The following is a quote about one of our political leaders:
“”The worst legacy of this man and of this government . . . . will be the extent to which it has divided the Australian community; the extent to which it has put one Australian against another; the extent to which it has presided over the widening of the gap between the rich and the poor; and the extent to which it has sought to play pressure group politics to the detriment of the interests of the mainstream Australian community. This man will wear the mark of dividing Australian society; of being a leader who has wounded and wrecked rather than healed and united; and of being a leader who has seen partisan political advantage in setting one group against another.”
The following is another quotes about the same leader: “”The other reason . . . that I believe the Prime Minister deserves to be censured by this House is his failure to uphold appropriate ministerial standards – his absolute failure to sack . . . . ”.
No they were not said about John Howard. Rather they were spoken by Howard in reference to Paul Keating in 1995.
Keating deserved the pasting. Howard rightly lambasted him for wedge politics; failure to uphold ministerial standards; his appointments of mates (especially union mates) to key jobs; his fiscal irresponsibility in running the Budget to deficit; and his high government spending.
So, at the end of 2001 and at the beginning of his third term, how does Howard rate on his own criteria?
The list of appointments of Howard mates and colleagues to plum jobs is a long one – many no doubt are well qualified for the jobs, but it is a very long list that compels the question are they all completely merit-based appointments:
Michael Baume (ex Liberal Senator and Howard personal friend) as consul in New York; Pru Goward (joint Howard biographer and personal friend) to head the Office of Status of Woman and later as federal spokesperson for the Olympics and again later as Sex Discrimination Commissioner; her husband and also a friend and biographer of Howard, David Barnett, to the board of the National Museum; former Liberal MP and friend John Spender as Ambassador to Washington; his wife Carla Zampatti to the chair of SBS; colleague Andrew Peacock as Ambassador to Washington (after Spender); former flatmate and Liberal minister Tony Messner to administrator of Norfolk Island; friend and former Liberal MP Bill Taylor as Administrator Indian Ocean Territories (and before him long-time Liberal political staffer Ron Harvey to Christmas Island); friend and pro-Howard broadcaster Alan Jones to the Australian Sports Commission board; former Liberal mayor Sally-Anne Atkinson to the board of the National Capital Authority; friend Donald McDonald to chair of ABC board; ex-Howard staffer Michael L’Estrange as High Commissioner to the UK.
Need I go on? Yes, I do.
Former flatmate and ex-Minister Jim Short to the freshly created job of Australian Special Envoy for Cyprus; former Victorian Liberal state director Michael Kroger to the ABC board; Howard frontbencher Ian McLachlan to the Wool Industry Task Force; former Liberal MP Ray Braithwaite to the Productivity Commission; Liberal treasurer Ron Walker to the Australian Foundation for Culture; long-time Liberal adviser Tony Eggleton to the National Council for the Centenary of Federation; former Howard staffer Bob Mansfield to the Telstra board.. Former ministerial colleague Peter Nixon to the Tasmanian Freight Equalisation Board; former Liberal Speaker Bob Halverson as Ambassador to Dublin; friend and former Liberal MP David Connolly as High Commissioner to South Africa; Howard parliamentary colleague Bruce Lloyd as chair of the Landcare Council. And then there are the mates of mates. Former staffers to Tony Abbott Michael Cook and Ricky Johnston to the Migration Review Tribunal; former peter Costello chief of staff Michael Callaghan to the IMF; former Victorian Health Minister Rob Knowles as Aged Care Complaints Commissioner.
It is a fairly long list and some have been missed.
Remember how Howard attacked Keating’s ministerial standards, particularly over his refusal to sack Carmen Lawrence over the Marks Royal Commission findings that he (Marks) preferred the evidence of others over that of Lawrence, and Keating’s refusal to sack Ros Kelly over the sports rorts affair?
He was right to do so, but having set that standard, did Howard stick to it? I will spare you the details, but the following Howard ministers or parliamentary secretaries resigned over, or were accused over, or paid back money over claims of conflicts of interest or travel claims or expense claims: Jim Short, Brian Gibson, Bob Woods, Geoff Prosser, John Sharp, David Jull, Peter McGauran, Warwick Parer, Warren Entsch, Chris Ellison, Peter Reith and Wilson Tuckey. Even being charitable and saying some quit quickly and others do not have cases proved against them, it is a long list for a Prime Minister who said in the Keating years that he would bring trust and ministerial standards back to government. Then we come to Howard’s attack on Keating for spending money to buy votes and being fiscally profligate. All very justifiable criticisms.
We saw spending before the election on petrol prices, first home-buyers schemes and half a dozen other areas to combat the famous “”mean-and-tricky” memo that looked as if it might cost the Colation Government. What has been the upshot? This week the Department of Finance reported that the Australian Budget is officially in deficit.
The fiscal balance for the year to date October 31 – that is, the first four months of the financial year – was a deficit of $1.173 billion. The figures may turn around before the end of the financial year with a little work.
Howard attacked Keating for allowing the Government take of overall national income to increase.
What do we find? In 1999-00 total government spending in Australia is 40.6 per cent of GDP, up from 38.1 in 1989-90. Most of the increase has been fuelled by the GST which has been passed on to the states to spend. Taking the federal Government alone, actual revenue in 1998-99 was 25.6 per cent of GDP – compared to the last Keating year of revenue at 25.0 per cent of GDP (out of a smaller pie). So the promise of smaller government has come to nought.
So despite the great promises leading up to the 1996 election of more decent and smaller government, they have not been lived up to. The Howard Government like its predecessor is a Government of equally big taxation and spending, equally rife with jobs for its political coterie and equally riddled with ministerial miscreants and suspected miscreants.
As for dividing the Australian community, widening the gap between rich and poor and playing pressure-group politics – the divisions over the republic, reconciliation and refugees are as wide if not wider than anything under Keating; the rich-poor gap is wider according to Natsem and other research and the pressure groups still press government buttons.
When all the humbug is stripped away, we find that these political animals cannot help themselves.
All we have managed to do is to trade the big picture hubris of Keating for the small picture mean-spiritedness of Howard.