Election times are full of sound and fury, much of it broadcast on a loop. But they are also marked by silences. Like the still water in the surf that indicates a rip, these silences indicate concealed perils in society.
In this election campaign two striking examples are the treatment of Indigenous Australians and of people who have sought protection from persecution in Australia.
Of course asylum seekers and young Indigenous people are spoken about, often noisily, by politicians, but always as the object of policy, not as people whose lives have been blighted by policy. The human beings who suffer are shrouded in silence. This silence is an ethical silence that covers people whom we want to keep out of mind.
Ethical silence allows people to be reduced to problems to which a practical solution is sought. Human beings are seen as means to be used as part of that solution.
From this perspective any conversation that focuses on human values, and so raises matters of conscience, is obstructive. It stands in the way of practical courses of action and makes more difficult their implementation. So ethical silence may be a sign of pressure to be silent, and certainly presages attempts to enforce silence.
In this election campaign the dynamic is clear in the pressure placed on candidates to conceal their ethical difficulties with Australia's treatment of asylum seekers, and in the criticism of their parties for choosing as candidates people who differ with party policy.
Such attitudes suggest that there is no room in parties for conscientious disagreement. Party representatives are to be no more than loudspeakers that amplify another's voice. Anyone who adopts well thought out ethical positions will not be welcome unless they match the party line. And free votes on conscience matters will be denied in parliament.
It is a short step from imposing silence by party discipline to impose it by legislation. So some advocates of same sex marriage seek to make anti-discrimination laws prevent groups that are in principle opposed to same sex marriage from making their case in public. The proposal to force all marriage celebrants to conduct same sex marriages if asked would have the same effect.
"Tolerating zones of ethical silence creates a culture in which other groups will be more vulnerable to exclusion and defenceless against it."
The government have gone further in imposing a canopy of silence over the treatment of people who seek protection. It prohibits