Steelmanning the Hollowmen

On the day after the West Australian Liberal Party suffered a catastrophic defeat a Federal politician tweeted “Farewell Colin Barnett. You absolutely will not be missed”. It was a puerile remark, which would have displayed an ungraciousness in victory had the tweeter actually won anything. Unfortunately, this kind of behaviour has infested politics of late.

I don’t think the Government Barnett lead was a particularly good Government. Their second term in particular was poor. Despite this, I expect that future generations will acknowledge that the Barnett Government managed some notable achievements. Future generations will be particularly grateful for the redevelopment of Victoria Quay.

Regardless of the effectiveness of the Barnett Government or their eventual legacy, Colin Barnett did not have to enter politics. The man graduated from the University of Western Australia with an honours degree in economics in 1973. He later did his Masters degree in economics. He enjoyed a successful business career prior to his political career. He would have been far better financially rewarded had he never entered politics.

But enter politics he did. I believe he, like most politicians, entered politics to try and achieve good outcomes. Sure, he could have done better. Most people could do better. Most people don’t even try. Barnett had a go. He will be missed, just as anyone willing to try to make their community better will be missed when they are gone.

Quite often, I find myself wondering if our politicians have completely lost the plot. Reading the tweet about Barnett was one of those times. It’s evidence of a politician who has completely lost touch with their reason for being there. That politician is no longer doing good. That politician needs to leave.

When I talk about politicians losing the plot what I really mean is that they have lost sight of what made them want to enter politics in the first place. As I’ve already stated I believe the vast majority of our politicians enter politics to do good. How is tweeting about someone who has just lost an election that they will not be missed helping the community? It’s not. That’s why it’s time to go.

In many respects the key problem is that soon after politician’s enter office they start to forget about the simple job of doing good for the communities that elected them. Instead, they focus on one thing. Winning government. That one goal quickly consumes all others.

Politicians rationalise that once they win government then they can start to achieve the good they were elected to achieve. Of course, it doesn’t quite work out that way. Particularly when they are forced to make promises, which are not helping their communities in order to be elected.

At that point it’s almost inevitable that this once ‘bright face’ of their party loses their gloss. In a depressingly short time, they almost invariably wind up contributing to the mess by further engaging in the types of destructive partisan politics described above. 

Fortunately, we have a fantastic recent example of this. The new leader of the opposition in West Australia Dr Mike Nahan. After the incoming Labor Government announced they were making significant cuts to the Public Service Nahan was critical of those cuts implying they would affect services.

To be fair to Nahan those cuts will affect services. What’s not fair is that Dr Nahan is a noted proponent of ‘small government’. His electorate voted him into office in part because of those views. He is an utter hypocrite for criticising Labor’s initiatives. Labor’s proposed reforms to the Public Service are entirely sensible and long overdue.

Nahan is opposing these cuts so he can criticise the government. He seeks to criticise the Government in the hope that the electorate will lose confidence in the Government. Should the electorate lose confidence in the Government he hopes they will look to the alternative Dr Nahan represents.

So what’s the alternative for our politicians? Well, it’s pretty simple. It revolves around just one principal. You don’t have to win government to achieve for the people who elected you. For that reason, the objective of both parties should not be to win/hold government. It should be to do good regardless of which party has more seats in government.

After you have all finished laughing. Just think about that.

Any member can propose a bill of legislation. If it’s a sensible suggestion then the government needs to think twice before opposing it. In this way, the opposition can still provide options. Opposition needn’t spend their time purely criticising the government.

Conversely, oppositions should not criticise sensible legislation introduced by the government. This is for the very sensible reason that they themselves might need to introduce the very sensible legislation that they initially opposed. If you’re thinking that sounds familiar – it is. Most governments have had to backflip on policy because they took the easy option in opposition.

I’ve stated before on this blog that to have really good government you need good opposition. That’s where politicians have gotten it wrong of late in my view. Oppositions needlessly criticising broadly sensible reforms proposed by the elected government for short-term gain has hurt our societies.

It’s gets even worse when the opposition successfully unseats a government using these tactics. This new government is then hamstrung by the criticisms they made in opposition. Their options are few. The goodwill of their opponents sapped by the new government’s previous unwarranted attacks. It’s all too easy for the new opposition to adopt the previously successful tactics of their opponents.

I’m not sure what has to happen for the priorities of our politicians to change. I wonder though if perhaps the change hasn’t already started. People are fed up with politicians reading from the script. They are fed up with the media taking well-worn scripts and spinning them through well-worn cycles.

This frustration is expressed in this drift towards extreme parties offering extreme solutions. I believe this difficult period is necessary. I’m not sure how far we will have to slide though.

I suspect we’ll slide just far enough that it will remind us that extreme solutions are not the answer. I suspect we’ll have to slide enough that the mainstream politicians of the centre are reminded that obstruction and criticism are not what people expect of their elected officials.