Opinion Piece - The West Australian - Unity Emerges from Crisis

One of my two-year-old’s favourite games right now is statues. No music. Just statues. This sees me spending quite a bit of time frozen in silly positions and silent contemplation until Leo yells the magic word “unfreeze”. 

Similarly, our parliament’s normal operations have been temporarily frozen. An unexpected opportunity to pause and reflect on how we can best serve the people who elect us. 

One of the clearest messages is that all politicians need to embrace the lesson of the National Cabinet. Over the last seven years, COAG has been a venue for political argument over difficult reform proposals. Now, in the face of a crisis, National Cabinet is putting the national interest first. Working across party and state lines. Achieving big policy outcomes. It has been a refreshing change after the division that marked the last decade. It is clear that cooperation is the new black.

Australians often tell us they want to see more cooperation. More focus on their interests. Last year’s Australian Election Study showed that a huge 56 per cent of Australians think government is only run for a few big interests. Sadly only 12 per cent said they believe government is run for “all the people”. 

That has changed in 2020. Right now people are seeing governments act clearly in their interests. Demonstrated by the 90 per cent who said in this paper last week they thought Mark McGowan’s Government has done a good job handling COVID-19. This shows it shouldn’t just be the Premiers putting aside a bit of their party tribalism. It should be all parliamentarians. 

Another lesson of the National Cabinet is that experience matters. All but the Tasmanian Premier have been elected in their own right. Here in Western Australia – I have no doubt that one of the reasons we are doing so comparatively well is that Mark McGowan is the most experienced parliamentarian in National Cabinet. 24 years in the Parliament counts when lives are on the line. 

For believers in democratic government it is encouraging that during this crisis we have seen the lag between decision and action practically eliminated. Nothing annoys the community more than a rushed announcement and a very slow implementation.  Just ask the very patient residents of Noranda in my electorate – who only got the NBN in 2019. A whole decade after many other suburbs.  Many of the excuses for incremental implementation of policies is now gone forever. 

The task now is for all members of Parliament, myself included, to reflect on what adopting the lessons of the National Cabinet means for how we work. I am deeply loyal to the Australian Labor Party. But you can’t put your Party’s interests above that of your country. 

Like the National Cabinet, our Parliament needs more cooperation across party lines. Why not have joint policy initiatives with cross party backbench sponsorship? We also need to see parliamentarians who will stand up and speak even louder for what is right for our communities even when it doesn’t fit the Party line. The voices on both sides calling for the Government to save Virgin Australia is proof this is already happening. 

This week Malcolm Turnbull released his colourful version of history. Separate to the entertaining character assessments, it is clear he was overly reliant on staff and advice of others rather than his own judgement. Again, the National Cabinet has shown that politicians on their own thrashing things out can be more effective than doing so with an entourage of staff. 

We also need to learn the lessons of the history we are living right now. Many have brushed up on history’s lessons from the Spanish Flu or and how Australia prospered so well after World War II that we have a whole generation known as “boomers”.  To make sure we learn the lessons of this pandemic I encourage Prime Minister Morrison to avoid the statutory 20 year delay and release the minutes of National Cabinet as soon as this crisis is over. 

Finally, we have also been reminded of the humanity of our politicians. That there are real people behind the policies and decisions being made.  The hard man of the WA Liberals, Mathias Cormann has started posting adorable social media videos of his kids playing in the backyard.  Anne Aly got a pet dog. Deputy Premier Roger Cook used tongs to hand out Easter Eggs to  kids and staff at Perth Children’s Hospital. For me, Jess and two-year-old Leo, in addition to statues we have been playing bear hunt, helicopters and burning though our chalk supplies.   

If we learn the lessons of the National Cabinet when Federal Parliament resumes to normal we will see a bit more love and a little less hate. As Anthony Albanese noted in his first speech, quoting Martin Luther King  `There is no progress in hate . . . like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity.”