: “It’s not cutting wages, it’s opening the door for more hours of employment and in a regional area like Gilmore, with almost double the national youth unemployment, that’s a gift; that is a gift for our young people to get a foot in the door of employment.”
Should Mrs Sudmalis tough this term out and run for another in 2019, it is a certainty whoever runs against her will use the “gift” statement in their negative attack ads.
In a seat among the most marginal in Australia, this has been on own goal of epic proportions. Mrs Sudmalis has her work cut out for her if she is to rebuild her standing in the electorate teetering on the brink.