You know that things over at the ABC are getting really desperate when they give people like Tom Ballard—Australia’s most unfunny effete comedian—their own show. Why do TV executives automatically assume that homosexual men are always going to make people laugh? Just consider the most recent cringe-worthy piece of Ballard’s attempt at humour…

Now, not only is the ‘comedy sketch’ clearly not funny, but on an even more serious level, Ballard shows absolutely no respect for the ultimate sacrifice and suffering experienced by so many Australians and their families who have given up their lives, so that people like him can have the freedom be paid (out of public taxpayer dollars!) to produce rubbish like this.

Ballard’s defence is that Anzac Day is the equivalent to Australia Day, and that both involve “difficult histories”. And as such, he thinks that there are legal and moral problems attached to both events. Thus, as most people treat the public holiday on January 26 as a time to relax and have fun, so too people behave in exactly the same way on April 25. As the ‘Crazy Clarke” voice over guy says in the video:

And hey, if any party poopers wanna give you grief and call you insensitive or some shit, just tell them to lighten up. It was ages ago!

Obviously, both events were so long ago that Ballard doesn’t intellectually comprehend what actually occurred – on either occasion. Because, on the one hand, ANZAC day celebrates an event which was conscientiously conducted in keeping with the classical ethical framework of the just war theory. And as such, Australia was acting in accordance with international and treaty obligations as well as a well-defined and developed Judaeo-Christian moral philosophy.

Darrell Cole, professor of religious ethics at Drew University, describes the moral responsibility of a person involved in armed conflict as follows:

The most noteworthy aspect of the moral approach to warfare in Aquinas and Calvin is that it teaches—contrary to today’s prevailing views—that a failure to engage in a just war is a failure of virtue, a failure to act well. An odd corollary of this conclusion is that it is a greater evil for Christians to fail to wage a just war than it is for unbelievers. When an unbeliever fails to go to war, the cause may be a lack of courage, prudence, or justice. He may be a coward or simply indifferent to evil. These are failures of natural moral virtue. When Christians (at least in the tradition of Aquinas and Calvin) fail to engage in just war, it may involve all of these natural failures as well, but it will also, and more significantly, involve a failure of charity. The Christian who fails to use force to aid his neighbour when prudence dictates that force is the best way to render that aid is an uncharitable Christian. Hence, Christians who willingly and knowingly refuse to engage in a just war do a vicious thing: they fail to show love toward their neighbour as well as toward God. 

Similarly, contrary to the view espoused by Left-wing politics, the founding of Australia was in strict accordance with the rule of law. Hence, contrary to what Ballard implicitly asserts, Australia was legally “settled” rather than militarily “invaded”. As Dr Augusto Zimmermann—one of this country’s leading experts in constitutional law—argues in his [forthcoming] three-volume work, Christian Foundations of the Common Law, states:

The extent to which English law is introduced into a British Colony, and the manner of its introduction, must necessarily vary according to circumstances. There is a very great difference between the case of a Colony acquired by conquest or cession, in which there is an established system of law, and that of a Colony which consisted of a tract or territory practically unoccupied, without settled inhabitants or settled law, at the time when it was peacefully annexed to the British dominions. The Colony of New South Wales belongs to the latter class … In so far as it is reasonably applicable to the circumstances of the Colony, the law of England must prevail.

Significantly, Ballard has failed to observe the essential correlation between the noble virtues required with warfare and the legal restraints involved in settling a new territory. However, while the failed humour of an individual is excusable—after all, it’s not like Ballard is on one of the commercial TV stations where there is real competition—what is not acceptable is it that our national broadcaster can consistently allow our nation’s values to be trashed in such a brazen, and quite frankly, offensive, way.

While Australians may have come to different conclusions about Lt Gen Angus Campbell’s directive against the use of “death iconography” within the ADF, one thing we are completely agreed upon is this: the virtues of legal responsibility, honouring international obligations, dignity, courage and respect need to be celebrated and cherished. What has become completely obvious though is that the “comedy” over at Aunty is itself a complete joke. And that’s no laughing matter.

Mark Powell is the Associate Pastor of Cornerstone Presbyterian Church, Strathfield.

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