Integrity - a sense of wholeness #

Integrity is connected to people who have a sense about themselves, or as the Greek dramatists depicted it, they had experienced self discovery and “Know who they are”. Sophocles – Oedipus Rex

Integrity is associated with self-respect, honour, scruples, ethics and high principles in morality. Above all it requires that an individual be true to themselves.

Integrity: A Universal Principle #

Integrity is a multi-faceted principle. It evokes entirety, wholeness, purity, indivisibility, consistency, sincerity and tolerance.

Integrity is the integration of outward actions and inner values. A person with integrity does what they say they will do in accordnce with their values, beliefs and principles. A person of integrity can be trusted because he or she never veers from inner values, even when it might be expeditious to do so.

A key to integrity, therefore, is consistency of actions that are viewed as honest and truthful to inner values.¹ National Sport Commission, Australia

Sophocles in Antigone poses the conflict of Natural jurisprudence and State Justice. Following a dispute her two brothers, having killed each other, the King Creon, has decreed that her exiled brother Polynices’ corpse be left outside on the hillside to be devoured by dogs and vultures. Antigone is determined to obey the divine laws of proper burial by giving her brother Polynices a proper grave on the simple moral point that “he is still my brother”. In her arguments with her sister, Ismene, she asserts:

Die I must… But if I am to die before my time, I count that a gain; for when any one lives, as I do, compassed about with evils, can there be any gain but in death?

When Creon charges her for breaking his law, she defiantly counters:

Yes, for it was not Zeus who made that edict…nor deemed I that your decrees were of such force, that a mortal could override the unwritten unfailing statutes of heaven. …

And if my present deeds are foolish in your sight, perhaps a foolish judge arraigns my folly

People frequently go on holiday to remote places - to lose themselves - in order to find themselves. Jesus spent 30 days in the desert before starting his ministry.

Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful. Dr. Samuel Johnson

In Self-Dependence, Matthew Arnold, standing at the prow of the ship bearing him back to England, “Weary of myself, and sick of asking/ What I am, and what I ought to be,” Arnold sends “a look of passionate desire” to the stars, and asks that they “Calm me, ah, compose me to the end!”

The Socratic answer comes, that to live “self-poised” as the stars do, there is only one prescription:"

‘Resolve to be thyself; and know that he,
Who finds himself, loses his misery!’"

One of my favorite cartoons has Mr Dithers disturbing Dagwood in his office with his feet on the desk asleep. Startled, Dagwood explains that he is merely trying “to find himself”.

Mr Dithers quips: “Don’t bother; if you ever succeed, you’ll be very disappointed”.

Jean-Paul Sartre’s existentialism implies that it is possible to be authentic and free, as long as you keep up the effort. It is exhilarating to exactly the same degree that it’s frightening, and for the same reasons. As Sartre summed it up in an interview:

“There is no traced-out path to lead man to his salvation; he must constantly invent his own path. But, to invent it, he is free, responsible, without excuse, and every hope lies within him.”

Chaucer presents a portrait gallery of the 14th Century, renown for its wit and use of Chaucerian irony; praising a character, but undercutting it with subtle wit.

Only one character survives Chaucer’s sarcasm unscathed – the lowly Parson “Erste he wroughte, and thanne he taughte” - first he practiced then he taught.

All of the other Pilgrims prove to fall short of their projected image. He depicts society inverted; the top echelons are corrupted, while the lower orders have integrity and dignity.

Chaucer quotes Plato as saying: “The wordes mote be cosyn to the deds”.

In A Man For All Seasons by Robert Bolt, Sir Thomas More has to reconcile his Public duty and his private conscience when King Henry VIII defies the Pope by asking More to provide him dispensation to divorce Catherine of Aragon so he can marry Ann Boleyn. More wrestles his conscience in an attempt to find himself as an individual and gain a sense about himself at the risk of dying as a martyr.

To More there is something that most of us would prefer not to violate; if he is not true to himself, then his self has no meaning, no identity.

Shakespeare addressed this in Hamlet when he has Polonius advise Laertes;

“This above all, to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man”

Homer warns us not to trust the gilded tongue - words empty as the wind are best left unsaid.

In King Lear Cordelia warns her father not to trust her sisters with:

If for I want that glib and oily art,
To speak and purpose not, since what I well intend.
I’ll do’t before I speak…..

But even for want of that for which I am richer -
A still-soliciting eye, and such a tongue
That I am glad I have not, though not to have it,
Hath lost me in your liking.

People who speak truth to power suffer.

