Covid tests democratic system

Every aspect of our society and its institutions has been under intense stress this year. Damaging bushfires were followed by a highly contagious virus that has ravaged our home lives and economy. The resilience of every Australian has been sorely tested. COVID-19 has killed many, though the nation has been spared the worst of its lethal potential. While mistakes have been made at every level of government, our leaders can draw quiet satisfaction from the fact the crisis could have been far worse. Our hospitals have not been overwhelmed. We have been spared the improvised morgues and mass burials.

However, this should not fuel complacency about the health of our democratic institutions. While Victoria stands out for the incompetence and opacity of its response, the pandemic has highlighted serious weakness in our institutions of government at federal and state levels. Some of these undesirable trends have been evident for years. The politicisation of our public services has been a source of concern for some time. Few outside the political and media elite comprehend the full extent of this phenomenon. Long gone is the era of the omnipotent mandarin whose permanent tenure ensured that they provided fearless and frank advice to their ministers. Of course, no system is perfect and sometimes entrenched bureaucrats believed the mandate of their political masters was merely an aberration of transient inconvenience to be quietly defied until a more amenable government was elected.

Writing on Tuesday, Gary Banks identified a crisis in our bureaucracy. The proliferation of political appointees undoubtedly has led to some compromise of merit in senior bureaucrats’ appointments. Compensating somewhat for that, Professor Banks argued, political appointees may enjoy higher levels of trust from their political masters. But COVID has exposed more than a crisis in bureaucracy. It has exposed a crisis in our democratic institutions. Regardless of the political complexion of any government, we wish them success in managing the health and economic crises. The former has responded to tough measures. The worst effects of the latter — low growth, high unemployment and crippling debt — may endure for years.

During the pandemic we have seen the text and the spirit of our Constitution ignored and many of our cherished liberties undermined, if not trampled on. Parliaments have barely sat. When they have, it has been on a reduced basis. This has led to the steady expansion of executive diktat, too often enforced by heavy-handed policing. The images of the arrest of a pregnant Victorian woman for allegedly inciting protests online were grotesque and unimaginable in Australia a year ago.

Professor Banks referred to our hybrid “Washminster” form of government, a description that has merit. But the framers of our Constitution consciously eschewed a formal US-style bill of rights. They reposed their faith in the supremacy of the elected parliament. Ministers of the crown were obliged to sit in the popularly elected legislature. Bureaucrats merely advised and implemented policy. We have strayed far from this model. We have done so at our peril. The fact three Victorian bureaucrats seem likely to bear the consequences for the failures of the state’s quarantine is a perversion of our system of responsible government. Governments are elected; between elections the executive answers to the representatives of the people through question time and the committee system. These are not esoteric notions championed by lawyers. They are the lifeblood of our system of government.

The tree of liberty is fragile. We must be vigilant to prevent the usurpation of democratic norms by faceless, unelected experts. Our parliaments are the ultimate essential service in times of peril. It is time for our elected leaders to take back the reins and accept responsibility for their actions. That is what responsible government means.