Jeff Kennett: Buck must stop with leaders

True, good and genuine leaders do not eat their own. Yet our Premier continues to dodge responsibility and shift the blame.

Last week I finished my column with the last verse of a poem that had been sent to me by a reader of my jottings:

The gift of life is loved by all,

Even when we are against the wall.

Community life is what we treasure,

In the land down under to test our measure.

I included the verse then as I do today because I believe so much in every word and sentiment it offers. We Australians can rise above any adversity, as we have done time and time again.

Therefore, it is with great sadness that, having expressed some optimism last week, I reflect on the implications of the findings of the hotel quarantine inquiry.

We the community have not only been failed by our elected politicians but the legal process that was established to establish the truth.

That is not surprising. Right from the outset, it was clear those conducting the inquiry were not focused on establishing who authorised the contracting of a rogue security company from NSW that led to the second wave of coronavirus in Victoria.

Former judge Jennifer Coate, who was elevated to the Family Court by then Labor attorney-general Rob Hulls in 2000, might have been well suited for that task, and the important role she played as a commissioner on the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Jennifer Coate.

She was not so qualified or suited to lead the hotel quarantine inquiry because the inquiry required a forensic pursuit to establish whose action amounted to what was industrial if not criminal negligence that led to more than 800 deaths and profound economic loss for so many Victorians. Nor was she ably assisted by legal counsel assisting her inquiry.

That the inquiry allowed minister after minister to give the excuse they “I do not remember matters of state” within the last six months was totally unacceptable. The same goes for many senior public servants.

That people such as the Premier’s chief of staff, and others in his office who were related to some of the major players in the fiasco were not called, can only be seen as negligence.

That the most controlling leader of any Australian government we have seen in recent history, can so premeditatedly and vindictively throw a loyal minister under the bus, without warning, to shift blame from his own failure to accept responsibility for the team he leads, without being challenged and pursued by the inquiry was breathtakingly inept.

So, we have the report. No one is to blame. The buck does not stop on any minister’s desk and certainly not the team leaders.

So, the loss of over 800 lives apparently matters not, nor the loss of financial security, or businesses, for so many other citizens, and the list goes on.

My great sadness is not so much the findings of the inquiry, for they have been expected by so many in the legal profession and the public.

It is the fact we have witnessed the total corruption of the practice of the Westminster system by the Andrews government. Not just this year but since they were elected.

I won’t list all the issues that contributed to that corruption as they have been well catalogued. This year being the positive very public proof.

That said, I have always had a good relationship with government ministers. Individually they are decent individuals. But collectively they are all culpable of allowing this deterioration in the standards of public service to being one of lies, obfuscation and absolute disregard for the oaths they took on being sworn in as ministers.

Former NSW premier Barry O’Farrell embraced the standard of political leadership required under the Westminster system when he resigned over a bottle of Grange Hermitage when he gave incorrect evidence to an ICAC hearing. No deaths.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Andrew Henshaw

Cricket captain Steve Smith was stood down from playing the game for a year because the ball tampering incident happened on his watch, and coach Darren Lehmann resigned as coach. None actually tampered with the ball but accepted leadership responsibility.

Here in Victoria, Premier Andrews has overseen 800 deaths and therefore should resign.

Any real leader, when challenged about an administration that he had so personally directed, that had such a deadly and devastating impact on his community, would have responded along the lines of, “As the leader of this team, while we have all worked hard to address the challenge, if there have been any failures it is not the fault of any one of my officers, and I as leader accept full responsibility”.

True, good and genuine leaders do not eat their own as Premier Andrews has done.

So, we are where we are. A government that has abrogated every sense and act of respect for the system they are part of and therefore the community it serves.

Be assured the truth will come out one day. There are stories to be told. For some in office today, it will be the death of a thousand lashes. They wake up fearing the next piece of the puzzle being told.

In the end, it is we the public at the ballot box that will decide on the standards we want to live by, and what we expect our public officials to uphold.

The truth is the lower the standards, the harder it is to lift them to something thousands of Australians over many wars have given their lives to uphold — to live in a respectful, democratic country.

We might disagree on policies from time to time, but we should never excuse such a corruption of the political process as we are watching here in Victoria.

I do not make these comments as a partisan ex-politician, but as a citizen with living experience of what it means to have had the honour of being a politician, let alone leading a team in government.

That said, I have great faith in community. I have confidence and unlimited optimism in our future here in Victoria.

When the time comes, we will start the rebuilding of our political system, of which our children can be proud, and set again standards that matter.

Jeff Kennett is a former Premier of Victoria