Focus on the real issues

EDITORIAL: THE central tenet of Australian democracy is that it is representative of the people.

Pembroke candidate Doug Chipman. Picture: LUKE BOWDEN

THE central tenet of Australian democracy is that it is representative of the people. And so those who sit on our behalf in council chambers and in our state and federal parliaments should — ideally — come from backgrounds as diverse as the constituents they are charged with representing.

There should be women. There should be men. There’s room for lawyers and former public servants, but every Parliament should also include a good number of people who hail from other backgrounds.

And just like in our communities, there should also be young people, there should be middle-aged people — and there is always room for older people.

Liberal Party state director Sam McQuestin’s cheap shot at long-time Clarence Mayor and current candidate for the Upper House seat of Pembroke Doug Chipman over the weekend was therefore regrettable.

Describing Mr Chipman — as Mr McQuestin did — as a “retired ... 71-year-old ... who literally lives in a lifestyle village” is a shocking example of playing the man and not the ball.

The Mercury agrees with Sue Leitch, of the Council on the Ageing, that Mr McQuestin should apologise and commit to keeping his attacks in future about the policies.

MORE: LIBS UNAPOLOGETIC OVER AGE ATTACK

It’s a timely warning for all of our state’s politicians as we head into what will be another hard-fought election campaign in the new year. The lesson here is that they should by all means make any political point they want, but refrain from the cheap shots.

Mr McQuestin, for example, also accused Mr Chipman as having “outlined no plan for the future”. And he raised a series of legitimate questions about Mr Chipman’s plans to continue as mayor should he be elected to the Upper House. That’s all fair play and they are all genuine political points of relevance to the campaign, and of interest to voters.

Now Mr Chipman has been around politics for a long time and has surely developed a thick skin.

He no doubt can also see the potential political upside of Mr McQuestin’s own goal, and it was surely not a coincidence he turned up to a photo shoot for the Mercury yesterday on his push-bike.

And so there is a much bigger issue here – beyond the offence Mr Chipman says he felt when publicly attacked over his age. That issue is that this entire affair sparked by Mr McQuestin’s ill-advised statement has been an example of the sort of behaviour that turns people off politics.

Our parliaments and councils are also at their most frustrating for ordinary Australians when MPs with little life experience outside of politics spend all their time — on our coin — playing a never-ending game of one-upmanship.

On the other hand, the best politicians tend to be people who have enjoyed a life before politics, and who commit themselves to debating the issues that matter in a spirit of genuine co-operation with their colleagues across the aisle.

The people of Pembroke deserve better than this sideshow, and all candidates should commit themselves to spending this week — and, if they are successful, the next six years — talking about the issues that actually matter to voters: education, access to health care, traffic congestion and cost of living.