As an eager Young Liberal in the 1980s, I was schooled by a generation of older Australians whose values were forged during World War II.
In a nutshell, I learned my first political duty was to respect and protect the consensus core values in Australian politics.
The idea was that Australia has a strong and robust ‘political centre’, where standards of behaviour and trust were embedded in Westminster traditions.
We learned that everything depended on the survival and health of those traditions.
Genuine ‘ministerial accountability’ in those days saw two Fraser government ministers resign from their portfolios, after a health minister failed to declare to customs he was bringing in a colour TV.
The affair – which would be laughable today – plunged the federal government into crisis.
Forty years ago, allegations of breaking Westminster traditions were rare and serious – the accuser’s credibility was as much on the line as the alleged offender.
Seven hundred years of parliamentary experiences invested in those Westminster traditions are now being trashed.
Why should we care about Westminster democracy at all?
One example is the capacity it creates for bipartisan debates, like the 1967 referendum on Aboriginal citizenship.
That sailed through with consensus support.
Compare that with the Voice referendum last year – the brutal difference is modern Australia has lost its capacity for honesty and a consensus on anything.
For over a century, the integrity and consensus around the virtues of Westminster parliamentary democracy served us well. It was tough on some politicians, but that was a small price the public was happy to pay.
In 2023, however, the extent to which these central values have disappeared was stark.
Some examples include the Robodebt inquiry, where a former minister openly admitted lying to parliament; the Morrison’s multi-ministries inquiry; and the continuing shambolic Lehrmann-Higgins saga.
If telling lies is no longer a risk to your political longevity, it becomes the new norm.
The worst lies of all in politics, as in life, are of course the ‘white’ ones – those with a grain of truth twisted to the point of flipping the facts completely.
The Iraq lie
Our political centred has frayed and weakened over time – but the trend was turbo-charged in 2011 when the ‘three amigos’: Bush/Blair/Howard, declared war on Iraq. They made claims that weapons of mass destruction were being stockpiled. It was a lie.
Aside from the terrible human and political costs of that war, the trust in our democratically elected leaders was trashed, which also broke the political centre.
Politics then began to fragment, and drift apart – extremist ideas took root when nobody felt able to believe political leaders.
In 2023, I see a direct line from such events 12 years ago – the damage inflicted upon our democracy with the inquiries into Robodebt, multi-ministries and abuses in the NDIS. This is also why the Voice referendum was such a mess – everybody was telling little lies. Claims that the Voice would transform First Nations school attendance were almost as disingenuous as claims we would have to pay to go to the beach.
The situation has many wondering just how long has political leadership been lying about profoundly important issues?
The question is well answered in Paul Keating’s 1993 speech interring the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, openly reflecting on hideous leadership that led to millions of deaths.
He notes the ‘war to end all wars’ failed. Instead, it ‘sowed the seeds of a second’. Keating recalls the ‘inexcusable folly’ of that war – the ‘military and political incompetence’ and ‘the waste of human life… so terrible that some said victory was scarcely discernible from defeat’.
It seems valid to ask – did these young ANZACS die in vain? In reply, Keating eulogises, ‘a lesson about ordinary people – and the lesson was that they were not ordinary. On all sides, they are the heroes of the Great War; not the generals and the politicians, but the soldiers and sailors and nurses – those who taught us to endure hardship, to show courage, to be bold as well as resilient, to believe in ourselves, to stick together’.
2023 smacked of evidence that those Australian values eulogised by Keating are under attack, with our political leadership credibility in steep decline.
Thoughtful people need to come together to restore it.
It is no exaggeration to say the entire fate of our democracy depends upon it.
♦ Catherine Cusack is a former NSW Liberal MLC
Some good points Catherine, but when did you resign? 2022? So you remained part of the Party through all the Howard years and the downward trajectory – including the Iraq war, most of the despicable robodebt stuff, the Christine Holgate Grace Tame and “great they’re not facing bullets” stuff. I could keep adding.
The release of the Howard Govt cabinet papers (well some of them) are now demonstrating just who set off the whole coalition climate change inertia despite support for an ETS amongst ministers. But ScoMo playing favourites was the bridge too far?
Thank you Catherine, well written, we ignore those points at our peril
Brilliant article with such insight into how the Westminster system has shaped politics, but is outdated and needs a ‘reboot!’
Yes and as an active participant in all of that you should be ashamed of yourself Catherine. Meanwhile ordinary Aussie’s can’t afford to buy a house anymore. There’s nothing ‘liberal’ about the wealth divide you and your entitled buddies created.
The trouble with principled people resigning from a party is that it can leave a vacuum that gets filled by the worst of the worst. But Howard throwing the truth overboard was a turning point for me. But it is the Colin Powell dilemma.
Sadly the lies began long before Robot debt ministers. I recall being stunned when I heard Tony Abbott on ABC radio admit that Liberals had knowingly lied about raising the Medicare levy before an election. When asked why they did that, he replied that no government could afford to keep things as they were. He and the interviewer, who may have been Quentin Dempster, did not go on to explore why they did not have the courage to be honest about that.
