The Australian public was audience this week to a political roller-coaster ride. Early in the week, Labor was rejoicing in the victory of Claire Martin in the Northern Territory. She had led Labor to its first win in the territory in the 26 years since self government. Suddenly, however, Labor was on the back foot again after revelations that Opposition Leader Kim Beazley had exaggerated or misrepresented the way his daughter had been treated by a Perth public hospital. He also came under fire for using his family experience to score political points. The Coalition was having a field day. But the day was short lived. On Thursday, Labor had some damaging ammunition of its own with which to attack the Coalition. It revealed that the federal electorate council for the Queensland seat of Groom held by the Minister for Small Business, Ian Macfarlane, had not dealt correctly with its GST liability on a fund-raising dinner at which Treasurer Peter Costello was the guest speaker. At best, it was a misunderstanding of the GST rules. At worst, it was this scam to not pay the GST on the function while claiming a rebate for the GST input on it. Worse still, Mr McFarlane was aware of what had happened yet told Parliament that he was unaware of anything untoward. Mr Costello, too, is in trouble. He told Parliament that as guest speaker he was not responsible for the GST payable on the function. True, but the implication was that he knew nothing about it. Afterwards he issued a statement saying that someone troubled by the way the electorate council was handling the GST had complained to his office and that his office had told Mr McFarlane to ensure that the GST obligations were probably met.
The Beazley and GST incidents add further fuel to the general public disquiet about politicians. It seems they are willing to exaggerate, mislead and deny when ever they wish to make a political gain or avoid a political loss.
The only joy from the public’s point of view is that the politicians involved were exposed and will ultimately be made accountable to the public because of the way the institution of Parliament works. In these times of public cynicism about political processes, that point should not be forgotten. Perhaps the low esteem with which people hold politicians flows from the fact that their actions are so well scrutinised. The actions of people in other more esteemed professions go less noticed.
In the longer term, it is likely voters will be more forgiving of Mr Beazley because his misdemeanour is of a far lesser degree and because of the public has a great deal of empathy with someone dealing with delays in the public hospital system. Moreover, the exaggeration came while talking to the Labor caucus and related afterwards by spokespeople for the caucus,. It was not made to the public directly or the Parliament.
Mr Macfarlane is in a different position. He knew of the GST avoidance because he was party to the council’s executive meetings at which it was argued. He knew something was wrong because the treasurer of the council, Margaret Watts, resigned over it. He knew of the seriousness of the matter because, according it to a memo by Mrs Watts, he told her that if the matter got out “it could bring down the government”. Mr McFarlane should have taken immediate steps to put matters right. He did not. And he misled Parliament when he said he was unaware of anything untoward. Prime Minister John Howard was wrong yesterday in standing by it Mr Macfarlane. He should have demanded his resignation.
Mr Costello should have taken follow up action to ensure that his order about rectifying the GST position had been complied with. This is not a hanging matter, but it does dent Mr Costello’s credibility.