Right image by Andrew Meares //
It’s time to go Australian Psycho on our political system.
I first became aware of writer/surfer/activist Sean Doherty after seeing a mate share one of his posts on Instagram. His profile picture is Christian Bale as the sociopathic and narcissistic protagonist American Psycho, Patrick Bateman; an entity whose indifference to the suffering around him is his defining feature. Ironically, Bateman shares these traits with the corporate mining bodies that Doherty is fighting against.
“I haven’t chainsawed anyone up lately, but there’s always time,” he says over the phone. He’s obviously joking, though you couldn’t blame him for wanting to chainsaw some of the companies that are polluting our natural world and political system. Equinor, Rio Tinto and BHP, are among the corporations he’s taken aim at recently, along with their political mouthpieces Nev Power, Matt Canavan and our coal-humping PM, Scott Morrison.
His followers will be all too familiar with his intelligible takedowns and breakdowns of these clowns and their motivations, with his straight-shooting style making the political world easy enough for anyone (even me!) to understand. Spurring his impassioned posts is a lifelong appreciation for the Australian coastline and the bushy landscape that it skirts – something most of us can relate to.
“I grew up in Foster on the North Coast, and we lived 50 yards from the beach and 100 yards from a national park. That was my playground for 15 years as a kid. I think that’s where that deep-seated sense of the environment and the love for it, and the willingness to do something for it, all came from,” he says. “Then I got into surf mags after that.”
His resume is about as decorated as it can get for a surf writer. Editing Tracks for a decade, being a senior writer at Surfing World and Surfer magazines, and writing best-selling surf biographies are the kind of milestones that most writers, surf or otherwise, dream of. Naturally, causes like the Fight for the Bight, which recently fought off Norweigan oil juggernaut Equinor, hit home for someone who’s dedicated most of their life to writing about the surfing experience.
“It was very refreshing and very humbling to see all these surf communities that got it, that understood we need to protect this place down there,” he says about the campaign. “I thought, if these crews are willing to spend their time and their Saturday to go and paddle out and try and save this place down here, what would they do for something closer to home?” he says.
For those of us in New South Wales, the fight has moved closer to home, with approval of Advent Energy and Bounty Oil & Gas’ Petroleum Exploration Permit “imminently” arriving for a 4,500 square kilometre area of the coast of Sydney, Newcastle and the Central Coast. In a world where renewable technology is clearly the future, such proposals – one that could make gas rigs visible on the horizon from the state’s most populous stretch of land – seem like such a brazen disregard for our future. Companies like Advent and Bounty, however, have teams of people who are constantly greasing the palms of our pollies (what a life, right?).
“I think they know they’ve got the backing of the government, broadly,” Doherty says. “I think that they know how this country works, the fossil fuel industry calls the shots, pretty much, and the government just answers to it, and it’s been that way for a long time. We’ve developed into a bit of a first-world quarry over the past couple of decades, and that’s what we’re up against: that institutionalized link between the fossil fuel lobby and the government that’s really hard to unstitch.”
It’s a grim assessment, especially considering our vast landmass and predictable climate could see us become a clean energy powerhouse. It seems that politicians are desperate to maintain our gimpish relationship status, preaching that the destructive corporations who fund their campaigns are nice guys underneath it all, whilst covering our bruised environment with glossy tourism propaganda.
It can be difficult to look to the future with great optimism with all this is happening under our noses. Is it possible? “Oh, I try to be, for sure,” Doherty says. “You’re pushing shit uphill a little bit when fighting these things because they’re just so big, and you’re not only fighting the individual projects themselves, you’re trying to fight the system that creates them at the same time… I tend to be optimistic by nature, but I really look at it and go, “Well, fuck, there’s hope.””
“People are getting smarter about understanding renewable energy and understanding options for the future and how you could build a future, as opposed to… Well, there’s no future in a fucking gas field off Sydney. That’s just a profit for the company. That’s just bringing death down the track, and debt, for a generation who don’t want it.”
“That’s the other thing. You’ve got a younger generation who understands all this stuff now, and they just want something that’s going to be built for them down the track. All this stuff is built for the people who are building it now. There’s no thought for the future or the people that are going to have to live with the consequences of it.”
Invariably on his Instagram posts, one of Doherty’s 28K followers will suggest that he make a move into the political arena himself. Given people’s dissatisfaction with the current Australian political sphere being higher than ever, there’s never been a better time for candidates who are independent of the major parties to take a run at it.
“I’m kind of reluctantly where I am right now. There was no one in my circle and stuff that was really looking at these issues,” he says. “I don’t lie awake at night thinking about moving into politics, but if it ended up being the best way to get ahead, then maybe… I wouldn’t rule it out, but I’m not planning the next election campaign just yet.”
For now, he recommends writing to your local MP to express your disgust at the PEP off the Newcastle, Sydney and Central Coast shores – there are plenty of marginal seats in those areas and your letter could make a real difference. And don’t forget to follow @Seano888 on Instagram and keep yourself informed.
Anyway, I have to return some video tapes.
