I believe we will all agree that 2023 continues the final historic pattern of the century — it was predictably terrible in unpredictable methods. However whose fault is that this? As with yearly you’ll be able to have your say, by voting in Crikey‘s end-of-year awards for that the majority prestigious and coveted piece of recognition: Arsehat of the Yr.
(FYI: when you’re new round these elements, it’s value noting that Peter Dutton, like Scott Morrison and Tony Abbott earlier than him, has been retired from competition for this award, given his unfair benefits over each different competitor. For those who’re undecided what we imply, recall kind of something he’s accomplished, both this yr or because you first heard of him.)
Ben Roberts-Smith
We’ve beforehand famous that arsehattery is a massively versatile time period. However Roberts-Smith could be one of many clearest circumstances of ticking probably each single field of qualification. This yr, his defamation case in opposition to the 9 papers, after years of damaging revelations got here to a detailed.
Justice Anthony Besanko discovered the 2018 reviews alleging that Roberts-Smith had dedicated numerous conflict crimes — revealed by The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Canberra Instances, which he then sued — have been established to be considerably true. All this with the backing of a few of Australia’s strongest figures — primarily media baron Kerry Stokes. Put it this manner: in essentially the most litigant-friendly jurisdiction on the planet, Ben Roberts-Smith caused a state of affairs during which he turned undefamable.
As Crikey put it on the time: “Given the testimony the case had caused and the unbelievable particulars publicised, even had he gained it will have been the very definition of a Pyrrhic victory. Because it occurs, he misplaced, and misplaced and misplaced.”
Kerry Stokes
Defamation motion is expensive, each for the media defendants and the complainants. Fortunately, media mogul Kerry Stokes is right here to assist out. Famously, his community paid Roberts-Smith’s authorized charges and saved him employed within the firm till simply after the decision.
When, in November, Nick McKenzie and Chris Masters gained their Walkley award for the protection that kicked off that case, it was Seven’s desk alone that declined to hitch the standing ovation the pair acquired. By the way, that evening Seven was up for “Scoop of the Yr” for its “bombshell” interview with Bruce Lehrmann, an honour difficult by the revelation that that they had been paying Lehrmann’s lease at an upmarket Northern Seashores home for a complete yr.
Anthony Albanese
After a robust begin to life in authorities, the prime minister has faltered this yr. It began throughout a muddled finish to the month of April, the place the hitherto gaffe-light PM put just about each doable step incorrect. From then on he had intervals the place he resembled the Sam Kerr of personal targets. This peaked with the marketing campaign to enshrine an Indigenous Voice to Parliament in Australia’s structure.
Regardless of the deserves of the proposal, and regardless of the deserves of the varied opposition to it, Albanese pinned a great deal of political capital and goodwill on the marketing campaign, and its heavy, unequivocal defeat can also be his. No nice marks, both, for his authorities’s ongoing approval of fossil gas tasks, the continued prosecution of whistleblowers like David McBride and Richard Boyle, or the horribly timed assist prolonged to Qantas’ business prospects.
Jacinta Nampijinpa Value, Nyunggai Warren Mundine, Gary Johns, Michaelia Money et al
Remembering, once more, that Peter Dutton is ineligible for the award, this assortment of No spruikers will get a particular collective point out. There was a principled case for voting No, and because of the protection acquired by the individuals listed above, you’d barely realize it existed. As an alternative, 50% or extra of the protection of the Voice marketing campaign was given over to the gleefully unfold misinformation of their marketing campaign, the proud reheated attraction to ignorance (“when you don’t know, vote No”) and stoking of grievance, to not point out some old school unleavened racist rhetoric. Their work diminished the nation, if from a decrease place than some progressives would possibly want to consider.
Tim Gurner
Property developer, everlasting youth spruiker and proprietor of a brow that snipers dream of, Tim Gurner got here to world prominence (as ever, we do ourselves proud), courtesy of The Australian Monetary Evaluation, by not a lot saying the quiet half out loud relating to the connection between enterprise and staff as screeching it on the prime of his lungs:
Unemployment has to leap 40 to 50% in my opinion. We have to remind those who they work for the employer, not the opposite manner round. Tradies have positively pulled again on productiveness. They’ve been paid lots to don’t an excessive amount of in the previous few years, and we have to see that change.
The punchline you might see coming round a nook was, after all, that this rugged believer in onerous work and self-starting bought began because of loans from his dad and grandfather.
Alan Joyce
It’s been a banner yr for enterprise in Australia. However none might maintain a candle to departing Qantas CEO Alan Joyce, who gave an omnishambles masterclass in his “farewell tour“. Qantas had already handled its repute to the sort of cool, professional dismantling that we often affiliate with Robert Jordan and bridges by the point the Australian Competitors and Shopper Fee’s case in opposition to Qantas was made public: the continued sale of tickets for flights that had been cancelled weeks — typically months — earlier, and the refusal to inform individuals silly sufficient to have trusted the airline. Ultimately, the farewell tour was cancelled mid-encore and Joyce, with nothing to his identify however his delight and $150 million {dollars}, was jettisoned.