Australians are sick and tired of politicians. The community is deserting the major political parties in droves.Most recently we have seen it in Longman and Wagga. We have lost trust in our major political parties and most particularly the Liberal and National Parties in recent months.

In the 1980s we embraced economic change and reform. It was necessary but painful for some. Today we need democratic reform and renewal. Like the 1980s, it is necessary but it will be painful for some.

After the next election we need a government that will assist us in major democratic renewal. It is urgent. We could start with a post-election summit in the same way that Prime Minister Hawke called an economic summit many years ago. We need a summit of community leaders to help chart a new course for democratic renewal.

I have written many times about the collapse of trust in business, the banks, churches and the media. But our immediate concern must surely be the failure of our political institutions and the urgent need for political reform.

The alienation has not occurred because institutions have changed. The problem is that they haven’t changed enough in the face of globalization and automation . The ground has moved beneath them and they have not responded. The information and education revolution has made us much better informed and much better equipped to participate in institutions, but we are often denied the opportunity. The ‘insiders’ are reluctant to cede any real power. Women particularly have more time to be involved in institutions outside the family, but they are often excluded.

The media and particularly TV have contributed to the alienation. Public figures are trivialised and their personal foibles and politics take pre-eminence over temperate and informed policy debate. I don’t think some of our media can even spell the word ‘policy’. At election times, what matters is the swinging voter in the swinging electorate, rather than the important policy issues of concern to the wider community.

We are clearly not the innovators we were a hundred years ago in institution building. In 1856 Victoria led the world when it introduced the secret ballot for parliamentary elections. It was known internationally as the ‘Australian ballot’. In 1859 all male British subjects in the eastern states and South Australia had the vote. In 1894 South Australia was an international pacesetter in votes for women. The first democratically elected Labor government in the world was in Queensland in 1899. In 1901 six disparate states joined together in our federation.

How then can we renovate our public institutions and restore public trust.?

Politics is about how power is exercised and for whose benefit. It is a noble calling and disparaged too much, particularly by those who want untrammelled private power for themselves. But to change the way our institutions operate, faces one major obstacle – the power of those who benefit from the present system. Insiders want to hang on to power. That is very true of our media and major political parties. They are run by insiders.

In many pre-selection ballots for either the ALP or the Liberal Party, a hundred or so members select the party candidate, yet in the wider electorate there are probably 40,000 to 50,000 supporters. As a result of declining memberships and tight control, successful candidates are, not surprisingly, insiders – staffers of politicians, friends or relatives of faction leaders. Many of these new ‘white bread politicians’ have limited life experience. Wealthy interests rather than members finance political parties. We have a ‘donocracy’

There are possible options to address some of the clear democratic deficiencies in our major parties. We need to debate them. Party members in federal electorates could directly choose delegates to federal conferences and break the power of state officials. Whilst guarding against abuses the community as well as party members should be able to vote in party pre-selections for parliament.

Unless the political parties broadly represent their voter constituencies, we will continue to tread the slippery road of personalities and political spin, rather than addressing the real issues and concerns of the community. While the major parties refuse to treat the community seriously and run away from public discussion, their natural constituencies are disenfranchised. Those that are really enfranchised are a small group of party power brokers and aspirational swinging voters in swinging electorates. Because the major parties are out of touch with their constituencies, the debate on the big-ticket items runs into the sand – reconciliation, the republic, relations with Asia, drugs and climate change.

Parliaments are in need of renovation. The cabinet and party machines dominate parliament. The executive has become arrogant .‘Question time’ is ‘spin time’. The community would welcome parliamentary renovation which should be guided by the principle that the separation of powers must be enhanced and the cabinet/executive power curbed. Particular reforms could include: four year fixed term federal parliaments to discourage excessive and almost continual electioneering; an independent speaker to encourage a more inclusive, open and less adversarial parliaments; regular audits not only of the entitlements of MPs but also their performance; more conscience votes by MPs with less party discipline on ‘non-core’ issues.

