Courier-Mail 04/12/2009
It verges on tyranny when politicians make decisions without the public’s involvement, but both are to blame, writes Col Harrington
I am an ALP member who has previously publicly criticised Premier Anna Bligh but I have no intention of being in the vanguard of a mob clamouring for her head for the sake of it. My particular problem is with her Government’s process of decision making, in which big and unpopular decisions are made and then announced with great fanfare and photo-opportunistic ceremony to demonstrate strength and leadership.
What’s missing here is engagement with Labor Party members and some old-fashioned debate before the announcement. Decisions about Traveston Dam, privatisation, ending the fuel subsidy and the forced amalgamation of councils were presumably made in good faith, and some may or may not pass the test of time. But when governments hide their true intentions because they know the decision will be unpopular, they stray into the territory of the benign dictator and run the risk of believing in their own infallibility.
To be fair to Bligh, the Traveston debacle was not entirely of her own making. The decision was that of former premier Peter Beattie. Bligh was obviously privy to the decision but it was Beattie who drove it and branded it non-negotiable. Beattie was an extremely able premier and a good man and Bligh is similarly a thoroughly decent and intelligent person, which is true of the majority of our politicians and senior public servants.
Australia functions as well as it does only because of our efficient, largely incorruptible system of government (with a few notable exceptions) and a robust media keeping business and government honest. But if the decisions governments have to make on our behalf are tough ones, at least let us have some debate and input beforehand.
The answer is surely to cast the net far and wide and get the views and ideas of as many people as possible by involving them in the planning and decision-making process. This is where Bligh’s failures also become our failures because far too many of us have for too long been happy to leave it all to someone else, and have failed to get involved in our communities, in our political parties, in our school councils and myriad other unpaid but worthy activities that keep communities and nations from total disconnection from the people who comprise them.
Even writing to our politicians and senior public servants and telling them what we think is a lost practice. Beattie and Bligh and many other decision-makers before them have fallen into the trap of taking on too much responsibility by trying to plug the intellectual and philosophical holes left by a lack of wider thinking due to the decreasing number of people taking any interest in anything other than their immediate work and family lives.
Bligh’s Government is neither incompetent nor corrupt, but it is out of touch. How it will manage to reengage with the community is perhaps its greatest challenge. It could take the form of a mass of people joining the ALP and sticking around long enough to make a difference and re-energise the party. It might require politicians spending less time on TV and more time listening to a wider range of views. This could avoid poor policy decisions that most of us would reject before they get off the ground.
But it’s a two-way street. If you think you’ve got a better idea, find the time and the forum to say so.