Nowadays, the buck stops anywhere but here

AT the end of a debilitating year, it is worth reflecting that if there were one quality we would want our politicians and community leaders to exhibit, it would be responsibility. Just as with our children, a tradesman we hire or work colleagues, we simply want people to be answerable for their actions.

We don't expect our leaders to be infallible, or ingenious, or even to be pure of heart all the time. It is just that whatever they do, for good or for ill, we would like them to accept that they are responsible.

The best reception I have ever witnessed for a political communication came from a video presentation in 1993. The clip used a pop song by Helen Shapiro from the early 1960s that bounced along with the chorus "Not, not, not responsible". The event was the launch of the Liberal Party's South Australian election campaign and the video montage featured headlines and pictures of the various misadventures of the Bannon-Arnold Labor government.

The partisan crowd erupted into raucous laughter as they were shown horror headlines about billion-dollar bank bailouts, and footage of the hapless premier while Shapiro sang cheerily away.

It was a perfect combination of humour and potent politics. Voters don't like politicians making bad decisions but the offence is compounded if it seems the politicians are dodging taking blame and responsibility.

"Not, not, not responsible" could provide the soundtrack for this year - not the most edifying 12 months since federation.

Consider Julia Gillard announcing in February that, despite promising there would be "no carbon tax" under a government she led, her government would in fact introduce a tax on carbon.

Asked that night if she was wrong to make the promise, she said: "The Australian people voted for this parliament, and this parliament gives us an opportunity to price carbon, and we should, it's the right time to do it."

So, according to the Prime Minister, her promise was nullified because voters elected "this parliament". In other words, it could have been Gillard in place of Shapiro; "not, not, not responsible".

But Gillard is not alone employing the Shapiro defence.

Take the horrible tragedy that unfolded off Indonesia last week.

The people-smugglers had been put out of business by the tough measures of the Howard government's Pacific Solution. Labor was warned not to soften them; was warned that the trade would start again, putting lives at risk. But urged on by compassionistas such as Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, campaigning for a "humane" approach, the laws were softened.

After a boat fire off Darwin killed five people, the Christmas Island tragedy last year killed 50, and up to 200 died last week, Hanson-Young was questioned about the wisdom of this so-called humane approach. "I don't think you can blame anyone for these types of tragedies," she said. Apparently no one is responsible.

Immigration Minister Chris Bowen was questioned on the same tragic accident and the wisdom of weakening the laws. "I have discussed this before," he said, "and I'm on the public record as saying there's a range of factors which go into arrival numbers at any one time and there's always push factors, there's always different things happening in the world." And up comes the music. "Not, not, not responsible."

Shadow treasurer Joe Hockey spruiked his election costings last year as "audited" but the firm that examined the costings was fined last month because it failed to declare that its work was clearly not an audit.

Confronted by this embarrassment, Hockey was quoted as saying, "I'm not getting into it, mate" and left it for others to explain. You guessed it, up comes the song.

Of course, this disease of responsibilitus shirkus extends well beyond politics.

In March, Melbourne ABC radio presenter Jon Faine broadcast the first live interview with self-confessed provider of material support for terrorism, David Hicks. Faine posed the crucial question: did Hicks accept any responsibility for his plight? "Well it depends on what you mean," responded Hicks. "I mean again, you'll have to read my book."

After a few months to ponder this, Hicks claimed victim status and aired his excuses on an ABC television documentary. "I was 24 years of age when I was overseas," he pleaded. "An age when I was still young and stupid; I was not the same person that I am today."

It's the Hicks-Shapiro duet: I can't answer for the things I do - not, not, not responsible.

Earlier in the year, former Victorian police commissioner Christine Nixon launched her book. Two years after the trauma of the 2009 bushfires, she maintained people were not "that upset" that she had left the command centre at the height of the disaster to enjoy a pub meal with friends.

Nixon's contrition was not for her actions but for how they were perceived. "People thought that I'd done the wrong thing," she said. Instead of admitting fault and accepting responsibility, Nixon blamed the media and portrayed herself as a martyr. "Look, I don't know what the motivation is, perhaps I'm someone who can stand up for themselves, someone who says what they think."

Once you start shifting responsibility on to the media, the stage becomes very crowded. Greens senator Christine Milne, struggling against the tide of public opinion on the carbon tax, also found someone else to blame. "Look, the Murdoch press has been running a very strong campaign against action on climate change. The bias is extreme in The Australian in particular," she said.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy looks for the same scapegoat. Instead of considering that the stewardship of his portfolio, or the government's management of the nation, might be something less than masterful, he finds fault elsewhere.

"Well, I mean, you should start from the basis The Australian don't bother reporting news any more; they're engaged in regime change." And as we know, Conroy doesn't mind bursting into song. "Not, not, not responsible."

Tony Abbott has been asked many questions about renegade Liberal MP, now independent Speaker, Peter Slipper. The query is why the Liberals kept endorsing such a problematic MP.

"He's not my man," says the Opposition Leader. "He's the Prime Minister's man now ... She's the one who has to defend him."

Someone in Canberra urgently needs to locate a version of the famous sign that US president Harry Truman kept on his Oval Office desk: "The buck stops here".

And so, as we fade up the music, we wonder if next year will be better, and as we ponder, Shapiro skips through the final chorus:

"I can't answer for what I do

Not, not, not responsible."

For a link to Not Responsible, go to Chris Kenny's blog, Gabric/oodly Fabric:

http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/goodlyfabric/