Tony Abbott took Australian politics to a new low in terms of viciousness. I know many people stayed in the Liberal Party to try and counter his influence. A tirade he made about the Rudd governments Home Insulation Program was sickenly dishonest. Before that program there was no regulation at all about training requirements for installers. Many public figures lie by omission, as do some media outlets.
Lieberal party values? Founder of the Lieberal party Robert Menzies quote: “We left as friends, Adolf Hitler is the man of the century, he has turned his nation around”. July 1939.
Hitler had already murdered all opposing politicians, banned trade unions and invaded and or stolen just about anything he wanted.
Hitler started WW2 a few weeks after hitler admirer Menzies visit to the deplorable dictator in Germany.
Joseph Lyons another fascist sycophant UAP PM, prior to Menzies visited the deplorable Mussolini.
This information is available online “Fascism in Australia”.
Menzies was eventually dumped by his own UAP party and replaced by Labor John Curtin, just in time for the attack on Australia from Japan, with the pig iron Bob Menzies supplied them against League of Nations sanctions and Australian union protest.
Just like John Howard supplying wheat to Iraq against UN sanctions. The only reason on this earth people like Lieberal Menzies and Howard, Abbott and Dutton can function is from behind the protection racket of a completely corrupted media. The Westminster system can work and does work, but it’s the media that must be reformed, a reformation much like the Age of Reason and the Enlightenment is needed in this country as well as many others! A Royal commission into Murdoch and other media is the number one priority this nation must have ASAP!
The corrupted media was the only reason the LNP’s own voice Parliament legislation was defeated by the LNP/Media itself.
That and being a Fascists power grab.
Exceptionally well said.
Growing up through the late 60’s and early 70’s and witnessing the horror and lies the Lieberal party and it’s deplorable media protection racket inflicted on our nation through the Vietnam war. I just cannot comprehend how anyone could ever vote for the Lieberal party let alone join it and become a rep for it? Now with the wealth of information available in books and online we can see exactly what the Lieberal party is.
The book and others, “God under Howard, the rise of the religious right in Australian politics”, Marion Maddox 2005, written 18 years ago shows the systematic branch stacking of the party by religious fundamentalists. Today the entire party, its administration and preselection is completely controlled by religious fundamentalists that have served up the Abbott Catholic fundamentalist disaster and then the Morrison evangelical fundamentalist catastrophe. Now we have another policy free Dutton fundamentalist backed zombie like Noalition in opposition, another repeat of Abbott’s faction. Moderates like Cusack, “If anyone could ever be called moderate in this party”, have long left the party in disgust. This political party like all of these far right parties around the world, can only be possible through a corrupted media. Take a look at the extremist religious fundamentalist in the Trump cult, this is what Australia can expect with political party’s and media such as this within the next decade if something is not done for truth and facts in our media!
I really appreciate the engagement and comments on this article as I am raising core democratic values (as opposed to the froth and bubble of issues of the day). Space did not permit me to raise Tony Abbott nor the sins of the left like “Medicare” – but that was a campaign tactic and I am trying to dig deeper into the personal accountability of Parliamentarians who are transitioned into Government leadership roles.
Those Parliamentary (Westminster) safeguards have been eroded. I believe Anthony Albanese gets this and wants to raise the standard (we are the same age and generation in fact he was Young Labor President at same time as I was Young Liberal President). However taking the view all the angels are with the left and all the evil is on the right is actually the whole problem. Integrity lives in all political villages and cities. Those are the people across the political devices who need to come together and put Humpty Dumpty back together again – it’s going to be really hard.
The left have the football and the opportunity to remake Australia’s political centre with moderation, focus and rebuild the credibility and stability of Australian governance. That is a big ask and it cannot be bitter or one sided. It needs to be credible and inclusive. Please do not be distracted by my personal Party affiliation. The opportunity and need for this discussion concerns ALL of us.
Also I do agree with the comments the media has a big role. I am not sure young journalists would be familiar with these traditions but good people with a plan to inform the media can rectify that and help raise the standard. It is definitely a high priority on the list.
Is all this a matter of “don’t worry about what I did, just listen to what I say”?
It’s all very fine and true to point out that there is good and bad on both sides, but the rot in Australian politics started with Howard and the only break we’ve had from it was Turnbull. Turnbull, who actually wanted to do good stuff, had way too much intelligence and principle to last in either of his reigns and was politically assassinated in the last one DESPITE doing all possible to appease the right.
What sort of party keeps electing such people as leaders and is satisfied to keep them there? Sorry, I don’t buy your “they’re all as bad as each other” slant.
“ The left have the football and the opportunity to remake Australia’s political centre with moderation, focus and rebuild the credibility and stability of Australian governance.” Yeah good luck with that when, as you point out, it takes will from all sides. Yep, it’s all up to Albo!
All that suffices is that the armchair critics do nought. By being in the Liberal Party, Catherine added to the numbers diluting the power of the likes of Abbott and Dutton. It takes courage, sacrifice and perseverance to be a rational and principled politician.
It is rare to hear debate in parliament that goes to the issues in a Bill. So many elected members simply engage in vacuous verbal pugilism. I recall hearing a vicious speech by Michaelia Cash. May there be more in the Senate like David Pocock, a quiet achiever.
Most voters support ratbag candidates, who have splashed money to put their face on every fence. Thank goodness some voters have elected some Independents.