During the referendum, I was a national scapegoat. I considered quitting but now I have hope

‘Compared with 50 years ago, we have come a long way. But we still have a long way to go,’ Thomas Mayo writes. Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The Guardian

Politics is an eternal tug-o-war. Left and right. Right and wrong. Us and them. Positive and negative. Negative, negative, negative. This is one of the reasons that Australians tend to be disengaged from it.

Bad Actors want us to disengage, to not care enough, to give up and focus on ourselves without pursuing the truth. They want us to be so polarised that we cannot discuss politics at the kitchen table.