The Greens lack the capacity to govern

The two weeks of parliament just concluded demonstrate how practical politics works in Australia, showing that the parties of government are those that exist to govern in the national interest. Australian Greens disability spokesman Jordon Steele-John has made it clear his party is not among them.

The government and Coalition showed political skill and policy nous to move towards agreement on three major issues that needed fixing. The opposition is not especially keen on everything in the government’s moves to end thuggery on building sites by putting the construction and general division of the CFMEU into administration. But it backed the legislation, allowing Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus to act. Government and opposition also are in “good faith” talks on additional payments from self-funded retirees who move into nursing homes – half the industry is running at a loss and it wants a funding base that will survive a change of government. And after long negotiations with premiers and close scrutiny in the Senate, National Disability Insurance Scheme Minister Bill Shorten presented reforms that passed the upper house with Coalition support. Not that the opposition is impressed, pointing to the need for 100 amendments to the original bill.

However, as opposition NDIS spokesman Michael Sukkar said, the Coalition, “as a responsible opposition would not stand in the way of necessary reform”. Very necessary reform. Mr Shorten’s intent is to reduce the rate of annual growth in NDIS spending, now costing $40bn a year, from 15 per cent to 8 per cent. To which Senator Steele-John responded on Radio National: “Budget decisions in a political context are about choices.” He suggested the government could look at “not buying as many nuclear submarines … before they give themselves the ability to cut whether somebody gets a wheelchair or whether somebody gets supports to get out of bed in the morning”. He inadvertently made the case for closer scrutiny of NDIS spending by arguing that deaf people could use bespoke washing machines that connected with their hearing aids so they knew when the wash was done.

That may appeal to the senator’s supporters but it is irrelevant to the task of governing, which is about making choices when there are more good and necessary purposes than there is public money to meet them. And it demonstrates a deplorable disregard for politicians of both major parties interested in governing, not grandstanding. Greens leader Adam Bandt gets that governing is hard and does not want there to be Greens ministers after the election. He wants a minority ministry willing to act on his priorities as the price of power. This is wrong, a lust for power without responsibility, indifferent to the foundation of democracy that politics is about the means to the most moral ends, making the best decisions, however difficult, in the collective interest of all Australians.