Modern day politicians have lost capacity to prosecute a political case

We laud our bravado as Australians – but we are shy of a real political fight at the moment. In an election year, our leaders need to prosecute a vision for the future, Vikki Campion writes.

There are two things that are deadly for politicians – doing the wrong thing, which means they lose the next election, and doing nothing, which means they become irrelevant and too forgettable to rate a mention in the history books.

I hope we are not on the path of the latter, as the art of prosecuting a political case appears lost.

In proxy of doing nothing is the quicksand of clickbait – the Paris Agreement, the ABC, Australia Day.

It is popular, it’s divisive and, in the grand scheme of things, totally irrelevant.

Liking or disliking the ABC does not help our smashed businesses get back on their feet. It won’t create jobs, it won’t seal the third road across Australia, it won’t bring water security to drought-stricken areas, it won’t open opportunity in Northern Australia, it won’t pay down the greatest debt in our nation’s history, it won’t improve digital access or affordability, and it won’t bring our attitude to nuclear power out of a 1980s time warp.

It won’t decentralise wealth beyond Sydney-Melbourne and into our poorer regions, and won’t bring cancer services further west. It won’t help mums pay their power bills. It won’t bring back the farms, empty of crop and cattle.

Bob Hawke and Paul Keating knew how to prosecute a case

State and federal governments are populated by members of parliament who are “good” locals but their political epitaph beyond opening a few stormwater drains will read “nice bloke – did nothing much”.

Howard and Costello. Hawke and Keating. Names we know because they introduced grand-scale reform even though it was unpopular.

Despite the backlash, Bob Hawke and Paul Keating undertook micro-economic reform, and John Howard and Peter Costello brought in the GST.

The Liberals were told they would lose due to GST but they prosecuted the argument and won.

Labor was told floating the dollar would destroy jobs but they prosecuted the case.

Country Party leader “Black Jack” McEwen opened trade to Japan amid howls of protest from the RSL. It was 1957 and war was not a distant memory.

Now, social media means politicians are attacked on the toilet. They go to Twitter like others go to a ouija board, talking to ghosts on the phone.

Under this environment, would Howard have introduced gun control and privatised Telstra? Would he and Costello have remained steadfast in paying down debt?

Peter Costello and John Howard were also good retail politicians. Picture: AAP Image/Lukas Coch

Would Gough Whitlam have brought in universal health care, now known as Medicare?

We now wouldn’t imagine living without the services the GST funds or universal healthcare – and trade with Japan worked out quite well.

Today professional politicians are hypersensitive to the slightest criticism, and in response compromise good policies for bad or do not do anything at all.

Bill Shorten, in last week launching The Write Stuff, a brilliant collection of essays that examines why federal Labor have won only one election outright since 1993, said he wanted the party he once led to be an opposition that stands for something.

What The Write Stuff shows is the depth of talent Labor has in the movement, just not in critical senior positions.

“Be prepared to challenge orthodoxy that sits outside our party and within it,” Labor frontbencher Ed Husic wrote. It’s a refreshing read – if all we want is status quo then bureaucrats are better at it.

As COVID proved, emergency management is left to the experts and for the politicians it’s a photo op. Bureaucracy runs itself and often the inexperienced or weak minister too.

Politicians of all stripes share a talent for retailing the story.

This is how Howard and Costello, Hawke and Keating connected a nation to reform.

Imagine the Twittersphere if you started building the Snowy Hydro Scheme in the Kosciuszko National Park today. Greenies are melting down over just the addition to it.

Back then, they had political courage and pushed through hell until they got through the other side, and that is why they are remembered.

Tony Abbott came in with an agenda that was cut short by Malcolm Turnbull, as arguably Kevin Rudd’s was by Julia Gillard and then Gillard’s by Rudd, depending whose memoir you believe.

The reason in history we hear more about generals than politicians (Monash, Napoleon, Caesar et cetera) is that generals do what they need to do to win the war. They don’t poll their tactics.

Dealing with a crisis is essential but not visionary.

We laud our bravado as Australians – but we are shy of a fight at the moment. In an election year, we need to see a battle of election plans for the future.