Much of Australian politics is broken at the state level. Pervasive corruption and integrity problems pervade the Victorian and Queensland governments. The Berejiklian government in NSW was characterised by pork-barrelling, cover-ups and serious integrity questions about its premier. Yet all continue to effectively deliver services and provide basic, competent government.
At the federal level it’s a different story. Not merely is the Morrison government the most corrupt in federal history, not only has it been characterised by truly rotten standards of personal conduct and abuse of public office, it has been entirely incompetent at anything requiring even the most straightforward level of complexity.
The fact that it remains competitive in this election is a testimony to the skill of its campaign strategists, using techniques honed for right-wing politicians in the US and the UK and relying heavily on the cooperation of the country’s dominant “media” group, the foreign-owned political party News Corp, Coalition-aligned journalists in media outlets at Nine and Seven, and a cowed and neutered ABC.
Moreover, Scott Morrison’s remarkable and in a way quite admirable ability to rigidly adhere to his talking points no matter what has now been tamely accepted by most of the media, enabling him to deliver his messages with little disruption.
But even if the Coalition wins on Saturday, that won’t change (it will, if anything, reinforce) that the federal Liberal Party operates as a donations-for-policy scam: you pay and support the Liberals, they give you the policy you want. On fossil fuels, on financial regulation, on the gambling industry, on industrial relations, on media regulation — the list goes on.
This is state capture and it operates through a broad variety of mechanisms, and it’s the defining feature of federal politics.
While not as openly corrupt, Labor has its own problems of state capture. The dominant role of the union movement within its policymaking process doesn’t necessarily accord with the national interest significantly more than shareholder interests do with the Liberals. The Gillard government’s abandonment of gambling reform illustrates Labor too is prey to powerful corporations. The Andrews government in Victoria has vividly demonstrated how a single company, Crown, can essentially co-opt a state government, using basic state capture techniques such as donations, revolving-door appointments and media campaigns. The sordid history of the last NSW Labor government speaks for itself.
Labor cannot rely on a foreign billionaire’s political party for support like the Liberals can, but nor will Labor take on News Corp, perhaps the key vector of state capture in Australia after the political donation system. And it is incapable of taking serious action on climate change, despite having worked out what NSW Treasurer Matt Kean long ago realised — that climate action is a major economic opportunity, not a financial cost.
The consequences of permitting the continuation of state capture extend far beyond who forms government next week. They extend to obvious areas of policy hijacking, like climate inaction or wage suppression, but also to the deepening alienation and polarisation that characterises the Australian electorate.
If not yet as bad as the toxic divide in the United States, the persistent sense that government is there not for the public interest but for vested interests will see more and more voters deeply disaffected. And the lunatic fringe of conspiracy theorists will steadily grow — not because their specific conspiracy theory is right, but because there is an nebulous truth to their view of the world: that the fix is in, that the game is rigged, and not in their favour.
State capture can’t be disrupted from within the political status quo. It is a cancer that has become the organism itself, a sci-fi movie creature straight out of The Thing that mimics the major party political system but has replaced it — and push too hard on it and you’ll get devoured by something putrid and monstrous. A business-as-usual outcome tomorrow will perpetuate state capture, with the only difference being the degree of debauching of the public interest.
The only outcome that will disrupt state capture is for non-major party candidates to make it into Parliament and exploit whatever leverage they can to force an aggressive agenda of major reform; not merely climate action and a worthwhile federal ICAC but fundamental reform of political funding (a royal commission into political funding would be a good start), radically greater transparency, removing politicians from grant allocation, comprehensive revolving-door laws, the break-up of major media companies like Seven and Nine, and aggressive action against News Corp, including breaking it up and forcing it to register as an agent of foreign influence.
These will start to address the most egregious vectors of state capture, but powerful interests will respond and seek to distort a reformed system, as well as use the media and News Corp to demonise reform. The ongoing presence of a solid bloc of independents that can leverage their power in both houses is crucial to preventing the rollback of reform.
That, in turn, will require communities to become active again in grassroots politics, but outside the major parties. The Voices Of movement provides a good template for what can be achieved. There needs to be 151 Voices Of movements, reinvigorating an ossified and broken political system nationwide. That needs to start tomorrow.
