Caleb Bond: Rarely do we see a minister or government respond to public feedback by heeding it
Would people prefer Stephan Knoll had gone through with his public transport cuts just so they could complain about it, writes Caleb Bond.
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The lambasting of the State Government and Transport Minister Stephan Knoll for simply listening and responding to South Australians has been extraordinary.
Governments get things wrong. A lot.
We’ve come to expect that. We’ve not, however, come to expect admissions they get things wrong. Even less do we expect them to scrap ideas the public oppose.
But that’s what the Government has done with a raft of proposals in response to public outcry – most notably sweeping changes to the public-transport system.
It is a minister’s job to come up with – and attempt to sell – bold ideas. He is not there simply to make sure things operate as they always have.
Anyone could do that.
The public, often rightly, complain about these changes because they will either erode or hurt public services. That’s certainly what people thought of the planned bus cuts.
But rarely do we see a minister or government respond to that feedback by heeding it.
That’s what Mr Knoll did. And, for the trouble of listening to the voting public, people are now calling for his head and banging on about the “backflip” as though it were a bad thing.
Would people prefer that he had gone through with the public-transport cuts just so they could complain about it?
One might cynically suggest that the Labor Opposition would have welcomed the cuts insofar as it would have given them a brilliant platform on which to campaign and possibly swing votes.
They had to oppose it, of course, but the changes could have been a political boon for them.
So, too, the saving of three Service SA outlets.
The wholesale changes were never a done deal. They were put out for public consultation which, as far as I’m aware, is a process where the public is meant to have their say so the Government can take it on board.
There is no doubt the bus idea was harebrained. It was a reform that would make it harder for people to catch a bus, not easier.
You can argue the toss over whether or not it should have ever left the Cabinet and party room – but what matters is whether or not it is implemented.
Public consultation is often a rubber stamp when it returns the result a government wants. And swept under the carpet when it returns a result they don’t.
Labor’s Transforming Health program, for instance, was widely derided and criticised.
Despite strong opposition inside and outside of the medical profession, Labor closed hospitals – including the historic Repat – and opened the new Royal Adelaide Hospital with fewer beds than the old one.
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That’s what happens when governments push on with bad policy despite people clearly telling them it’s no good.
Most recently, we’ve seen it from this Government in the form of their stupid land-tax reforms, which will charge people more for simply owning a few investment properties.
So I can understand why people are surprised – bewildered even – that a government has taken notice of public consultation.
But if ministers and governments are hounded for doing “backflips” in response to unpopular policy, they will simply become more steadfast in their view. Too few politicians admit when they get something wrong. In every single instance, it does them more damage.
When Bronwyn Bishop took a $5000 helicopter ride on the public purse – small bickies in government budget terms – her government’s immediate response was to back her to the hilt.
That dragged on for two weeks and cost her the speakership.
She should have been in front of the cameras as soon as it was uncovered, announcing that she would repay the money in full and that she regretted the decision.
The problem would have been solved in five minutes flat.
I’d much rather a minister who gets things wrong but admits and rectifies it than one who proceeds into the flames of arrogance.