Despite the rebranding of COAG as National Cabinet and an almost-universal exhaustion with hyper-partisanship and the culture wars, the unusual period of cooperative politics and federalism in response to COVID-19 has been short-lived. Its brief moment of glory has been bookended by revelations of subverting the democratic system, first by the Coalition and now by the ALP.
The Federal Coalition’s Sports Rorts and Victorian ALP’s branch-stacking controversies point in the same direction. The temptation to power for power’s sake is as real now as it ever was. It’s on all sides of politics. It’s a barrier to well-functioning representative democracy. It’s a barrier to a successful Australian future in the context of a world in upheaval.
But the answer is not more enquiries, more bonking-ban band-aids, more tweaks to ministerial codes of conduct, or more confidential investigations by heads of the public service. The answer is not just another anti-corruption commission.
The answer is an independent ACCC-style body focussed on anticompetitive, misleading, and deceptive conduct and structures in Australia’s political and election systems – at national, state, and local levels. It would start with a one-year enquiry leading to a prioritised list of reforms. It would then have an ongoing role to investigate and prosecute breaches by individuals and parties and to suggest further structural enhancements.
Two immediate structural problems stand out.
The Sports Rorts debacle shows – if more evidence were needed – how influential a few marginal seats are in elections in Australia. In a system where everyone’s vote is meant to carry equal weight, a few Australians (those in marginal seats) effectively end up with super votes, trumping other Australians. Why else engage in pork-barrelling? This out-sized power of marginal seats is a major flaw in Australia’s representative democracy that needs a solution.
The Victorian branch-stacking scandal shows – if more evidence were needed – how undemocratic, manipulable, and fragile the pre-selection processes are in Australia’s political parties. It is drowning out the voice of the people in one of the most basic parts of democracy – deciding who should contest a seat on behalf of the party. In a system that is crying out for more diversity, it is a barrier to entry for individuals attracted to a career in politics but turned off by the dark arts and dirty work.
Other problems to consider are truth in political statements and advertising, the role of the media and digital platforms in politics and elections, and the effective duopoly in Australian politics that almost guarantees power to either the Coalition or ALP and makes it almost impossible for new entrants to gain even a toehold.
Without reform, the political class will be tempted to win by cheating (pork-barrelling, branch-stacking, and misleading statements) rather than by offering the public compelling visions for the future based on consistently articulated values and a clear-eyed view of the global context.
Australia is faced with enormous immediate challenges. The complex social, environmental, and economic recovery from a battering bushfire season and COVID-19. Navigating our first recession in three decades. Tensions with China.
But after two decades of policy failure and stagnation, the biggest challenge of all is to bring Australia’s future-making system up to date. Addressing anticompetitive, deceptive, and misleading conduct in politics in time for the next wave of elections across the country is an essential place to start.
Ralph Ashton, Executive Director