As Edgar (in the Folio says) or Albany (in the Quarto)

“speak what we feel, not what we ought to say”.

Shakespeare eschews false speech - mind-numbingly empty slogans and hollow, clichéd, pre-packaged platitudes. Platitudes empty meaningless phrases used by insincere people for ulterior purposes. Other synonyms are: blandishments – flatteries, cajoleries, praises, fulsome, effusive, insincere, disingenuous, rhetoric, oratory, banality, prosaicism, clichéd, bromides, cant, hollowed language, husk, shell of words.

Integrity is related to a sense of honour; that of your name or reputation. Shakespeare again addresses this issue in Othello when he has Iago tell Othello,

“Who steals my purse steals trash; …………
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him
And makes me poor indeed.”

The fact that Shakespeare has his worst characters express such noble sentiments could ironically suggest their lack of integrity.

On reputation:

“The purest treasure mortal times afford is spotless reputation –
that away, men are but gilded loam or painted clay.” Richard II, Act I, sc. I

John Proctor in Miller’s The Crucible, is sorely tempted to save his life by giving his signature to his tormentors, however, it is his conscience that prompts him to realize that he would then lose his “good name”. It is this crisis of conscience that provokes him to tear up his confession and die honourably, his integrity intact.

The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience." Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird

Throughout history many people have had to choose between following their conscience in conflict with what the Authority demands they do.

Such people demonstrate courage of conviction and often pay dearly for the moral acts. Jesus Christ refused to compromise with evil and was crucified for it. Julius Caesar remained firm in his convictions and was assassinated for this. Sir Thomas More defied the orders of King Henry VIII and was executed for his courageous stand on principle. Gandhi tackled British colonialism while Martin Luther King challenged racism and Nelson Mandela apartheid.

In recent times there have been many people who have followed their own conscience rather than commands of their superiors, often in government. Catherine Walker, a board member of National Australia Bank stood up to the board and only resigned after she gained concessions of reform.

Andrew Wilkie, a former Australian Intelligence officer, resigned from the Office of National Assessments because he could no longer keep secret some of the deceit he felt the government was engaged in. Since then, Mike Keelty expressed his misgivings, 43 former Generals spoke out against government policy especially in regards to the war in Iraq.

Lately others have spoken out regarding the lies told about the Children Overboard Affair.

Each of these has demonstrated courage. The common term for this act of speaking out is called “Whistle Blowing”. This refers to the fact that whistle blowing alerts people to the fact something is wrong.

Policemen, nurses and teachers often do it to expose faults in the system. Whistle Blowing, when done without ulterior designs, is an example of altruism and integrity motivated by a crisis of conscious and is becoming an acceptable practice in the modern world.

Allan Kessing, Bradley (Chelsea) Manning, Julian Assange, Edward Snowden…….are a few more examples.

For more examples:

https://nebo-lit.com/topic-areas/Justice/whistleblowers-examples.html

Crucifixion #

Australians love a good crucifixion, not least the one we commemorate at Easter; Christ challenging the ruling class, the mockery and the execution that followed. But we don’t only know this story from the religious tradition, we recognise it – even celebrate it – in the pattern of our political debate. The Passion play repeats whenever the powerful, prejudiced or privileged begin to feel uneasy.

A voice challenges the status quo but the public execution that follows distracts the baying crowds. The establishment’s anxiety is then allayed and structural injustice maintained.

All who challenge power and injustice can be certain public excoriation is on its way. As soon as you do something good for the greater public, your destiny is assured.

Prime examples throughout Australia’s history include, (but not limited to): Captain Bligh, Lachlan Mcquarie, Jack Lang, Gough Whitlam, Julia Gillard, Malcolm Turnbull.

Welcome to Australia, where voting is compulsory, but the results don’t matter.

Australian governance has been called a revolving door of leadership.
It has had a long history of coups, from William Bligh’s arrest in 1808, to Lachlan Macquarie 1820, sent back to England in disgrace, Billy Hughes sacking from the Labor Party, to Jack Lang’s dismissal in 1932, John Gorton betrayed by Malcom Fraser in 1971, Gough Whitlam’s, in 1975, Bob Hawke, overthrown in 1992, Kevin Rudd, 2010, Julia Gillard, 2014, Tony Abbot, 2015… Malcolm Turnbull – 2018. Seven PMs in 11 years makes post-war Italy look positively stable by comparison.

That many consider it a blood sport was confirmed when Richard Carlton asked Bob Hawke what it was like to have blood on his hands in disposing of Bill Haydon in 1983.

