In blood sport, honesty is bad policy

IS honesty the best policy? Not really. If we’re honest about everything we feel or think or believe in, and articulate our doubts and weaknesses, our honesty inevitably will be used against us by lovers, competitors or political opponents. That’s life.

Is democracy the best form of government? Not likely. We just can’t think of anything better. Democracy relies on opposing political parties slagging the hell out of each other. It relies on competition policy to keep us honest, and an acknowledgment that, left to our own devices, we’re not capable of doing the right thing.

Do the Australian public and media demand honesty from our political leaders? Yes.

Do the Australian public and media reward honesty from our political leaders? No.

What are the political parties in Australia? There are the Libs, Nats, ALP, Greens, independents, and the media. The media stopped merely reporting years ago. It’s definitely a player in the game, a de facto political party.

Who is Kevin 07? Not relevant. It was a PR campaign that worked well. Keep the T-shirt.

Who is Kevin 10? That’s the issue. The public doesn’t know. He has to explain, and not by T-shirt.

What does the Australian public want? The impossible, an honest politician.

But truth is not rewarded in public life. This is a dilemma!

Are we, the mob, the punters, the voters, honest in our everyday life? Do we tell our partners who we’re thinking about while we’re having sex? Do we expose our weaknesses to our competitors? Do we tell our children the realities of life or do we spin the truth?

Did the media help Kevin Rudd become Prime Minister? Absolutely; the Labor factional door was largely closed to him. Does the media love building people up and love tearing them down? Absolutely, it’s a modern blood sport.

Should you vote for Rudd at the next election? Don’t ask me. I voted for Campbell Newman at his second election as lord mayor of Brisbane. Why? I understood him. Campbell wanted to dig tunnels. At the end of his first term he wasn’t finished digging his tunnels so I voted for him to have a second term to finish the job.

What job or jobs is Rudd halfway through? Not sure. He has to let us inside his head. This is a scary thought.

He has to explain the journey his government has mapped out for Australia for the remainder of the decade.

Is Tony Abbott an OK bloke? Yep. As prime minister would he make Australia a better place? Don’t know. He has to let us inside his head. And this is an equally scary thought.

What do most Australians think of parliamentary question time? Pathetic. It’s everything we teach our kids in school not to do.

Is negative politics – character assassination – an effective political tool? Yes.

Does it make the world a better place? No.

Has Rudd made the world a better place? It’s hard to see clearly through the smoky haze of self-lit spot fires of distraction.

Is the first term of any government the hardest? Yep. Like riding a horse after many years out of the saddle, you have to find your rhythm.

John Howard lost several ministers in his first term.

Kim Beazley won the vote but not enough seats in the 1998 election, yet the Howard and Peter Costello government went on to be an overall good government for Australia, until it ran out of puff.

My most fervent wish? For one of the more righteous political or economic journalists to go into politics and see what it’s like from the inside, and experience cannibalism from their own kind.

Can you trust a politician? No. Self-interest rules.

Can you trust a politician who is your brother? Yes, as a brother; no as a politician. We, the public, have made them that way.

Is Australia a lucky country? Yes; anyone who has travelled will tell you that.

Has the proposed resource tax made Australia the highest sovereign risk country in the world? Yes, and tomorrow the world will probably end.

Do mining companies want to pay more tax? No.

Do I want to pay more tax? No. Government is always the enemy, except when we need it.

Where does the truth lie? In the middle, as always, and we’ll get there eventually, and the world will go on.

Is there a perfect political leader? No, without doubt.

Peter Beattie was a mile wide and an inch deep but he had the common touch. Wayne Goss was a mile deep without the common touch. Blend the best of Peter and Wayne and you’d have a good political leader.

Bob Hawke had the common touch and was a great prime minister. Paul Keating was one of the best brains in Australia but he thrived on putting the knife into lesser mortals.

Combine the two and you would have had a fantastic leader.

The best of Howard and the best of Costello would be a sum greater than its two parts.

Combine Rudd with . . . whom? Wayne Swan, Julia Gillard, Greg Combet, Joe Hockey? Don’t know, but like all leaders before him our Prime Minister does not have the 100 per cent personality package.

So what do we do?

► Shoot the horse! There is a little lameness and a bullet is cheap.

► Take him to the vet, cure the lameness and saddle him up for a second campaign, but change trainers.

► Get the Seven Network’s Sunrise to run a personality contest to identify who we should breed him with to become the perfect prime minister.

► Spell him, and try that frisky young colt who’s always got his ears pinned back and is rearing to tackle any distance at any time.

After six years as a chief-of-staff to a Queensland MP in the Hawke and Keating governments, I came away with one inescapable view. It’s surprising how well the country runs, knowing how dysfunctional the decision-making process is behind the scenes.

Government is not easy, it never has been, it never will be.

During the bitter Hawke-Keating leadership contest I was pulled aside by one of the senior members of the Canberra press gallery, who said: “Mate, save your energy. We’ve decided we want a regime change. With Hawke we have to chase stories. With Keating the stories will come to us.”

The media creates, the media destroys, and we mere mortals are but puppets on a string.

The media helped create Rudd and the media feels he hasn’t appreciated that fact. It’s probably right. It has fallen out of love with him. The media is the parallel political party in Australia. You spurn it at your peril.

Hell hath no fury like an editor scorned. That’s democracy. But it’s also democracy that the mob has the final say.

We’ve heard what didn’t go right with the insulation program and the school program but have we heard what did go right? No. The free press doesn’t do that. I used to teach journalism. “The only good news is bad news” is a journalism 101 mantra.

Should the Rudd government have been moralistic in opposition and said it would ban government advertising? No, very naive.

The free press will never convey the government’s full message, no matter what side of politics is in power.

So what now? We have an election campaign. We get to see inside the heads of Rudd and Abbott and find out what makes them tick. What are they going to do for our great country? Rudd won’t win. Abbott won’t win. Australia has to win.

Greg Rudd is the managing director of investment company GPR Asia and brother of the Prime Minister. This full article is reprinted with his permission.