Have you been following “The Kennedys” on ABC1 on Monday nights? Rivetting stuff. Growing up through this period I still had no real understanding of the momentous events that were happening at the time.
The two Kennedy brothers John F. and Robert (Bobby) are portrayed as having an enormously constructive and courageous effect on the US and the world through their stance on civil liberties and their management of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
This was not populist government. Their stance on civil rights for negroes in US educational institutions sparked race riots and to make the change they had to bring in the National Guard. Some rioters died fighting against opening up college campuses to allow negroes to study. But the Kennedy brothers won this right for negroes in the US through the sheer courage of their ethical position. The Kennedy family was a Catholic family driven by values far deeper than economic or populist short-term considerations.
John F. Kennedy had been in battle and carried the wounds with him. It made him very unwilling to commit the US to war unless it was absolutely the last option. As a consequence he is shown standing up against the hawkish generals and handling the Cuban Missile Crisis in a way that was effective but did not result in a nuclear war. There was nothing easy about the decisions he had to take but the ultimate responsibility rested on his shoulders and he brought enormous courage to the task.
Now let’s compare this with the political culture of Australia today.
Ross Garnaut has just released the final part of his contentious 2011 Climate Change Review. He sees a great struggle that is something else besides a battle over carbon and the global climate. In Australia it is also a battle over whether our political system can deliver results for Australia on crucial long-dated policy reform.
Regardless of which party we vote for. Regardless of our views on carbon taxes and climate change. The political culture in Australia must be alarming all of us.
It is getting international traction too.
The Economist this week includes a 16-page report on Australia that is glowing on every point except our political culture.
“That Australia is successfuil is not in doubt. It has a prosperous economy a harmonious and egalitarian society an ability to accommodate immigrants an excellent civil service an independent central bank a good balance of personal freedom and limited government sensible pension arrangements sporting prowess and fine cuisine.”
What more could we want?
For our political culture to rise above a degrading farce. For it to stop tearing the country apart on important matters and instead be a system that works to ensure we get excellent wise policy outcomes on matters of critical importance to Australia and the world.
Julia Gillard is acting courageously over climate change policy whether she is right or wrong on the details. She worked to set it up from the start as a multi-party process. Changes of this magnitude are too big to have one side trying to work out the right thing to do and to implement it while the other side just has to amuse itself doing everything it can to be destructive. All our politicians should be working to make Australia’s policy work for the good of our nation.
Instead we are seeing business and unions pursuing sectional politics that don’t work for Australia. The debate over a mining tax was an amazing example of powerful money moving into the media sphere and shoving the political debate aside. We can’t afford to have our country run by wealthy and often foreign interests. We need our parliament to have the power and teeth to make policy without being pushed around by the mega-rich and the media.
What is debilitating Australia’s political culture today?
Firstly the power of the negative campaign. There are few limits on the recklessness of the negative messages that are being used in our politics. The Australia had an article this week on virulent on-line messages being used to attack people. They are foul obscene extreme abuse. This can also be said of what is being done to our political debate. I for one am absolutely fed up to the eye teeth of negative destructive politics. If politicians are unable to provide reasoned evidence-based arguments and policy alternatives I think they should shut up.
Secondly our political system is being run by the shortest of short-term populist polling and focus groups. What do people who haven’t ploughed through the necessary well-researched technical and scientific reports think in answer to a question on the web that is probably phrased so that only one answer seems obvious? All the courage and effort they have to put in is to click ‘Yes’. This is no way to run our country. This is not a democracy.
Peter Beatty often writes for The Australian. One of the things I notice about his writing is that it is informed by values. He writes intelligently on all sorts of topics but more than anything he brings a values framework to his writing that has some depth.
We need this in our leaders. We need our leaders to be more than a step on the career path of lawyers and political scientists. We need people of considerable capability and experience who are able to get around the complexity and demands of the topics on which they are asked to frame policy.
“I can’t understand a graph about climate change” or “These reports are too technical for me to read” is not good enough.
Julia Gillard is showing courage on the carbon tax policy she is driving through. John Howard was also courageous. I admire courage in our leaders. I don’t admire bullying and destructive negativity.
Let’s all be concerned about Australia’s political culture. Let’s all start demanding that our politicians work for Australia’s interests not their own short-term political futures.