It is disappointing to see the recent, regular, and ridiculous commentary happening around Tasmania in the lead up to the announcement of a state election polling day. Most of it being from you and me, the voter, but worse is from politicians willing to short-circuit good democracy for their own gain. They should know better. The general voter is typically so void of understanding of actual good governance or good politics that even an ‘unbiased’ view is laden with political ire. Often against the Greens, sometimes against Labor, and the Liberals,well, if they knew good tactics would sit back with a glass of Jansz and some double brie.
There are so many interesting and challenging things happening to Tasmania at the moment. I would like to address some of the common traps the average commentator falls into, as well as highlighting short-sighted and surprisingly naïve traps current Labor MPs are falling into. After nearly 16 collective years in government, I was hoping for some understanding of good governance by now. It’s disappointing more than it is sad, especially despite the best efforts of Premier Lara Giddings.
Back to us. Far too often I hear our politicians are a waste of space, never had a real job, have no understanding of politics, and only out for themselves to line their own pockets. None of those issues are true for most politicians in Parliament. The claims of no idea or some overinflated sense of greed are just downright ridiculous. The pay is nowhere near worth what you would wind up with in the public sector! When it comes to “real” jobs, Brian Wightman was a school teacher, Jacquie Petrusma was a nurse and Cassy O’Connor was a journalist. So what are our politicians doing that irk us so much?
For most of the rabble you see in social media, radio or print, the irking is usually because Labor made a grubby deal with the Greens. So let’s unpack that for a second. Politicians and Parliament don’t determine government. We do. You, me, and anyone else who votes. To get the results in and see no-one has a majority government is supposed to be an indicator. We saw this unfold at the 2010 State Election and it is a real possibility we will see this at the 2014 State Election. During 2010 the actions of former Premier David Bartlett to form government with the Greens was a smart step for good democracy. Premier Giddings had a pivotal role to play early on in this as her ascendance to the Leader of the Labor Party could easily have dislodged this accord. I can almost hear you saying Great! But it’s not great. When a politician decides to throw democracy back in our faces and essentially say, “idiots, you got it wrong…” you have to ask yourself, are these the right people?
The tentativeness of Premier Giddings to sack two cabinet members, realised last Thursday, had me on edge. Not for the sake of any actual politician, maybe a little for their staff, but mainly for the damage this sort of action actually has for good democracy. I have to take my hat off to the Premier; to remain strong, at least externally, on her commitment to full-term government under massive internal pressure by Labor politicians, the Premier has shown an amazing resilience and integrity in ensuring Tasmanian voters get all they are entitled to with good democracy. After all, you wouldn’t pay $13.50 at the cinema to watch The Hobbit and leave 35 minutes before it finished so you could beat the traffic. To cave now to the pressure of doltish backbenchers or aspiring leaders is a short circuit of good democracy, good governance and good politics for egregious abuses of power for political self-gain and it is a slap in the face to us all.
This of course leads to the sad state of affairs of a growing number of inexperienced politicians calling for hard and fast rules never to form minority government, assumingly in general and not just with the Greens in the future. So now instead of throwing the public will back into our faces because we obviously voted wrongly, they would like to make sure we don’t stuff it up in the first place and vote properly… Not likely. Their faux perception is they have the power, when it’s clear – we have the power. I won’t be told how to vote and neither should you. The Tasmanian Liberal Party have made similar broad-based arrogant statements on forming government without sharing, despite what we as voters choose. So why do they do it? Because we’re idiots and we encourage them.
They react to us. Everything comes back to us. Ok, so the media play a large part with all the sensationalism and “grubby is good”, but really, let’s not blame them. They are a medium that really just reflects the relationship between us and our government. If they write sensationalism, and we consume it…guess what, they’ll come back with: more sensationalism. That’s why good government outcomes usually fall to the wayside as boring and not newsworthy because we can’t be bothered consuming that, but give us a forest peace deal that threatens to destroy our economy, or marriage equality that will destroy humanity, or a good old fashion lynching of some Ministers for the masses and we’ll soak it up till the cows come home.
So if the media reacts to what we buy, and the government reacts to what the media will print, maybe we need to make some changes if we want to see good politicians, good government and progressive outcomes. I’m not saying don’t consume the media, but use your voice for more interesting and beneficial things. Instead of comments like “Save a job, shoot a Green”, or “Giddings is a lap dog to McKim” just make us, the voter, look like a fool that fuels the entire circular argument as to why they treat us like fools in the first place.
It really is quite beneficial, to you, me and democracy, to understand a little about the way our institute of government works. You will often find the more you read about good government, good democracy and good politics, the easier you will find it to pick through the hoodwinking you often see today in the baseless one-liners. You don’t need to be told people kill and be killed for the chance to vote and have a voice, yet with one of the most powerful democratic voices in the world, Australians would rather regurgitate embarrassingly stupid slogans. A little bit of understanding goes a long, long way and then your voice will truly become powerful in pushing for change.
*Chen Weilian is not the writer’s real name. The writer is known to the Editor.
