News that two Tasmanian Greens MPs have announced their decision to
become an item seems like an odd story to fill the pages of our national
newspapers.

The Australian media generally shies away from reporting the private
lives of politicians, unlike the American and British press, where this
topic is fair game. Any familiarity with the British
press will make one glad that such intrusive, sometimes hysterical,
reporting is not part of our media culture. I recall one particularly
distasteful case some years ago where a UK tabloid paper set up a
‘sting’ complete with photographers to catch an MP with his mistress, who
co-operated with the story and was paid for it.

Rather, the Australian press generally get interested where such things
affect the capacity of an MP to perform his or her duties, or where a
person slips down the greasy pole after taking the high moral ground.
Perhaps with the Australian press it is a case of ‘let he who casts the
first stone’.

Politics and marriage are difficult bedfellows, if you will pardon the
pun. Long days, endless late nights and travel away from home often make
it hard to keep family life together. An MP can often spend more time
with colleagues, journalists and staffers than their own family,
especially when parliament is sitting and their home base is out of
town. The media often pillory MPs who employ their spouses, but one can
understand that given the lifestyle, at least a husband and wife will
see each other more frequently than just weekends. It becomes a survival
strategy.

This makes the Tasmanian announcement even more curious. MPs have had
relationships with each other before and we are none the wiser. And why
should this particular relationship be celebrated as Senator Bob Brown
has done? The heartbreaking revelation that one of the MPs has four
children is more information than this reader needs to know.