Another fine piece, BK – even sidestepping, as I might, some of the more hyperbolic assertions (ie about Morrison government’s corruption in historical terms, etc.). In a way the current government is more of a final, ultimate-culmination ‘systemic busted flush’ than an especially broken individual government itself (though that, too). I’d probably give it a little bit more credit for pandemic and economic stewardship than most here at Crikey.
But it’s less relevant either way, in the higher context of BK’s key points, about the need for genuinely disruptive systemic reform. No argument from me, really…though I’m cautious about whether Independents, even in substantial bloc numbers, can/will deliver what’s needed. Especially those heavily drawn from wealthy/privileged ranks. But…uncertainty about alternate democratic futures is no excuse for clinging to the dysfunctional certainties of today and yesterday. So perhaps the most constructive message from us sceptics to the Teals is: OK, good luck and godspeed, and if t’were done at all… better t’were done well. So…I guess that means 12 elected Teals, not two, if any at all…
Finally, congratulation again to Crikey for your coverage. Genuinely unique, independent, comprehensive and highly professional reportage and analysis. I think…well worth a Walkley nomination, if there is an appropriate category. Thanks again, and good luck to all candidates tomorrow. And to us voters. We will, as always, elect exactly the democratic government we want and deserve.
One media reform that would make sense: ban foreign ownership of stakes greater than, say, 15% in any media outlet or company. No grandparenting. Give existing foreign owners six months to divest.
The Liberals have no compunction about tilting the media playing field to suit themselves – see the appalling merger of Nine and Fairfax, the worst media policy move of many years, and the scandalous gifts to News Corp. If the ALP wins government it is time they showed the courage to take on the right-wing propaganda machines once and for all.
“Much of Australian politics is broken at the state level. Pervasive corruption and integrity problems pervade the Victorian and Queensland governments. The Berejiklian government in NSW was characterised by pork-barrelling, cover-ups and serious integrity questions about its premier.”
BK are you suggesting that NSW governments (past and present) are/were not ‘rotten to the core? And why mention Crown without mentioning Star Casino?. FYI Star is currently subject to an extraordinary inquiry into its corrupt behaviour and money laundering and many executives have hit the ‘exits’.
After lauding the Shredderjiklian NSW government for so long, as some sort of aspirational paradigm, to then watch it sink without trace below the surface of the slurry of it’s own excremental making – maybe it’s a way of mitigating those NSW’s “troubles”? Folding that “pervasive corruption and integrity problems pervade the Victorian and Queensland” into the cookie dough mixture?
Politics in Australia is, for the most part, not about relative need, equity, truth, respect or, from a broader, value-for-money perspective, widely beneficial societal returns. It has degenerated into an egotistical, narcissistical, self evaluative process indulged in by many delusional participants, including members of electorates – there are two parties to the current political market place, those presenting as sellers of influence and those willing to be buyers of influence. In the final result no one wins, we all lose respect in the Australian community at large.
Even when the truth would suffice Morrison has to lie – it is his go to response on everything. He has a politically fateful personality flaw – a lie is ALWAYS better than the truth. This is a black and white issue – dissembling or half-truths are still untruths or more precisely lies – if not, our current Prime Minister doesn’t understand or is criminally oblivious to the difference. Some might call it “embroidering” but it is intentionally introduced to the public discourse with a party political advantage in mind.
I think Morrison and his fellow Trump inspired acolytes believe we live in a Post Truth world.This may be one of the greatest ironies of modern politics as it was largely left wing academics who initially pushed the idea of Post Modern Theory that nothing was for reals. It just depended on how you looked at it. Including the idea, taken up with gusto by right wing governments, that we don’t need liberal arts departments for a properly functioning democracy.
Morrison doesn’t understand truth. It is a concept that is alien to him. All that matters is the message. Is it what people want to hear? Will it help him stay on power? If the answer to those questions is yes, then he believes it is true.
Remember Joe Hockey called him Pac-man, political opportunist 27/7 with a dash of weird religion thrown into the mix.
A win by the Morrison LNP neither an end or new beginning . . . for he remains unaccountable, completely lacks acceptance of transparency and denies existence of Climate Threat.
Climate is the sole reality, or if you will, opposition, to world liveability. Lying will not suffice.
Ignoring the twin cancers and hoping they’ll cure themselves will kill both. The problem with the one that is cognisant, is that it believes it will get away with it’s lies. The other will just run it’s course whatever.