When Malcolm Turnbull ousted Tony Abbott back in 2015, Wikipedia pranksters updated the “Sport in Australia” page to say:

“The main national sport is the Leadership spill which fixates the nation on a random but regular basis.”

As Guy Rundle put it: “a country that changes leaders like underwear and for the same motive, when they’re more skidmark than fabric — has to be understood as a traumatic event in the national order.”

On the contrary it has become normalized; a predictable It’s become a continuity seared into the national psyche.

In the gospel narratives, Christ’s mockery and execution was the consequence of publicly challenging those in power (Mark 11:15-18).

While plotting Christ’s death, one high priest stated “It is better for you that one man should die for the people than for the whole nation to be destroyed” (John 11:50) – which could be interpreted as “It is better that one person die than that all my privilege perish.”

The spectacle of retribution that follows is not mere tabloid entertainment. It has political purpose – distraction and deterrence – and is as old as the Easter story itself.

As Christ faced trial, so the scriptures say, his disciple Peter infamously denied knowing him in order to avoid sharing the same torturous end (Mark 14:66-72). The threat of political execution works, silencing dissent and leaving the truth unspoken.

According to Mike Carlton, The Saturday Paper,

“the mainstream media are on the same bandwagon, chiefly at Murdoch’s News Corpse, where vendetta journalism has become an art form. Targets – frequently prominent women – are chosen to be relentlessly reviled and bullied for trumped-up transgressions in both the news columns and on the opinion pages. Julia Gillard, the young Muslim activist and engineer Yassmin Abdel-Magied, the former human rights commissioner Gillian Triggs, the Indigenous academic Larissa Behrendt and, most recently, the ABC’s economics journalist Emma Alberici, have all been singled out for the lash”.

We now can add Grace Tame and Britany Higgins to that list.

Apostasy #

The formal disaffiliation from, abandonment or renunciation of a religion by a person. It can also be defined within the broader context of embracing an opinion contrary to one’s previous beliefs. –Wikipedia

The Catholic Church by the 15th century had become so corrupt, many priests broke away in an attempt to start afresh.

Secular apostasy: - When founding principles give way to pragmatic compromises in everyday life. Whenever officials or authorities disavow their oaths of office, they negate their purpose.

Orwell warned us that totalitarianism can come from the apostasy of Socialist governments.

Socialist governments espouse high ideals, yet when they get to power they are often quick to abandon those ideals to maintain control. In Orwell’s time, the Spanish Civil War opened his eyes to the apostasy of Russia’s Communist Government. During the Second World War, he saw further evidence that the British Labour Party was prone to abandon its principles to gain power. In many ways, the novel, 1984 is a warning about the dangers of the erosion of ideals, since the governing party, called INGSOC, represents English Socialism in a corrupted, perverted and debauched form. It has succumbed to the seduction of power and is determined to hang on to power by whatever means it can - expediency - pragmatism - realpolitiks.

George Orwell also observed “only a socialist could have such contempt for ordinary people”.

When the Tories screw workers, they get angry; when the socialists do it, they get sad.

After the inglorious demise of the Whitlam government in 1975, the Australian Labor Party fell into the hands of the ultra pragmatists with the dominant philosophy of “whatever it takes”.

If you can’t beat them; join them or play by their rules.

The extreme right of the party came to so closely resemble their opposites in most regards. Bob Carr could easily out bid Howard in his zeal to posture as being tough on issues as law and order, use of terror as fear mongering or tightening laws to restrict our freedoms.

Labor in 2012 #

Political integrity demands more than just words

December 5, 2012 John Faulkner

Power structures have enabled disgraceful and arrogantly corrupt behaviour by some politicians. NO ONE ever argues that governments should have less integrity, that elected officials should not be accountable or that public servants should behave unethically. Broad statements of the value of integrity, transparency, accountability and ethics gain general agreement from all sides of politics and from all participants in public debate. But government integrity demands more than general expressions of goodwill.

There is a cynicism about politicians and their motives. This cynicism is corrosive of democracy because it undermines the contract between elector and elected: it undermines the concept of mandate if citizens cast their vote without the expectation that their representatives will represent their views or act in their interest.

Seen in this light, trust is central to the social contract of democracy. And parliamentary and political integrity is crucial to maintaining that institutional trust.

If the test of integrity is failed, if polling takes precedence over principle and expedience over ethics, trust in not only the individuals involved but in the entire process of democracy is undermined. The rise of cynicism about politics and politicians’ benefits is encouraged by those who seek to trade on suspicion of government.

