Public appeal
‘HONESTY’ and ‘integrity’. Two words you don’t hear very often in election campaigning in Australia these days, unless it is one politician accusing an opponent of lacking those virtues.
We are in the midst of a state election in Victoria at the moment, and the next federal election must be held by May.
Here we are, 117 years after the birth of our national democracy, with its federal and state parliaments and the idealism and hope for the future of Australia outlined in our Constitution, and people seem to be swimming in a sea of political cynicism and mistrust.
Who would want to be a politician?
Plenty of people, it seems, as the party faithful line up for preselection. But is it for the right reasons? I believe there are some among our politicians, even within the major parties, whose reason for entering politics is to make a positive difference, to serve the people, to try to change the nation, the world, for the better.
But a recent survey published by the ABC showed 61 per cent of voters polled thought the standards of honesty and integrity among politicians was low and only 11 per cent thought they were high. I reckon that’s scary. Go back only 2½ years and the State Government sacked the then City of Greater Geelong council, led by then-mayor Darryn Lyons — a former Liberal Party member, standing in this state election as an independent — for alleged bullying and dysfunction.
No one can sack a state government for being dysfunctional and dishonest, but voters have the opportunity to give their verdict on Saturday, November 24.
Will the Liberal-National coalition be any different?
It remains to be seen and people will remember the widespread disappointment with the Baillieu government, which seemed unprepared for power after 11 years of Labor rule and faced its own problems.
Internal divisions saw the replacement of Ted Baillieu by Denis Napthine, who was defeated in 2014 — the first Victorian government to lose a first-term election since the Labor government in 1955.
But crikey, we’ve had the Labor Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the Legislative Assembly resign over expenses scandals, then alleged deals involving the United Firefighters’ Union to the detriment of the CFA.
More recently, the ongoing ‘red shirts rorts’ involving the State Government have made headlines for months and cost taxpayers some $1.3 million.
Returning to where we started — ‘honesty’ and ‘integrity’.
Just as scary as the survey results published by the ABC are those of a 2017 Roy Morgan survey that show only 20 per cent of Australians believe newspaper journalists have high honesty or ethical standards.
And only 17 per cent believe TV reporters have high standards, narrowly ahead of Federal and State MPs, both at 16 per cent. So where do we go from here? How do we keep the ‘bastards’ honest?
To be fair, most media does report the failings of our politicians, of both sides, but political reporters and commentators do seem to have their favourites in terms of political ideologies and I think this is where the public mistrust arises.
The ABC’s Q&A Special session last Thursday with former PM Malcolm Turnbull showed ordinary people are eager to know what is happening in politics and why.
They should keep in touch with their politicians — and aspiring politicians — and let them know what they expect.
They should also write letters to the editor of local, state and national media, expressing their viewpoints and concerns and also their opinions if they believe reporting is biased.
If we want our politicians to be honest and have integrity, we must let them know there will be a price to pay — their seats — if they continue to think in terms of power rather than the needs of their
constituents.