To assist members of parliament to counter the power of the cabinet the parliament established a Parliamentary Budget Office. It provides independent and nonpartisan analysis of the budget cycle. It was a good start. But its work is restricted to budgets. Similar offices should be established in such areas as health, defence and foreign affairs. The research resources of the Parliamentary Library should also be enhanced. Cabinet wants public discussion but on its own terms. All public authorities should be required to facilitate public discussion on key public issues.

We need an improved parliamentary committee system where hopefully we can begin to see again the art of negotiation and compromise. The Senate has shown that improvements are possible. A good start in our next parliament would be an all-party committee to consider ways in which the performance of the parliament could be improved and the power of the executive contained. The late Ian Marsh wrote an excellent article in this blog several years ago (Australia’s gridlocked Parliament, reposted from 9/9/2016) urging an enhanced role for Senate committees.

The professionalism of the public service must be restored with much less reliance on expensive and often inexperienced outside consultants.

There are other important issues that cripple our parliamentary and public processes and which the major parties have not been prepared to address.

Citizen juries and citizen assemblies must be considered.

Lobbyists have to register, but they should also be required within a week and on a public website to disclose any contacts with ministers, ministerial staffers, members of parliament and officials and the substance of those contacts. This should include paid employees of interest groups as well as external lobbyists. They should all be banned from Parliament House. The polluting lobbyists swamp needs urgent draining. It is corrupting public life.

Ministers and senior officials should be barred from taking employment for three years with any organizations with which they have dealt in government.

Election campaign donations by corporations and unions should be banned and limitations tightened on individual donations and expenditure by candidates. Election campaigns should be publicly funded. Property developers and liquor interests would hate these changes but our democracy would be the winner.

Foreign companies should be barred from political advertising both in their own right and through industry associations.

Ministerial staffers should be dramatically reduced in number, their names disclosed and a strict code of conduct for them introduced.

Freedom of information should be strengthened to enforce more disclosure. Whistle blowers need more protection.

We need a federal anti corruption commission.

Further down the track we need a review of federal/state relations and our Constitution

The major party that is credible on democratic reform will reap a large electoral dividend. The best way for Scott Morrison and Bill Shorten to prove their bona fides as parliamentarians is to demonstrate by actions how they value the Parliament and use it as their forum and not television grabs, and talk back radio. What a pleasure it would be to see the parliament as a lively forum for debating policy and asking genuine questions to elicit information rather than a means to score political points. If only our politicians would seriously endeavour to find common ground by starting on such issues as senate electoral reform, political donations and ending the abuse of power by lobbyists. Leadership by Scott Morrison and Bill Shorten in such areas is the best way to restore confidence in parliament and politics. Don’t talk about it. Do it.

At the political level the Hawke Government provides us with an example of the way we need to proceed. It was about building consensus- within his government, within his party, with the opposition and with the community which responded to this consensual style of leadership by being prepared to consider the need for reform. Consensus building was politically appealing and effective in policy outcomes. We are a long way from this style of politics today.

Institutions, like people, are all prone to error and abuse of power. Robust democratic institutions and democratic debate are critical. Too often we avoid addressing institutional failure by suggesting that they are all leadership problems. ‘If only we had a better Prime Minister, or a better Chairman, all would be well’. But all leaders inevitably disappoint us. We need institutions and a public culture which are in good order.

In addition to renewal of our democratic institutions, I suggest there is something even more essential – the values and conventions that we need to hold in common. Decades of failure to keep promises have taken an inevitable and heavy toll. Fairness, respect for others, openness, integrity and trust, are the glue that hold us together. A democratic and free society will remain free only if the virtues necessary for freedom are alive in our community. Democracy cannot be separated from public morality. The democratic project and institutions within it must be informed by what is right and true. Every society needs a moral compass.

Moral behaviour is in the end about how our words and actions enhance human dignity and human flourishing. Robust and well functioning institutions are an important means to that end.

We have a lot of work to do.

It was a national economic summit that sparked the economic reforms of Hawke and Keating.

Today we need a national summit to spark democratic renewal.

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