Citizens who haven’t enough interest in the democratic process to stay even vaguely informed of the issues of the day have only one profound political conviction: that neither politicians nor a government comprised of them can be trusted.

That belief makes assertions about the inefficiency of government service delivery plausible, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

That belief undermines community support for legislative reform and government action to protect the vulnerable and promote equality.

Labor won government in 2007 with a suite of integrity commitments, and has enacted a number of important reforms. But there are further key steps the Commonwealth government can and should take to promote that transparency and accountability.

The first step is the finalisation of the National Anti Corruption Plan.

I understand that many issues are now being considered by the Attorney General for inclusion in the plan such as the need for whole of government policy leadership on the issue of corruption and whistleblower protections.

I look forward to the publication and implementation of the plan being a priority for the government in the New Year.

The second step is legislation protecting public interest disclosure.

For some Australians, there comes a time in their life when they become aware that a colleague, an employer, an employee, a consultant or contractor is doing something wrong. In this situation, some people will decide to turn a blind eye. But some courageous individuals will take a stand. They will report what they have seen often at personal risk or personal cost.

We depend on whistleblowers to alert us to misconduct or malfeasance and corruption. They should not have to risk their careers or their mental and physical health, just to do the right thing.

An improved and comprehensive legislative framework for public interest disclosure for the Australian Public Service and the public sector more generally is desperately needed now.

While the Labor Party has had a long standing commitment to strong whistle-blower protections we still await the introduction of modern and comprehensive legislation to deliver on this commitment. The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs, chaired by Mark Dreyfus QC, and tasked to examine whistle-blower protection models, handed down its report in February, 2009.

The government broadly endorsed the findings however, no exposure draft of a Bill based on the Report’s recommendations has yet been made public - over three years later.

It’s past time to get serious about whistleblowing. It is essential that a new, tough Public Interest Disclosure Act be in place at the federal level of government before the next election.

The third key step the Commonwealth government should take is to pursue the introduction of a Code of Conduct for Members of Federal Parliament.

The House of Representatives Privileges and Members Interests Committee reported in November 2011, attaching a draft code of conduct and observing that there was value in the appointment of an independent Parliamentary Integrity Commissioner.

A motion that the House of Representatives endorse the code of conduct languished until last Thursday evening, when in the last minutes of the Parliamentary year, it was passed 60 - 58. Also on the last day of sitting this year, the Senators Interests’ Committee tabled a report recommending the Senate not adopt the code proposed by the House Committee.

This process has been unedifying. I am not so unkind to suggest it was designed to fail, but its failure was inevitable.

To have integrity, politicians must have the courage to defend their political principles and the strength to uphold their moral convictions. Fail either of these two challenges and political integrity is an impossibility.

Recent ICAC hearings in NSW have seen serious allegations made that some Labor Parliamentary and Party representatives in NSW have failed these two challenges.

It is time to publicly acknowledge that there have been some in our party’s ranks with neither political principles to defend nor moral convictions to uphold.

It is clear that the current power balance, the current power structures, have enabled too much disgraceful conduct and arrogantly corrupt behaviour. It is clear, too, that some of those empowered by our current structures are resistant to measures which curtail their power.

I think there is more to be done to enhance transparency and accountability at the federal level.

No one is ever opposed to integrity. No one ever argues that our political system needs less of it. But unanimous support for integrity in the abstract all too often fractures in the face of specific measures. And they are deferred or delayed, or even dropped, as lower-order issues.

For the health of our political system, of our democracy, political integrity is absolutely fundamental. As Alan K Simpson, Republican Senator for Wyoming, said in a slightly different context,

“If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don’t have integrity, nothing else matters.”

John Faulkner is a Labor senator for New South Wales. This is an abridged and edited version of a speech delivered at the University of Melbourne in 2012.

Labor in 2025 #

Opinion Amy Remeikis Jul 26, 2025 From the New Daily

‘The least they can do’: We finally find out what Labor will do with its second term

The first week of the 48th Parliament was very revealing.

Regular readers would know the question we have been asking is “what will Labor do with power?”.

Now we have the answer.

The least possible.

Yes, to be fair it has only been a week in this Parliament and we are yet to see what the Albanese government’s version of “ambitious” ultimately ends up looking like, but we have been given the direction.

The very first bill the government introduced was legislation that will reduce HECS/HELP debt by 20 per cent. That is, as Ross Gittens of The Sydney Morning Herald pointed out, the very least they could do.

The bill helps those with university debt now, but does nothing to address the cost of going to university. It does nothing to correct the failure of the Morrison government Job-Ready Graduates program, which has seen minimal students choose to swap fields, but in some cases led the cost of university degrees to increase by 117 per cent.

