I tried a piece earlier but I didn’t like it and took it down. This is an attempt to answer questions around what advice I’d give to people going into this game and particularly their families and closely related, why I am not doing this nor ever likely to.
Individuality is in the past: You and your family are obviously connected but you may live in the current reality that you and your spouse or your adult children can live independent professional lives which in no way impinge on one another. This ends in politics in Australia: it is a tribal business and trying to carve out your own identity and space within it is hard and gets harder as the gravitational pull of whoever is in politics in the family increases with their rising position. Do your family a favor and do not gaslight them by saying nothing will change - everything is going to change and it is far better to make a team decision with full comprehension of team impacts than going it alone. Otherwise your kids might turn out like Claudia Conway (or me). Your spouse and children are now an attack surface for your opponents and if you are on the wrong side of certain parts of the media you now have some very well resourced toxic threats with no scruples. Its a tough message but it is worth getting this in your mind up front.
Play Good Defense: Opposition research organizations in both major parties are good but not great. Newscorp does not have any good investigative types anymore but will swing and miss and pay defamation settlements in the usual course of business on a regular basis. The Guardian is the total opposite: extremely defamation averse but an extremely skillful team. Fairfax is in between. If you are on the right or the left know your enemy. The best way to stay out of trouble is to not do crimes or do stuff that looks patently shady though if you are in government and there is no ICAC you might get away with it - for a while. The Warren Buffet front page of the paper test is appropriate here. For your family do not sugar coat this: they need to know they have threats and need to play defense and that being right or not doing anything wrong is not enough. The media is not a reasonable person nor unmotivated listener. Torch your social media accounts that are not ephemeral, learn about cybersecurity and fully expect to get attacked over nothing if it suits your opponents and they have embedded assets in news organizations. If your family does not think the Australian political environment is safe, just or that most people are good they will cope better because they will expect less. Not prepping them is going to do a lot more damage than giving them a good introduction to how it is. Your family may chafe at all of this and well, that’s for your to negotiate but if you do not work together it is going to be harder for everyone.
Work that Pimp Hand: If media come after your family, that is strictly speaking not done in politics unless it is public interest (it seldom is) and you should use your power to enforce good norms. Nuke the whole news org from the 5pm drops and other goodies. You may feel icky about this, but it is far better to set the tone early and firmly on what is acceptable than comply with some abstract ideal of providing equal access to the press.
The Gallery is Unwell: Most of the gallery is hopelessly compromised at this point - if you think journalism is a good profession with well-intentioned people then hold that thought: these people get ahead via access which means they in an endless cycle of sourcing leaks then stabbing them when their political fortunes flail. Outsourced PR flackery is the business model today with a few notable exceptions. So every time you open a paper know this is how the sausage gets made. You will care less, and your family hopefully will too seeing how the plumbing works.
Needless to say, I am not willing to make these sacrifices or do these things. Been there, done that, not coming back. But if you do choose this path then get the bad stuff upfront so you can do better by yourself and your family.
Interesting perspective Alex.. thanks for sharing.
I admire your whole family Alex and the reason I got involved in helping to oust Abbott was because of the removal of your father . All of you contribute so much in so many different ways still , I’m just grateful that you still speak up and shine a light on the darkness. Let’s hope we can get more amazing Independents in and change the political landscape so neither major party has unchecked power & both will be forced to behave better . As far as journalists go , wouldn’t it be wonderful it the media laws are change so the likes of Murdoch’s toxic reach/power is curtailed in Australia.