These days the media has largely caught up with MB’s disgust at the state of our corrupt politics. More and more I see stories outlining the collapse of accountability.
To begin with, the Westminster system of government never had a lot of accountability embedded in law. Accountability was more the tradition than the rule, a normative, or honour, in which ministers and leaders fell on their sword when the organisations that they led failed the public interest. A culture of civil service, in other words.
It was the media’s role to expose those failures not to enforce them.
For years, bloody-minded governments have whittled away this tradition. At all levels and across both parties, there are these days phalanxes of proven corrupt or inept pollies that soldier on regardless of ruined reputations. There are some who everything that they touch turns to shit and it matters not. Gladys Liu, Stuart Robert, Michaela Cash, Joel Fitzgibbon, and most of the National Party spring immediately to mind.
These days it takes extreme duress to remove a dud pollie. And the media’s role has shifted from being an investigator of failure to being the hectoring harpy of execution.
But the media is now also partisan by masthead in a way that it has never been before so even in this role it fails. Investigative journalism is largely substituted with access journalism. Add the internet of things, and all political parties exist in vertical market silos of positive media commentary with chosen mastheads. So, pollies not only need to take no account of failure, there is always a cheer squad inventing new and wonderful spin to illustrate that it is actually success!
Which brings us to today. It is abundantly clear that Gladys Berejilklian has soiled the office of NSW premier by allowing a conman to steal and sell its authority any which way he liked, may well have aided and abetted corruption directly herself, and at the very least she has obviously disguised it to get laid.
The Westminister system demands that she resign for that. Pure and simple. That she did a decent job on the virus is not relevant, nor is it that she has these partisan media licking her boots. Failure is as failure does. That is Westminster accountability. It only works when you take the value of integrity seriously.
In lieu of that, Gladys has adopted the fallback position that lurks in the heart of every Liberal Party member, swearing off love and appointing herself monarch, Virgin Premier no less, at The Sunday Tele:
“I can formally say to people I’ve given up on love. [said Gladys] I’m just going to say I have always put my job first, rightly or wrongly, and that will now continue indefinitely.”
With her immaculately conceived daughter certain to inherit the throne.
Turning to Victoria, we have a more toxic situation. The Andrews Government failed in its most sacred duty to protect the lives of Victorians. Dan Andrews should long ago have resigned for that, end of story. But he has instead now engaged in a cover-up so elaborate and toxic that it has almost certainly distracted the Government from getting on with the business of rectifying its virus mistakes, as well as torching entirely any notion of government integrity and accountability.
As a result, Victorians find themselves still locked down for no reason beyond Dan Andrews getting lost in a web of his own lies. Perhaps the collapse of his political fantasies has led to a nervous breakdown of some sort and he can no longer distinguish spin and reality. Or, he is the authoritarian maniac that right-wing commentary reckons. Either way, there is no virus. Proven methods of contact-tracing will keep it that way from here. Dan Andrews has waited too long to reopen and should long ago have joined the dole queue himself.
Yet, with the loss of Westminster responsibility, there is no mechanism to remove what has become a deeply destructive leadership. The opposition is a fool. The judicial inquires are virtual show trials. There are legal challenges but they will take years to play out. Again, the media just divides along party lines.
In lieu of taking responsibility, Dan Andrews adopted the fallback position that lurks in the heart of every Labor Party member, swearing off freedom and appointing himself Chairman of the Poliburo, Mini-Xi no less.
There are now two emerging tyrants in South Eastern Australian states, amusingly held by opposing political parties and media cheer squads, both of whom condemn the other for it.
Both leaders should go.
Paul Kelly sums the consequences nicely, for once finding the middle ground of yesteryear:
Our democratic systems are more vulnerable than we appreciate. Correction depends on the operation of the political system through restoration of cabinet and executive norms, parliamentary oversight, judicial action, political party reappraisal and the electoral process. Berejiklian’s fate hangs in the balance but Victoria’s fate is a far deeper and daunting challenge.
As does Peter Hartcher:
The NSW debacle shows that MPs cannot be allowed to run side businesses, and Victoria shows afresh that ministers must be sacked for serious failures under the doctrine of ministerial responsibility. Everyone else in the country is held responsible for their actions. Who gave ministers special immunity?
QED.