Labor has been in power for more than three years. This is not a new problem and it has delivered what it said it would at the election – the least it could do.

This same week, Penny Wong signed a statement with 23 other countries and the UN calling for an immediate end to the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza.

The language used in the statement was much less active, but it is the strongest to date. It is also, the very least Australia could do.

There is no action accompanying the statement, just the threat of unnamed actions if Israel does not allow for aid to flow. The only action was against Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi for the physic injury done to the Parliament after she held up a sign saying “Gaza is starving, Words won’t feed them, Sanction Israel” and shouted at Anthony Albanese as he left the Senate chamber.

Faruqi was formally chastised by the Senate – with Labor and the Coalition joining together – through a “displeasure” motion. Not for why she was protesting, oh no – but because it happened on the most sacred of days – the Parliament opening.

My goodness – the Governor-General was in the chamber! That’s almost the King! How could she?

Never mind that that very same day, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation senators turned their backs during the Acknowledgement of Country, allegedly on behalf of Australians who voted against the Voice.

That doesn’t deserve a formal chastising.

Not all disrespect is equal, it seems. Instead, Labor did the very least it could and voted against the Coalition attempt to have Faruqi suspended from the Senate until she apologised.

The same day the statement Australia signed was released, the names of 17,000 Palestinian children killed in Gaza by Israel were read out on the Parliament lawns in a non-stop vigil that went for 24 hours.

Ed Husic was the only Labor MP who participated. He was also the only Labor MP who attended a press conference with some independent and Greens MPs in accepting a petition to present to the Senate on behalf of Médecins Sans Frontières.

Other Labor MPs who had expressed interest in attending either the vigil, or the petition handover, cancelled. It was the least they could do.

By Friday, France’s announcement that it was going to recognise the state of Palestine pushed Albanese to release a statement of his own, restating Australia’s commitment to the two-state solution. Again, the least Labor can do

We also have the pincer movement Barnaby Joyce and Michael McCormack are engaged in to end David Littleproud’s leadership of the Nationals, while also gripping on to some sort of political relevancy.

To be clear, the private members’ bill Joyce is putting up to end net zero doesn’t matter It has no material impact on Australian policy, zero chance of passing, and won’t win any more votes than the Nationals already hold. It. Doesn’t. Matter.

But Labor, looking at the political benefit, will let it run as long as possible. Labor will bring the bill on for debate just to have all those speeches on the record.

It’s the least it can do, in order to ensure the Coalition continues to dig its way to irrelevancy. But it also means that the little Labor is doing on serious climate policy – which in the scheme of things, is again, the least it can do, looks so much better by comparison.

After all, ask for more and you could get less – because you could have the Liberals in charge and that would be worse for everyone, or so goes the argument. So Labor can continue on its path of opening up new fossil fuel sites and allowing the gas industry to direct vast swathes of climate policy, because at least it believes in net zero.

We know it’s the least it can do because despite the International Court of Justice’s ruling that states do have an obligation to lower emissions and that big fossil fuel exporters (like Australia) can’t pretend their exports don’t matter, and despite Australia arguing against almost every point made by states like Vanuatu calling for more direct responsibility, Labor spun the case as a win. “Australia was proud to join the Pacific in co-sponsoring this Vanuatu-led initiative and to participate in the proceedings last year,” a government spokesperson said. Which was the very least it could do. Because in reality, Australia argued that states have no legal obligations on climate change beyond what it signed up for in international agreements like Paris.

In its submission to the ICJ, the Australian government claimed it held no historic responsibility for climate change and also rejected things like the application of existing international law – like the no-harm principle – to greenhouse gas emissions.

But we supported the UN resolution to seek the advisory opinion. And we welcomed it being handed down. So, the least we could do.

There are three years of Parliament to go in a world where we are at several tipping points. The very least Labor can do is not just recognise it but act.

The big reform that could make our childcare system cheaper and safer

My comment:

The biggest reform is to restrain the High Court from making dud decisions. How do we hold judges to account?

“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.” George Orwell - Animal Farm

Tony Blair, justified apostasy as:.

“If the world changes and we don’t, then we become of no use to the world. Our principles cease being principles and just ossify into dogma.’

As the parody of the Internationale goes: “The working class can kiss my a-s, I’ve got a politician’s job at last”

1. “liberty should not be lightly exchanged for coercive security”.

Whistleblowing:

https://nebo-lit.com/topic-areas/Justice/whistleblowers-examples.html