The last sitting day before the winter recess was a charged time in Parliament House. The day before, the House of Representatives had passed Rob Oakeshott’s attempt at a compromise bill on asylum seekers by a bare majority, and many MPs had revealed deep personal conflicts during their contributions to the debate. While I was in the building the arguments were being ritually repeated in the Senate, despite the lack of any prospect of success.
At one point during the day, as I was sitting in the small cafe frequented by those who work in the building, a group of five MPs — three independents, one Liberal, one Labor — came down for coffee and an attempt to resurrect a final compromise. Their bid failed, but seeing the five together — politely deferring over who would pay for coffee while juggling with mobile phones and iPads — was a reminder that not all decisions are made by the leadership and passed down the line to unthinking supporters.
Journalists and political scientists pay too little attention to the ways in which backbench MPs and senators can affect party policies and outcomes, and how they have the potential to do more.
In fact, one of the worst aspects of politics at the moment is that the relentless concentration on leaders means that we know remarkably little about backbenchers. A few MPs become recognisable figures, usually for some superficial characteristic: Wyatt Roy for his youth; John Alexander for his tennis career; Craig Thomson because of fraud allegations. But the great bulk of the 150 members of the House of Representatives, along with most of the 76 senators, are generally seen as ground troops to be deployed in the battles between their leaders, and when we see them speaking in our occasional glimpses of Parliament it’s generally to two or three other members in an otherwise empty chamber.
I spent that last day of the autumn session talking to several lower-house Labor backbenchers and watching the activity in the chambers and in the corridors. I sought out a small group of members young enough, and in safe enough seats, to be future leaders of the party, whether or not it retains office next year. I sought out members who would counteract the simple picture that all Labor members are without life experience or careers outside the party and union movement.
For all the emphasis on party machines and the front bench, it is to the newer and younger members of Parliament that we should look for a sense of potential political futures. Ultimately, the direction of any political party depends on its parliamentarians, and we know far too little about their backgrounds, ideas, values and priorities. Yet it is here that party differences become clearest. A few politicians might seem as if they could be at home on either side of the floor, but this is usually because they are out of step with the prevailing mood in their party.
To look down on the House of Representatives from the galleries is to recognise that the two major parties represent different trends in Australian society. Of course there are Liberals with working-class backgrounds and empathy for the dispossessed; I think of Warren Entsch, the Liberal whip, who is a genuinely decent man with great empathy for indigenous and gay Australians but who doesn’t seek to apply that approach to broader social forces. Many Liberals are a bit like Ronald Reagan: decent human beings whose policies can accentuate the divisions and inequalities that they deplore when they encounter the individuals who experience them.
I am not saying that Labor MPs are somehow better human beings, or less driven by political calculus than their opponents, though few of them can match Sophie Mirabella or Eric Abetz for the sheer unattractiveness of their political personae. But even those who are driven by short-term ambition and parochial concerns share a belief that Labor exists to build a better society. That simple message too often gets lost in the daily spin and the scripted messages from the PM’s office.
Politics is tribal, and some of our current politicians, such as the Ferguson brothers, come from long-standing Labor families. Most politicians inherit their political allegiances, even if they become active in ways unavailable to their parents. Many now move in what seem like uninterrupted journeys from university Labor clubs to working for unions or parliamentarians to preselection, never joining a workforce that is not in some way linked to the party.
But this is already to oversimplify: someone like Laura Smyth, who holds the marginal outer-suburban seat of La Trobe in Melbourne, came up through the National Union of Students, but has also worked as a corporate lawyer and in a nursing home. (She will be known to TV news viewers as one of the two women who sit strategically behind the Prime Minister in the House.) Stephen Jones, from the south coast of New South Wales, worked as a youth advocate before being employed by the Community and Public Sector Union.
The three members I spent time with were all well under 50 and from different sections of the party and different backgrounds. (I believe two of the three were Rudd supporters in the last ballot, but our conversations carefully skirted current leadership controversies.) Melissa Parke, who replaced Carmen Lawrence in the seat of Fremantle, and Andrew Leigh, who replaced Bob McMullan in the ACT seat of Fraser, represent areas with a strong Green vote — almost 20% in both cases. Ed Husic, who represents the outer-suburban Sydney seat of Chifley, won an absolute majority on first preferences in 2010, with a Green vote of around 8%. On some issues Leigh and Parke are far closer to the Greens than one might expect.
Labor ought to wake up to the fact that they have become another alternative party of the right & thats why people have lost faith in them. Once they cut the puppet masters strings of big business & start taking some left turns people will once again return to the fold.
However they are still better than the NWO’s choice the Noberals’s, but if you want what Labor used to be in the 70’s your bett off moving to the Greens.
Waiting for one of Dennis Altman’s famous five to put up a private member’s bill advocating the introduction of a death penalty for pervert priests.
You know, just like Jesus said.
And looking down on that opposition front bench from somewhere higher than the Galleries
perhaps?
How would they go in an election run-up conscience vote on a social justice issue somewhat more important than marriage?
Let’s not kid ourselves.
Labor and Libs / Nats run a two party dictatorship in Australia. Their policies are more alike than disalike. Small and minor differences are amplified by the media and constitute a form of political ‘debate’. There is no real alternative – well the Greens, but I sense they may have already peaked. The two party dictaorship will continue in the forseeable future.
>But the great bulk of the 150 members of the House of Representatives, along with most of the 76 senators, are generally seen as ground troops to be deployed in the battles between their leaders, and when we see them speaking in our occasional glimpses of Parliament it’s generally to two or three other members in an otherwise empty chamber.
This.
The recent coverage of Wayne Swan’s interest of music made a fresh insight into our politicians. While I am no big fan of Springsteen and is pretty neutral about his capabilities as Treasurer, I think it’s made my view of him a bit more positive. Now, if only every one of our politicians are portrayed as individuals and how their personalities impact their votes in parliament, rather than just merely numbers which decide on whether a policy passes through or not, that would actually make Australian politics look more positive for me, regardless of whether their views match mine.
As long as working in a union is some form of pre-requisite I don’t think rumours of the death of the Labor party are exaggerated at all. Australian Labor is increasingly dominated by union hacks with little experience in the real world, who are increasingly distant from the workers they claim to represent, in a way that far exceeds their international Labor counterparts. Labor needs to re-engage with its ‘party of the fair go’ heritage, and realise that in the 21st century this may mean looking outside the unions, who have often become more about personal patronage than representation.