The Sam Kerr saga has exposed the shocking hypocrisy of Football Australia and the identity politics at the heart of Australia’s political establishment.

Regardless of the outcome of her trial in the Kingston-upon-Thames Crown Court, the whole sorry episode underscores Kerr is not fit for the captaincy on character grounds. That Australia’s star footballer would allegedly racially abuse a police officer, after being detained with her partner for vandalising a London cab, demonstrates that she is unfit for the position.

Football Australia’s National Code of Conduct and Ethics outlines that professional players are the ‘public face’ of the sport in Australia, and therefore subject to ‘greater scrutiny and behavioural standards’. The code itself outlines that a player must not publicly disparage or vilify another person based on their race. The video evidence of Kerr’s abuse of Metropolitan Police Constable Stephen Lovell in a London police station is, I feel, damning and in breach of her duties as a player and captain.

That Football Australia has attempted to remain mute on the subject makes it lucky that Kerr is a soccer player and not an AFL player. In 2021, the Adelaide Crows’ Taylor Walker was suspended for six matches after being overheard making a racist comment about an Indigenous player during a reserves match. Walker was also forced to publicly apologise for the ‘deep hurt’ his comment caused and made a $20,000 donation to an Indigenous program in South Australia. The approaches of the different codes could not be starker.

Even more fortunate for Kerr, as a star she is being treated differently from those fans who attend soccer matches. In 2022, Football Australia launched an investigation into spectators at the Australia Cup final, alleging the incidence of ‘racist chants’. Two Sydney United fans were handed lifetime bans for abhorrent fascist salutes.

Football Australia has a mixed history when it comes to racial equality. Australians will remember it was an early advocate of racial division in our Constitution. A year out from the 2023 Voice referendum, before debate had even taken place, Football Australia advocated for a ‘Yes’ vote to creating separate legal and political rights for some Australians, in order to promote ‘a progressive and united future for all Australians’.

Federal sports minister, Anika Wells, waded into the controversy over the weekend, claiming that ‘Sam certainly has Australia behind her’. The offside comment by Wells was made days after the federal government rushed through so-called ‘hate speech laws’ to divert attention from its appalling inaction in the face of the antisemitism crisis gripping the nation.

At the same time it is trying to defend Kerr, the federal government’s legislation expands the scope of speech which can be declared unlawful and which would make it easier for police to prosecute people accused of recklessly inciting or urging violence against people or groups based on their race, religion, and adds new protected categories of ‘sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, intersex status, disability’. What is not clear in the rushed legislation is what kind of conduct amounts to ‘reckless’ or whether words themselves are ‘violence’.

In a free society, Kerr would not be prosecuted for what she said. Yet, her treatment by Football Australia, and the outspoken support she has received from the federal government, highlights the dangers of creating systems that allow the favoured few to slide, while others are prosecuted for something as subjective as what someone else finds ‘offensive’ or ‘hateful’.

The backlash against identity politics is rising across the West. The election of Donald Trump and the results of elections across Europe demonstrate the resistance of mainstream citizens to the edicts of the elites and the political class.

Identity politics divides us as citizens, putting us into teams to be played off against one another. That state and federal governments around Australia are seeking to empower like-minded activists to stoke division by way of a raft of new laws is a chilling development.

The lack of leadership, action, and resolve, from our Prime Minister down, as the incidence of antisemitism escalates, has rightfully shocked many in the community. That these leaders should then seek to exploit this opportunity to erode Australians’ freedom of speech, may not surprise many, but should shock us nonetheless.

It should not have come to this.

Sam Kerr, the smiling striker and hero of the first World Cup on our shores, has let down the legions of young girls strapping on their boots with her behaviour. Football Australia has failed the test of leadership it sets itself, and the federal government has set a terrible precedent whereby the favoured few are untouchable.

Margaret Chambers is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Public Affairs