Australian PM Sex Scene Critics Should Get A Life

The cynics might decry the sex scene in tomorrow night's episode of At Home With Julia, the ABC's domestic-cum-political satire about life in the Lodge, as nothing more than a desperate attempt to bolster flagging ratings (down by 11 per cent from episode one to two).

The small number of feminists who see Amanda Bishop's portrayal of Julia Gillard as proof of a masculinist backlash will take it as further proof of a conspiracy to demean her. And the constitutional conservatives who think the office of the Prime Minister is so sacrosanct that any joke at its expense is tantamount to sedition will be frothing and fulminating for a parliamentary inquiry into how the ABC could squander taxpayer money on such filth.

All of them would be wrong. All of them should get a life.

The scene itself occurs about six minutes and 50 seconds into episode three of the show, which goes to air at 8.30pm tomorrow (those of you who wish to be outraged should make a note so you don't miss it).

The PM, as played by comedian Amanda Bishop, and First Bloke Tim "Tim Tam" Mathieson (Phil Lloyd) are shown in a love clinch on the floor of her office in Parliament House. They're not naked on camera, but rather modestly covered by an Australian flag, which they're using as a sheet.

"I can't believe we're doing this,' Julia says in her post-coital nasal twang.

"Oh, John and Janette must have got it away a few times in here,' the Bloke replies.

"Urgh, no,' Julia says, recoiling in horror at the very thought of the Howards getting all hot and steamy.

When Bill Shorten - the MP named after her yapping terrier (or is it the other way round?) - taps at the door, she tells him she's in the middle of "an urgent debriefing', and "everyone's feeling most satisfied with the outcome'. End of scene.

Certain media outlets have leapt upon the scene today in an attempt to drum up a little outrage. David Flint, former chair of the Australian Press Council and long-standing convenor of Australians for a Constitutional Monarchy, was trotted out to denounce it in suitably vague but all-purpose terms. "This is probably going a bit far," he reportedly said.

And not before time, the telly couple - so frequently thwarted in their attempts to carve out a bit of connubial bliss amid the chaos of Canberra - might have replied.

The other thrust of the purported outrage has been the use of Our Flag. ABC 1 controller Brendan Dahill has been forced to defend the fact that the ensign might be enlisted for such ignoble ends. "If it's OK for others to drape themselves in our flag, I really don't see why it can't be draped over our Prime Minister as a symbol of love," he said.

And right he is, too. Why shouldn't our first couple get to run their relationship up the flagpole and see who salutes? Not everyone finds it funny, of course, but At Home With Julia is a comedy.

Some of the backlash against the show has, as I flagged above (sorry), come from those who think it makes fun of Julia Gillard simply because she's a woman in what is ostensibly the most powerful office in the land, as if a woman as PM were in and of itself laughable. It's an understandable reading but, I think, wrong on multiple counts.

First, it's Tim whose predicament is the source of most of the jokes, as he flounders around wondering how to occupy himself when he simply has nothing much to do. If men's groups want to be outraged, fair enough, but really, it's a classic domestic sitcom set-up, a fish-out-of-water inversion.

Yes, we should be over the "surprise' value of a kept man by now, but as a society we're not. Fact.

Second, the portrayal of Julia as somewhat inept and flustered undoubtedly does a discredit to the real woman's considerable intellect, but it is in keeping with the image Australia has formed of her prime ministership. It's not a critique of her leadership on the basis of her gender, it's a critique (and an affectionate one at that) on the basis of her performance.

Third, there's a fairly convincing counter-argument that the show is a kind of de facto publicity campaign on the PM's behalf. It humanises her, it shows us the "real' Julia who, for reasons only she can understand, the real Julia can't.

That might be a valid basis for criticism on the basis of political bias, perhaps, but it's not a valid basis for criticising the show on the basis of sexism - unless you subscribe to the view that showing the PM as a human being rather than simply a political animal is somehow intrinsically demeaning.

In the end, At Home With Julia is nothing more than a comedic fantasy of what life at the Lodge might be like. It's not reality - it's not even reality TV.

Personally, I've enjoyed what I've seen. I just hope they can keep it up.

Resource from Sydney Morning herald.