Age of political entitlement is very much alive
This election campaign delivered many disappointments but one of the biggest came when Bill Shorten cleared the way for Julie Bishop to assume an ongoing role if she wanted it, writes Terry Sweetman.
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At the time of writing this column, I had no idea who would win yesterday’s Federal Election.
However, I could confidently predict that, whatever the result, roughly half those who voted would be disappointed — some mildly, some bitterly.
And there was much to be disappointed about, including the cynical phony election campaign that stretched out pretty much since Scott Morrison took over as Prime Minister last August until last week.
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That’s about nine months in which to milk the public purse to bankroll what was undoubtedly one of the longest election campaigns we have ever endured.
If ever there was a case for fixed-term elections, this was it.
The other disappointment was the dishonesty. Let’s be blunt, the lies that were told, the facts that were distorted, the words that were twisted and the insults that were flung in the face of our collective intelligence.
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But another last-minute, almost casually delivered, disappointment was that Opposition Leader Bill Shorten cleared the way for some kind of ongoing role for former foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop if she wanted it.
That was widely interpreted as leaving open the doors to Washington for her when Joe Hockey vacates our embassy.
Shorten declared in a pitch to Western Australian voters that he thought very highly of her and that we could afford to waste talent.
In other circumstances it might have been seen as an act of magnanimity.
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However, to me, it said the Political Patronage Shop was still open for business.
For the purpose of the argument I will accept that Bishop was a good foreign minister. At least she didn’t get us involved in any wars, although I thought she was a bit of a clothes horse with a taste for whistling up government jets like they were Ubers.
She couldn’t be worse than Hockey, or Alexander Downer or George Brandis in London.
However, given that the reputation of our parliamentarians is lower than a political guideline, it seemed to me a good time to signal that the party was over when it came to jobs for has-been cronies.
Consecutive governments of all colours have handed out plums to their pals and their colleagues but the Liberal National Party turned it into an art form over the past five years.
The glittering prizes of Washington, New York and London were handed out to superfluous once-were hot shots (with former Labor leader Kim Beazley as a bit of a template) and boards and statutory authorities were stacked with pals and hacks.
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In the last few months of its tenure, the past government stacked so many boards it was like a bunch of schoolies trashing their hotel room before going home.
What might have been viewed as a smart investment in the political future was, in fact, a declaration of moral bankruptcy that didn’t go unnoticed by the voting public.
Consider one of the relatively minor prizes in the political sideshow, the role as administrator of Norfolk Island.
This century, four of the six administrators (or acting administrators) of the island have been washed up conservative politicians.
The present administrator, Eric Hutchinson, is a one-time member for the Tasmanian seat of Lyons, who was tossed out in the 2016 election.
His consolation prize was to be made adviser to Senate president Stephen Parry, who went down when the citizenship ship struck a rock.
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Hutchinson was plucked from the sea and given a two-year gig as administrator, a job that was extended for two years in February, well into an election year.
Not bad for just three years’ parliamentary service.
For administering this spot in the ocean, his salary is estimated at northward of $200,000 a year with some nice historic digs thrown in.
The population of Norfolk Island at last count was just 2169, which would probably make some shire clerks in flyspeck towns on the Queensland map salivate.
For all I know, Hutchinson might be the finest administrator since Philip Gidley King in 1788 but it’s just a bad look.
It might even be unfair to pluck his name from the roll of well-favoured friends of the parliamentary family but it wouldn’t be hard to find plenty more whose good fortunes would stick in the public craw.
The above mentioned Hockey was once silly enough to declare the age of entitlement was over.
Shorten had a chance to make it so.
Originally published as Age of political entitlement is very much alive
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