Conflicts of interest and a lack of transparency and accountability have corroded community confidence in bedrock institutions including banks, churches, law enforcement, unions and professional sport. But perhaps the least trusted and respected cohort is mainstream legislators.

Politicians’ rhetorical championing of the public interest can so often ring hollow, with the reality found to reflect the pursuit of party-political, vested and personal interest. The pub test has become an important indicator, and there is less patience for decisions, actions and announcements that fail to pass.

Tim Wilson has committed a community disservice. Credit:Andrew Meares

Such trumping of enlightenment by entitlement has coincided with a plunge in support for both traditional sides of politics. The disenchantment with ‘‘politics as usual’’ is echoed by Defence Minister Christopher Pyne in our pages today. It is also being fuelled by the extraordinary behaviour of prominent Victorian Liberal Party MP Tim Wilson, whose position as chair of the powerful economics committee of the House of Representatives should be untenable.

The pre-eminent principle that positions of public office are positions of public trust has been trashed by Mr Wilson’s misuse of a key parliamentary committee to pursue a political agenda. That agenda involves agitating against the ALP’s policy of ending cash refunds on some company dividends paid to investors who have engineered their finances to produce zero taxable income.