At 5.30pm on Thursday, the bitter, cantankerous dying hours of the 46th Parliament were interrupted for a rare moment of unity. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s address to it drew a long, standing ovation from a chamber filled with members and senators, many sporting yellow and blue pins, before a packed public gallery.
Just over a month ago, the idea of a wartime leader being beamed into Australia’s Parliament would seem surreal, another event that can only be described as unprecedented. Then again, the past three years have been nothing but. Perhaps it was fitting that a parliamentary term dominated by so much unprecedented-ness in the form of a once-in-a-century global pandemic would end like this — with a former comedian turned politician thrust unwittingly into the global spotlight by a brutal invasion, addressing Australian politicians from a bunker somewhere in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.
Before Zelenskyy began, Prime Minister Scott Morrison provided an entrée of thunderous bluster.
“Mr president, the people of Australia stand with Ukraine in your fight for survival,” he said. “Yes you have our prayers, but you also have our weapons, our humanitarian aid, our sanctions against those who seek to deny your freedom — and you even have our coal. And there will be more.”
He offered another $25 million in military support. For the first time, he openly called Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal. Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese called for “escalating consequences” against Putin’s illegal war.
There are complex reasons why international support for Ukraine has been so strong — from the particularly abhorrent and indefensible nature of Putin’s invasion to the fact that white Europeans staring down the barrel of Russian guns draw a lot more sympathy and attention from Western media.
But Zelenskyy is another. With the whole world watching, and his country at stake, a career performer has given the performance of his life.
His address was a piece of theatre which had the chamber enthralled. Despite being delivered by video-link with help of a voice over translator, it was a reminder of just how successful the Ukrainian president has been at winning the global image war and rallying the West to Ukraine’s cause. He’s delivered similar speeches to the British House of Commons, US Congress, parliaments in Canada and the European Union — each time dressed in the short-sleeved khaki top he’s made so distinctive.
It was also politically clever. Russia’s invasion, Zelenskyy said, wasn’t just a matter for Ukraine, but an act of evil which Australians, thousands of kilometres away, should fear.
“That is the nature of evil — it can instantly cross any distance, any barriers, destroy lives,” the president said.
Amid tributes to Australia’s relationship was a call for greater support. Zelenskyy urged the government to provide more military assistance, such as Bushmaster armoured vehicles. He called for tougher sanctions, for Russian warships to be banned from overseas ports, and warned about the threat of nuclear war.
Zelenskyy’s moving call to arms is likely to be heeded by a government that despite some missteps has come out strongly against Russia’s invasion, continuing to tighten sanctions and escalate support for Ukraine.
But it didn’t take long after his brilliant performance ended — marked by another rousing ovation — for regular politics to return. Hours later, Albanese delivered his budget reply, resuming regular service for the House.
And as we rush headlong into election mode, Ukraine will start to become less a bipartisan issue and more an opportunity to attack. Already the Morrison government has been gesturing at the dangerous state of the world as a reason why voters can’t trust Labor on defence and national security.
The moment of unity passed quickly lost on the long march to the polls. But the tyranny in Ukraine and the defiant brilliance of Zelenskyy will remain.
