CORRUPTION INCREASINGLY ENDEMIC IN POLITICS AT ALL LEVELS

OPINION

When ratepayers and residents keep on seeing evidence of things not being as they should or could be and the news keeps on happening and the future looks less and less promising.

When stories like the one below turn up in NSW and along with it the COVID-19 fallout becomes more and more evident, in Launceston, or Tasmania even, we are tempted to think that this is not us, and it is somewhere else , we are as likely as not quite wrong.

When the city gets grant money it shouldn't have, we quietly ask ourselves 'what's going on here', and tend to look away as it appears the city's councillors are doing, perhaps we should feel less complacent. 

Actually, in Launceston we are called upon to trust politicians of all complexions, and the 'political class', but as the evidence rolls in perhaps we shouldn't be. Yes the Premier has been doing a sterling job in the COVID-19 Crisis but maybe he is diverting our attention away from where he is providing, unknowingly for sure, cover for all kinds of stuff.

When  ICAC in NSW is now on the case following the FOUR CORNERS  expose' maybe, just maybe, we need to be more alert and demanding higher standards down at grass roots level. That is where the rubber really, really, hits the road. Its where the cost go straight to those least able to pay and those without a voice generally speaking.

Mark Twain, American as he may have been, is credited with the first known use  of  "Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics" also apparently, and somewhat poignantly he said,  "what a jolly awakening there will be some few years hence, when the inevitable argument of experience will show us a nation contradicting itself through the voices of its chosen representatives! The stupidest politician will sit up, rubbing his eyes. 

After all, facts are facts, and although we may quote one to another with a chuckle the words of the Wise Statesman, "Lies — damned lies — and statistics," still there are some easy figures the simplest must understand, and the astutest cannot wriggle out of. So we may be led to the serious consideration of change by the evolution of materials of conviction which those who run may read, though some who read may wish to run away from them."

It is true, and it has been already admitted, that the scene before us will not be universally understood. However,  it has been suggested that the failure of recognition lies rather in the degeneration of the ability to see than in the misrepresentation of what is there to be seen. So, we really do need to keep our eyes on the ball or pay the price. 

STEVEN SIEWERT 

On Thursday, Perrottet's chief of staff took the fall and resigned, while the seconded icare payees left the Treasurer's office. But what about Perrottet's job? What of ministerial responsibility? ................................. Perrottet’s failure to discover and disclose these pay arrangements – even while he was staunchly defending icare in the NSW Parliament – might seem to be a trivial matter when compared with the existential threats posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. That is not so. Advertisement As Premier Gladys Berejiklian and senior ministers constantly remind us, the people of NSW are living on a knife-edge – teetering between containment of a highly contagious virus and a surge in its transmission that could result in a radical return to lockdown of the kind now endured in Victoria. ................................. Nobody – least of all the Treasurer of the nation’s economic powerhouse – wants that to happen. Yet, for all of the heroic work undertaken by people at the front line, despite the development and application of carefully calibrated policies by government, how events ultimately unfold lies in the hands of each and every person living in NSW. That will end up being one of the most powerful lessons of the pandemic: that every individual action counts, that the aggregate effect can be profound, and that our choices really matter. ................................. RELATED ARTICLE Under pressure: NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet. EXCLUSIVE ICARE INVESTIGATION Perrottet's key lieutenant resigns amid icare salary scandal Add to shortlist Our governments know this to be true. They may appear to hold the reins of power but they can only shape events with the consent and co-operation of the citizens they serve. That is why the dominant message promoted by the Prime Minister and premiers has been to push responsibility back on to we, the people. ................................. So, when a senior minister in a government acts in defiance of well-established conventions and does not acknowledge any personal responsibility for what has happened in his office, it is bound to strike the public as yet another case of hypocrisy from our political leaders. ................................. In response, some people might shrug their shoulders, that it's conduct of a kind we have come to expect. But the times in which we live are not – to any degree – "typical". They require something extraordinary … from everyone and especially our elected leaders. ................................. RELATED ARTICLE Michael Carapiet. 24 March 2015. AFR photo by Peter Braig. Lunch with AFR in Sydney at the MCA. EXCLUSIVE ICARE INVESTIGATION NSW parliamentary inquiry extended to force icare board to appear Add to shortlist How can we expect ordinary people to act with utmost care and responsibility if members of the government do not? How can we hold citizens accountable for their actions – even to the point of policing and fining poor conduct – when those holding the highest public offices appear to be unaccountable? ................................. It might be claimed I am not comparing like with like, that there is a significant difference between recklessly exposing others to the risk of infection and a government minister failing to declare a breach of ministerial regulations. The former exposes people to a virus that kills and maims in ways that we still do not fully understand. The latter undermines the conventions on which representative democracy rest. ................................. I say both acts are linked. Both can have terrible consequences – especially if the erosion of trust in our political leaders causes even one infected person to break bounds and create a new cluster of community transmission. ................................. The problem is that I do not think our politicians recognise the validity of the link I have proposed between their professional conduct and the community’s response to the pandemic. Instead, they have learned to live with the cynicism that they constantly encounter – discounting its importance or accepting it as just "part of the job". ................................. I think we need to move beyond that point – because it is too dangerous to damage trust in government at a time when it has never been more needed. ................................. The shallowness of much of modern life has fed into our politics – an arena within which marketing spin too often takes precedence over substance. Some seek to excuse this tendency by saying our politicians merely reflect the society they represent. It is said that we should demand no more of political leaders than we expect of ourselves. ................................. Really? Is that good enough? Many will be calling for the Treasurer’s head. As noted above, I think he has to accept responsibility for what has occurred in his office and what it has omitted to do. Ministers are ultimately responsible, not their chiefs of staff. What happens next is a matter for the Premier and Treasurer. At the very least we should hope neither pretends that such events do not matter. As for the rest of us, let’s ask our politicians to rise to the occasion – to prove to us (and perhaps to themselves) what they could be. Let’s appeal to the neglected idealist living buried beneath the callouses. Let’s tell them that they are needed, that they have a noble calling. Let’s enrol them in our dream of a better democracy, one that truly serves the interests of its citizens. Let them be our champions. Let them drive out of their ranks anyone who refuses to be and do better. Dr Simon Longstaff is executive director of the Ethics Centre: www.ethics.org.au.