Politicians behaving badly
Many thanks for all your lively comments on the future of the British monarchy. Consider the Republican debate well and truly accelerated. One point which emerged very strongly was that Queen Elizabeth has survived for so long as Australia's head of state because of the absence of decent home-grown alternatives.
Before you hit the send button, I don't buy that argument for even a fleeting moment. But it does raise an intriguing and legitimate question about the quality of political leadership, and the calibre of ministers, MPs and state leaders.
Certainly it has not been a good few months for the nation's politicians - they've rivalled even the stars of rugby league and Aussie Rules in the sordid and salacious story stakes.
Some of the weirdest headlines came from Western Australia, where the state Liberal leader, Troy Buswell, admitted to sniffing a chair which had recently been vacated by a female colleague. Buswell has taken larrikin irreverence to new heights - or, more accurately, new depths? Before he became leader, he had already confessed to snapping the bra strap of a Labor staffer - bipartisanship at its most boorish.
Suffice to say this chair-sniffing, bra-snapping "pol" recently survived a leadership challenge and even received a standing ovation from party members the weekend before that vote - which seemed a somewhat risky gesture given the number of chairs temporarily left empty.
All this week New South Wales has seen blanket coverage of yet another political scandal. This one involves the state health minister, John Della Bosca, and his tempestuous wife, the Labor MP Belinda Neal. Ms Neal allegedly hurled verbal abuse at the staff of a restaurant/night club called Iguanas.
According to their signed accounts, the local MP swore at them, said she would take away the club's licence and threatened to send the police to close it down. Her dinner friends have added their signatures to statements denying she used such threatening language - a difference in statutory declarations which is now under police investigation.
Soon it was open season on Ms Neal. A young mum came forward to claim that Neal had booted her on the ground during a female football match. The MP was, indeed, red-carded and banned for two games, but her coach disputes her opponent's account of the incident.
Then came news from Canberra that she had told a rival Liberal MP who was 36 weeks pregnant that "evil thoughts will turn your child into a demon".
Malcolm Farr of the Daily Telegraph, one of Canberra's finest and funniest political reporters, recounted an ALP conference in 2002.
"A TV cameraman moved around the inside of the horseshoe arrangement of delegates and stopped in front of Belinda Neal, who was filing her nails. She looked up, scowled, and extended a recently-manicured middle finger to the cameraman, and later to several thousand viewers."
There was even a Nixonian flourish: the revelation that she reportedly keeps the names of her political enemies in the freezer.
Ms Neal has now been ordered to take "anger management" classes by the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd - who interrupted his already busy trip to Japan to deliver a 20-minute carpeting.
Scandals hit politicians the world over - and if there is a paucity of political talent then it is by no means limited to Australia. Another global phenomenon appears to be that people, especially the online literate young, are finding other outlets to express themselves politically.
GetUp!, the Australian community-based activist group, now boasts 280,000 members, more than all the political parties combined and regularly comes up with innovative and policy-changing campaigns.
The magazine, The Monthly, recently asked whether Australia was one man away from becoming a one-party state: the implication being that only Malcolm Turnbull offered the Liberal Party much hope for the future.
So is Australia currently experiencing a democratic deficit - a shortage of really talented politicians? If so, why? And if the country does ever decide to choose its own head of state, should it look beyond the realm of politics?
UPDATE, 10:00AM, 17 June 2008: To those of you who have said that I've only cited the bad behaviour of two politicians, I promise you there are many more where they came from. Here's a list from the website Crikey.com, which, again, is far from definitive.
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Although I think we do have some quality politicians, in particular I believe Julia Gillard stands out above the rest, I don't believe we should have a politician as head of state.
Whilst I consider myself a republican I would never vote to install a system that results in us being lead by a partisan figure that will always be hated by 50% of the population.
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There is only one choice, as far as a Republician Head-of-State is concerned, the mighty Paul Keating. P.K was the greatest Prime Minister Australia has ever known. Being that it was he, who put the idea of an Australian Republic on the political agenda, it would be fitting for him to become Head-of-State.
Of course I'm sure many Aussies would disagree that P.K is the man to replace Queen Lizzie and her representative. But then again how can one take the Australian people seriously on any political issue, when the vast majority insisted upon reelecting John Howard again and again. Furthermore the Australian people demonstrated their collective ignorance, when we voted 'No' to becoming a republic. The problem with Australian politics, stems more from the people than the politicans.
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You've quoted two examples only. The world is suffering from a drought of decent political leadership. These days it's all spin and marketing. Australia is no exception.
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The same with police officers and politicians: The desire to become one should automatically bar you from the office!
I'm not sure whether any major democracy has ever tried selecting it's MPs randomly from the regions phone book - but it's worth a shot. On one hand it will probably include the same number of crooks, corrupables and egotists, but the chances of getting several MPs from the countries most expensive public school (as we have in the UK) is far reduced. And you can never underestimate the ability for an ordinary person to make extraordinary decisions when placed in exceptional circumstances.
Big Brother has already proven how well 15 normal people chosen at random can work together for constructive ends....er- well, perhaps not!
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It is a mistake to say that just because some politicians may behave badly at times, that their is a lack of talent in Australian politics. Many members of parliament at both the federal and state level are hard-working, intelligent people who are trying their utmost to represent their electorates.
