Jacques Chester for Solomon

Politicians (whose grubby ranks I have officially joined at this election) have to deal with curly questions from journalists. Most of this takes the form of on-the-spot quizzes about current interest rates, the price of milk and bread and tax thresholds. It’s a bit silly but you come to expect it.

What’s also common is questions in search of a juicy, controversial story. In that vein most questions put to me by journos in Darwin have followed one of the two narratives which have grown around my candidacy — guns & the independence of my run.

Yesterday I got asked a truly unexpected question. “Do you want to legalise incest?”

Yes, you read that right. Legalise incest. Before we go any further, my answer is hell no.

Unknown to me, a fellow LDP candidate called Bede Ireland called for debate on the topic. The problem is that he didn’t clearly say if he was pro- or contra-. He sort of mused about it. For a journalist, every answer that is not “yes” or “no” is an invitation to read any meaning into the words that make for a good story. And so it was that Tasmanian Senate candidate Bede Ireland came to “support” the legalisation of incest. It also happens that he’s probably caused office wits across the nation to blow the dust off long-forgotten jokes about Tasmanians.

Incest is illegal for the simple reason that it leads to deformity and suffering. That’s pretty much the conclusion of the debate. The feeling of total revulsion most people feel towards it is natural and apparently universally found in all cultures.

What upsets me about this is that it allows lazy journalists to push us into the ho-ho-ho-aren’t-they-crazy box from which it is hard to emerge. It also annoys me as a candidate that I spend more time talking about other LDP candidates than the folk in Solomon. This is a tough enough campaign already without having to discuss the party’s position on incest (ie that it will remain illegal), for the love of tapdancing crazypants.

Edit: As usual, Calvin & Hobbes sum it up well.