PETER VAN ONSELEN: Oh look, it’s Teal independent Zali Steggall on her high horse lecturing everyone about ‘bad behaviour’ (except her own of course)

Zali Steggall, an independent senator in Teal, has criticised both Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton for their poor conduct in parliament, on both sides of the major party divide.

She condemned “the booing, bullying, shouting and intimidation” and said she was faced with a “mob mentality, a complete unwillingness to tolerate even the idea that anyone else in the room could speak”.

The only problem is that Steggall, in her complacency, can’t see beyond her own nose. She too is part of the problem.

Steggall is absolutely right that debates in parliament often degenerate into childish name-calling and rude and uneducating behaviour. Like a few days ago when she called Peter Dutton a ‘racist’ for expressing views she disagreed with.

The few of us who follow Question Time see the bad behavior that Steggall talks about most days, and we have now seen her engage in it.

I can also confirm that the shouting and swearing that is often seen on Question Time is even worse when you watch it from the press gallery behind the chairman’s chair. The microphones don’t pick up everything that is happening for those watching at home.

But Steggall’s bad behavior in the chamber when she attacked Dutton was not just booing. She delivered her insult while standing on her feet, after having received permission from the Speaker, in clear violation of the Rules of Procedure.

When Steggall called Dutton a racist for raising questions about the screening process for refugees from Gaza coming to Australia, she was forced to retract her unparliamentary comment, which she did.

But she continued to repeat the insult outside parliament, doubling down on her bad behaviour rather than simply admitting that the heat of the moment was getting the better of her.

It must be great to have so little self-reflection that you are willing and able to point the finger at others for behaving as you do. Pot, kettle, black. Hypocrisy is your name. Do as I say, not as I do.

These clichés sum up Steggall’s mantra today. Just days after her bad parliamentary behaviour, she is shamelessly calling out similar behaviour by others.

Perhaps the real problem is the culture of Parliament in general, a culture in which the longest-serving Teal has now become so enmeshed that she no longer recognizes her own bad behavior.

That’s likely because it’s cheered on on platforms like X, where bad behavior is often the norm, not the exception.

Steggall has been a federal MP for five years now, since winning her seat in the 2019 federal election. She becomes institutionalized by the bad behavior around her, so that she can no longer see her own bad behavior as a consequence. The proverbial frog that slowly boils.

It must be wonderful to have so little self-reflection that you are willing and able to blame others for their behavior, just as you behave.