"Mean Girls" is apparently

a term we are not allowed to use - if it applies to certain members of those currently in the Opposition.

There has been a news story of sorts flying around here in Downunder about the death of a Senator at the age of 52, possibly from a heart attack. There has been talk of the stress she was under, stress not just because of her role as a Senator.

Politics is a very brutal place. I shudder every time I think of how close I came to accidentally being one. I was at a meeting of a disability group to help those with communication issues. The main business of the meeting was to find a running mate for the person they wanted to represent them in parliament. I was asked, indeed pressured, to be that person. I declined. My work role has meant remaining politically neutral in public life. I wasn't going to jeopardise that because it could have harmed, still could harm, the people with whom  I work. I said no more than once in the course of that meeting. 

Eventually someone else put her hand up for the role. Her name went on the ballot paper under the candidate's name. Then the unthinkable happened. The candidate died very suddenly. The election was on. His name was there. Yes, you can vote for a dead person. Under our system of compulsory preferential voting a vote for a deceased person flows to the next person. 

The issue received a considerable amount of publicity in the media and, against all expectations, the second candidate obtained a seat in the upper house.  It should not have happened but it did. I could have been that person. I am glad I was not.

I could not have coped with that brutal world which is politics. The person who accidentally became a one term politician did her best. She had some good advisers and, fortunately for her, her vote was not crucial so she did not come under the pressure she might otherwise have come under. What is more she was "independent" in the sense she was the only member of that party to be elected so she did not have to deal with "factions".

It was a different story for the recently deceased Senator. Stories are now coming to light about how she was frozen out of conversations, discussions and negotiations. Her name was not on some internal party mailing lists and more. Three of her colleagues have been accused of being "mean girls" towards her. I have met and clashed with one of them and I don't doubt she has the capacity to be as she is being described. She is very ambitious, very assertive. She has an intense dislike of being in the wrong. I never observed her behaviour towards the late Senator first hand so I don't know if what is being said is true - but more people are coming forward to say it is.

In all this we have a real problem. There is an election coming up. The Leader of the Opposition is refusing to acknowledge there is any truth in the allegations or investigate them. This is despite his demands of the other side of politics and his comments on the report on the workplace culture in parliament. We will almost certainly go to the federal election without those responsible for their alleged behaviour being held to account. They are the people who are going to represent us on the national and international stage.

Is it any wonder I think there is something wrong with all this?