Opinion: Don Chipp warned of the importance of political literacy

Voters’ response to recent events calls to mind the concerns of a late legend of Australian politics, writes Paul Williams.

Don Chipp founded the Australian Democrats.

For anyone aged over 50, the name Don Chipp conjures up vivid political imagery.

A Liberal MP first elected in 1960, the independently minded Chipp resigned from a conservative Fraser government in 1977 to set up the Australian Democrats. His mission was to “keep the (major party) bastards honest”. He was largely successful. Sharing the balance of power in the Senate, the Democrats became Australian politics’ most powerful “third force” for over 25 years.

The often-irascible Chipp – he once exploded at me for being late for a phone interview I had scheduled with him – was a champion of progressive causes. An early supporter of the rights for women, First Nations and same-sex relationships, Chipp also pushed schools to teach politics and civic rights and responsibilities. His emphasis on responsibilities was a particularly good idea.

When Chipp confronted the principal of his own child’s school as to why politics was an elective and not a compulsory course, he was told there was no real interest in it. There’s no real passion for calculus either, but the dull derivative is still a cornerstone of high school life. As someone who’s grappled with both, I can attest there’s more joy in the area under the parliament than in the area under the curve.

Chipp retired in 1986, and died in 2006. After a quarter-century in public life, it’s fair to see the man knew a thing or three about politics.

My thoughts turned to Chipp last month when the High Court struck down sections of the Commonwealth’s Migration Act – particularly its 20-year practice of indefinite detention for refugees.

I thought about him not because of Australians’ very real fears about convicted sex offenders being released alongside innocent asylum-seekers. No, I thought about Chipp when, anecdotally, so many Australians immediately blamed the federal government directly for the release of those offenders.

For too many, it was Albo and not the High Court who made that decision, just as those same voters blame Albo (and not the Reserve Bank) for interest rate rises, and who believe politicians and not the Remuneration Tribunal sets MPs’ salaries.

While the Coalition is right that Labor should have had a back-up plan if and when the High Court made this finding – just as Labor is right that the Coalition did too little during its own 13-year term – the ignorance of so many voters raises a bigger issue: too many Australians don’t know how even the most basic machinery of their own government works. And yet the nation demands they vote.

I already know readers’ reactions. Some will argue the teaching of politics (however defined) is, like morality, best left to parents in the home. If taught in the classroom by “left-wing” schoolteachers, our kids with be indoctrinated with Marxist claptrap.

Let’s leave aside the universe of difference between the teaching of Westminster principles and that of Marxian theory. Let’s also leave aside the fact teachers are no more likely to be left-wing than any other community member. But can’t we agree it’s nonsense to claim (especially tech-savvy high school) students are empty vessels just waiting to be filled with propaganda?

Second, some argue a civics education is unnecessary in an already crowded school curriculum. Really? Senior high school kids are already (or soon will be) taxpayers on the cusp of compulsory voting. Isn’t a lesson on how to properly complete a ballot paper more relevant than yet another lesson in how to pass a basketball?

If the teaching of political institutions – how the parliament, cabinet, public service, political parties, High Court, elections, pressure groups and news media function – had been compulsory in recent decades, more Australian voters today would know the meaning of the separation of powers. They would know cabinets and courts must be kept separate if we are to protect our most basic freedoms.

But if citizens are never taught how the checks and balances of government actually work – how we keep ministers honest when spending our tax dollars – why would we expect any MP to follow the accountability rules?

As US Republican President Dwight Eisenhower said: “Politics ought to be the part-time profession of every citizen who would protect the rights and privileges of free people and who would preserve what is good and fruitful in our national heritage.”

Worryingly, understanding the separation of powers – or any number of Australian political processes – is one of the few elements that separates our fragile democracy from someone else’s tyranny.

Originally published as Opinion: Don Chipp warned of the importance of political literacy