Unfortunately, due to the two-party system that exists in Australia only two school of thought are represented. The Labour party is increasingly out of touch due to the disproportionate influence of union officials representing an increasingly limited numbers of workers. The liberals, likewise, seem tied to traditional notions of realist politics that is incapable of dealing with many issues facing the modern world.
I do not believe that their is a shortage of talented people willing to take political office in Australia, but the means through which access to parliament limits the kind of person who is able to access government.
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Not all politicians have have let themselves and the countries down;- it just sometimes sees that way given media reports. Australian politicians have a fine track record in idiocy witness Morris Iemma's cabinet ups and downs in NSW, Gough Whitlam's in the 1970's and Brian Burke in WA.
At least whilst we have these examples of , its unlikely we'll ever get one as a head of state
As for talent; it's there but rarely covered because it doesn't make news. As with celebrities, we seem to only like the errors.
How much of it is down to politicians not wanting to listen to the people? Given some of the comments about the vote in Ireland last week, I think when they get elected they become deaf until the next election is called!
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Australia lacks talented politicians and the politicians we have are spread too thinly. This is a country of 20 million people that has two [upper and lower] houses of parliament, eight state and territory governments and scores of local governments. Even Canberra, a town not much bigger than Wolverhampton has its own state government, complete with ministers.
Australia also lacks political talent because nobody with a smidgeon of human decency or honour would survive for five minutes in either the Labor or Liberal parties. These are both seriously flawed organisations that are riven by corruption, jobs-for-the-boys factionalsim (Labor) and ideological extremism/bigotry (Liberal).
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Kevin Rudd, the PM was in London recently and I was lucky enough to get a ticket to his speech at the LSE.
I was well impressed by his straight forward, shooting from the hip style, and what came across as thoroughly well considered answers to tricky issues, even when the answers were unpopular, he explained himself well.
I was certainly struck by the contrast between him, and the British PM Gordon Brown, who is increasingly bemused and confused by events, and cannot make his mind up on anything of substance.
I reckon Australia has done really well to choose Rudd.
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Over the years we have had a number of great politicians e.g. Curtin, Chifley and Hawke. Menzies had intelligence but was too pro British for descendants of people who escaped from there. How can you escape having a politician as a President, if not, name a republic that does not have a politician as head of state? The argument is nonsense and irrelevant. After 25 years of handing out how to vote cards in Australian states I can tell a conservative voter from 50 metres and also an informal voter as they are always so angry. Fortunately, we have a compulsory voting system in Australia or perhaps the politicians would outnumber the voters.
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Anikamelbourne complains about the over representation of union officials thoughts in the Labor party. Why is this so, because we seek to represent the majority of Australians who suffer under conservative administrations both federal and state? I am a member of the Labor party because I recognise that it is the party that seeks to bring about reform which is non-existent in the conservative parties. I am proud to be a life member of a union because I stood up for my fellow workers when they were under threat from unreasonable management practices. I also saw what the conservative governments did to my hard working father in the middle of the last century in Australia.
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Having recently arrived in Australia I've been struck by the seeming lack of integrity apparent in politicians. A lot of the time it makes me think of an old fashioned union rough-house. This is possibly why Kevin Rudd is so popular as he has a persona of considered thought and politeness.
The whole scene would benefit from a general raising of standards of behaviour, this would help recover the loss of respect from among the public.
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I would really like to think that Australia does not lack talented politicians. Ms Neil and Mr Buswell are terrible examples, in every country there are poor examples of politicians and their existence does not cancel out the presence of talented and valuable ones. I think it would be unfair to suggest that we are creeping close to a one man or one party state, one might have been able to make that case last year when Mr Howard had been in charge for so long but our recent change in government proves the opposite. Also, while I think Mr Turnbull would be an excellent leader for the liberals, Mr Nelson has kept up a very strong fight, at each turn he seems to be countering the moves of the Rudd Government and is presenting a much more appealing alternative government than I would have imagined. Let's also remember it is less than a year since our last election so there is some rebuilding to be expected.
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timeozexpat claims that Paul Keating was Australia's greatest Prime Minister.
Such a claim cannot go unanswered.
Keating was the one who said that if one didn't live in Sydney, one was "camping out", and that the best way to see Darwin "was from 35,000 feet on your way to Europe". Keating was the one leading us toward a Banana republic, and who sold out East Timor to the Indonesians. He shafted his own predecessor and won only one election on his own. Keating's self regard and contempt for other Australians in fact makes him one of our worst Prime Ministers.
Such a figure may well serve as a first President simply out of spite for the rest of the population and this is hardly the type of president Australia would want.
Since the republic debate all seems to be about spite, needling the Brits and "what do others think of us", it all seems rather juvenile. Best leave things as they are.
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Nick,
Just wanted to say it is great to see someone at the BBC who really understands blogging, and actually responds to posts.
I really enjoy keeping up with the events down under via your musings.
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The press around the world are pretty gaffe-happy of late. maybe this appetite was built up on the bumper harvests reaped from a particularly gaffe-fertile US president. it's generally quite amusing, even if it takes column space from the discussion of actual politics.
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@ 14
I have to agree with you comments totally..
Thanks Nick and the BBC, for giving us the opportunity of this service.
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Well atleast we do not have G.W Bush has our leader............. I mean he can not even speak proeprly..........LITERALLY
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15 Gold medals.
BBQ that!
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