There’s a quote I remember from my Sunday School days that has been brought to mind by this week’s news headlines and political hit jobs: ‘Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.’

Those words were spoken by Jesus when Scribes and Pharisees brought a woman accused of adultery to him. With a crowd gathering, they asked if she should be stoned according to the Law of Moses, apparently trying to trap him into breaking that law or showing cruelty.

Jesus stooped, wrote in the dust on the ground, then stood up and gave his famous reply. The accusers walked away one by one, starting with the older men. Jesus told the woman he did not condemn her either, and told her to go and sin no more.

Fast forward to today and Jesus would probably be accused of misogyny and bigotry for not addressing the gathered crowd as ‘he, she, or they’.

Religion aside, I think there is a direct parallel with the media pile-on against Victoria’s One Nation leader, Warren Pickering, after he fronted up and admitted to a wayward past. He emphasised he had turned his life around and was a different person today.

The media conference, in which he was strongly supported by his daughter and step-son, was sparked by front page stories in the Australian featuring accusations from his former partner and other reports that he was ordered to repay $13,500 of a First Home Buyer grant.

According to One News Australia,  ‘Warren Pickering fronted the media in Melbourne on Tuesday and explicitly answered every allegation the Australian dragged across three desperate front pages. He confirmed contacting the Victorian State Revenue Office that morning, receiving definitive proof that the First Home Buyer grant inquiry was fully resolved on 23 September 2010 when he and Jo Scott sold the property. He shut down the ice claim completely, named the minor drugs he used during his youth, and clarified that he stopped prior to joining the Australian Defence Force, having fully disclosed his past in his application…’

But it wasn’t only the Australian, with other mainstream media also joining in with some commentators claiming he should be excluded from standing as a politician or possible Victorian Premier. These include some presenters on News24 (formerly Sky News Australia) who launched several strong attacks, while others, including Peta Credlin (an ex-chief of staff to former Liberal Prime Minister Tony Abbott) and Paul Murray have been much more sympathetic and forgiving.

In a wide-ranging interview on Paul Murray Live, Pickering confirmed he had stated he was willing to undertake random drug testing and suggested the same should apply to all other Victorian election candidates.

Amen to that! I would go one step further and suggest, if past drug use is such a concern, the same rule should apply for all political candidates and sitting members at State and Federal level. Wow, what a can of worms that would open…

Let’s face it, how many of us can honestly put our hands up and swear that we have never done things in our youth that we wouldn’t be ashamed of or that might have been illegal? Not me, but taking illicit drugs isn’t on the list. I recall a party I attended as a young journalist when two colleagues tried to talk me into trying marijuana: ‘Come on John, it gives you a great, laid-back feeling…’

‘No thanks, I’ll stick with my beer.’

They kept drinking and smoking their smelly joints while Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon boomed from the stereo. Soon, they were spewing their guts out. A valuable lesson learnt.

And if the governments are so outraged by illicit drugs, why does, for example, the New South Wales government fund pill testing for music festivals? If not a blind eye, it might be considered tolerance.

Hypocrisy rules in politics. When it comes to the leader of the pack, I couldn’t go past our esteemed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Take his recent attack on One Nation and Pauline Hanson. In a speech to the Labor faithful in Queensland he claimed, ‘One Nation would do and say anything to win votes, including bending facts, spreading misinformation and turning Australian against Australian.’

Three words, Albo: ‘pot-kettle-black!’

Some would say his words are pretty rich coming from a man who changes position frequently. Remember the fifty denials on changing Capital Gains Tax and Negative Gearing? Promises of falling energy prices? What about the contents of the Voice to Parliament referendum being ‘not a matter of special treatment, or preferential power. It’s about consulting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples on the decisions that affect you. This is a simple courtesy; it is common decency’…?

Yeah right, we all know how those promises have panned out. House prices have dropped. Rents are rising. Power prices are surging. The Voice is being established in the states in defiance of the referendum.

There is also the #Melongate podcast scandal, with Albo denying he was figuratively juggling the Japanese Prime Minister’s ‘melons’ in front of his chest. And what about a potential grant scandal that made it into the news at the tail end of last week?

Returning to the central issue: should Warren Pickering be eligible to run in the Victorian election? I think that’s a given and any contrary claims are, in my opinion, politically driven.

I’m not saying he would make a better Premier than the capable young Liberal leader Jess Wilson, who does seem to have progressed to the right on some issues she might previously have taken a more Woke approach to. She has confirmed she fully supports her party’s plan to abolish Victoria’s Indigenous Treaty, despite previously breaking ranks as the only state Liberal MP to back the Voice referendum. She now agrees the new Treaty creates a parallel or a separate system of government in the state.

Meanwhile, Victoria’s new Labor leader Ben Carroll is struggling to escape his inheritance of Jacinta Allan and Daniel Andrews. The taint of Labor’s long and shonky reputation, including mounting debt, CFMEU scandals, and roads full of destructive potholes, probably won’t wear off before the election.

The state election on November 28 should be a very interesting Litmus test for the next federal election, especially as it follows recent wins by One Nation in the West Australian seat of Secret Harbour, Farrer in New South Wales, and gains in the South Australian elections.

Bring it on, but remember the old adage, ‘People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.’

John Mikkelsen is a former editor of three Queensland regional newspapers, columnist, freelance writer and author of the Amazon Books Memoir, Don’t Call Me Nev.