Leadership Quote by Jay Weatherill

Calling civility a "quaint notion" is the tell: Weatherill isn’t just praising good manners, he’s admitting how unfashionable they’ve become in modern politics. The line works because it stages a small concession to cynicism before pivoting to a standard he wants to re-legitimize. By naming civility as quaint, he preempts the eye-roll from voters who have watched parliamentary debate slide into viral snark, procedural sabotage, and performative outrage. He’s saying: yes, we know the game has changed, but the institution can’t survive if it plays by social media’s rules.

The subtext is defensive and aspirational at once. “In Parliament” narrows the claim: he’s not pretending public life is polite, he’s insisting the chamber should be different - a place where disagreement is channeled into persuasion rather than humiliation. That’s also a quiet argument for legitimacy. If Parliament becomes indistinguishable from talkback radio, why treat it as a serious governing body?

“Always strive to uphold” does important work. It dodges hypocrisy (no one can promise constant civility) while establishing a moral bar that can be used to criticize opponents without sounding priggish: you can condemn bad behavior as a failure to strive, not a failure to be saintly. Coming from a politician, it’s also image repair - an appeal to weary constituents who want competence over theatre, and a warning to colleagues that norms are infrastructure, not ornament.