Politics should not be a career. Credit:Erin Jonasson By saying that ex-ministers would be basically unemployable unless they could become lobbyists, Rees identified, albeit unwittingly, the problem afflicting contemporary politics – a lack of talent in our parliaments. The new politics that the federal election has thrown up requires new rules. If we are to prevent what Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has called the "NSW disease" from becoming an Australia-wide contagion, parliaments need to attract better candidates. Not corporate executives or high-flying professionals, as some urge, but candidates who resemble the electorate at large. A modest increase in MPs salaries would help but it is an inadequate response. We need new rules that discourage the type of careerism that characterises NSW Labor. Nine changes to the law and the rules of governance could create a quiet revolution in politics.

1) The most important change, and one that could alter the character of parliaments within two to three cycles, is to prevent a career in lobbying or "government relations" for MPs after they leave office. There are three reasons MPs resort to such work: it is easy, essentially matchmaking between corporate clients and their erstwhile colleagues still in parliament; the pay is generous; and, as Rees implied, they are not qualified or experienced in anything else. If you legislated a strict five-year ban on all MPs (and senior public servants) taking paid jobs that involve lobbying, or contact with, the government in any area – not just the ministerial portfolio they last held – you would close off the post-parliamentary job options for a certain type of political aspirant. If corporations employ ex-MPs, it should not be because of their contacts or closeness to old mates in parliament or the bureaucracy. It is a corruption of democracy that some people may now enter parliament not to improve governance or transform their values and ideals into law, but to enjoy a lucrative corporate career when they leave. This raises the prospect of MPs using their time in office to consciously legislate or advocate for the benefit of particular industries or corporations, such as banking, finance and property development. If people knew that after leaving politics they would have to retire, return to their trade, profession or business, or retrain, they would be more likely to acquire a trade, profession or business experience before running for office, making them better candidates. There are jobs – in the military or the media, for example – to which it is not realistic to return, having declared one's political views. Former premiers Bob Carr in NSW and Alan Carpenter in WA, and the current South Australian premier, Mike Rann, were journalists before entering parliament. In future similar cases, politics would likely be a last job, not an interim career.

Two of this country's finest legal minds, Emeritus Professor Ron McCallum of Sydney University and the constitutional lawyer Professor George Williams of the ANU, both believe such a ban is possible, as it only extends existing laws. Such a law would also have the pleasant side effect of weakening the corporate lobbying industry, one of the most corrosive in a democracy – because only the rich can afford to pay professional lobbyists to make their case directly to ministers, while citizens can wait weeks or months to see ministers. 2) Increase the base salaries of backbenchers to $150,000 a year, indexed to inflation, and restore a modest pension of, say, $45,000 (or 30 per cent of base salary), also indexed, after three terms. This would allow a defeated or retired MP to live with modest dignity, but the pension should be paid only on the basis of earn-a-dollar-lose-a-dollar. As unpopular as parliamentary pensions may be, we need to offer a safety net for that rare breed of MP willing to make himself or herself unpopular, and possibly unemployable, by challenging powerful corporate interests. 3) Introduce full public funding for elections to weaken the influence of money in politics. 4) Introduce a primary system for preselections, where voters can register as party supporters, with their names published online by the electoral commission, to choose the candidate. The Nationals and the Labor Party in Victoria have experimented with this technique.

5) Change the NSW constitution, which can be done by a simple act of parliament, to allow public sector employees below a certain rank to take unpaid leave to serve in state parliament. This would allow people with valuable frontline experience – nurses, teachers, police, firefighters, child protection workers, train drivers – to return to their jobs after parliamentary service. (The constitution makes it impossible to apply the idea to the federal parliament but Professor Williams believes it is legally possible at state level.) 6) Reduce the number of ministerial staff appointed from outside the public service to three: a senior private secretary, a press secretary and a personal assistant. All other ministerial staff, such as policy experts, should work on secondment from the career public service, as was the case until the 1980s. This would curtail, if not end, the practice of ministerial offices providing sinecures to apparatchiks awaiting preselection. Politicians who need "political advisers" to help them understand the political ramifications of policies probably should not be politicians in the first place. 7) Legislate to ensure that no one can hold a leadership position – president, secretary, etc – in a trade union or professional association without having worked a minimum of three years in the industry that the union covers. This is not radical. Many unions once had such a provision in their constitutions. Unions could still hire professional specialists – lawyers, economists, researchers – but the leadership could not become an easy stepping-stone between university and preselection. It would also restore the confidence of the rank-and-file in the leadership of their unions, which are institutions vital to a good society. 8) Introduce a minimum age of 30 for candidates for state parliament and 35 for candidates for federal parliament. Along with the other proposals, it would help ensure that people came to politics with life experience and livelihoods independent of party machines. Sorry, Wyatt Roy, but there is no kudos in being "the youngest MP". MPs with other career options are more likely to challenge or ignore the ethically corrupt "power-brokers" in their parties who routinely threaten their preselections. 9) Require candidates for the lower house to have lived a minimum of five years in the electorate (or adjoining electorates) they wish to represent. This would take into account periodic redistributions of boundaries but also stamp out carpet-bagging and ensure candidates know their communities.

Politics should not be another "career", progressing seamlessly from university, to ministerial staff, to a safe seat, to the cabinet, to a fat corporate consultancy. The best politicians have not only tasted victory but endured setbacks and defeats. And they are in politics because they want to see their sincerely held values reflected in the laws and practices of government, not because of a deal they struck as ambitious but callow 20-somethings during Young Labor or Young Liberals meetings. Andrew West is a senior journalist at The Sydney Morning Herald and the author of two books on Australian politics.