Politics of the unusual: out in the open

WE’RE not used to transparency in politics. At local level our councillors have voted to halve the number of public meetings. At federal level any question about asylum seekers is met with a refusal to comment by the Government, which has adopted a selfimposed convention of complete secrecy and refuses to comment about “on water” activities or “operational matters”.

The ALP national conference took place in Melbourne last weekend. It was open to the media, open to the public and broadcast live and in full on the Australian Public Affairs Channel.

That’s a lot of windows into how decisions are made and policies are developed. If delegates started throwing stones at each other, the whole country would see who said what and who disrespected whom.

Australians are not used to this kind of open-plan politics and so the Liberals were salivating.

Last Wednesday, Bill Shorten and Richard Marles announced that they would be bringing the controversial “tow-back” option to their party, this last minute announcement labelled by the Liberals as a “policy backflip”.

The “tow-back” option is an emotional one. It goes directly to our humanity and demands that we examine not just what we’re doing, but why we’re doing it. Why are asylum seekers coming to Australia and why are we prepared to tow them back?

The request to include tow-backs as an option was the “come to Jesus moment” for the local member for Corio. If Marles could persuade the conference to embrace this policy, his leader would be able to shake off any leadership doubts and have the acumen to go forward to the next election knowing that this Labor Party was giving him all the options he needed to win on polling day.

If he failed to convince the conference then the leadership would be in jeopardy, the party would be splintered and Marles would have to resign his shadow ministry.

On the eve of the conference, Liberal member for Corangamite Sarah Henderson could smell blood in the water. She took to social media and tweeted: “Labor already ripping itself apart over its turnbacks backflip.”

All she could do was watch and wait until Saturday afternoon when Marles would deliver his speech. He spent the weekend in backroom conversations, shoring up votes.

On stage there was a coalition of rowdy student opposition and then he was on. This was going to have to be the speech of his career.

He was impressive but so were all the speakers. For and against. All spoke with conviction and honesty.

Marles quoted Lincoln and Shakespeare. He faced strong and rational argument from Andrew Giles. Both delegates agreed they were trying to achieve the same thing — the protection of human lives. They agreed to disagree, but not to disrespect.

This debate was the high water mark in the discussion of how to handle asylum seekers. There was no name-calling, no scaremongering, no dog-whistling and no blood letting. All the participants knew that they would have to take responsibility for the lives that could be lost if they got it wrong.

This was not an academic argument in a public library, or a slanging match on Twitter. This is why tears were shed and the vote was counted twice.

This is why the conference determined to double the intake of refugees and accept the argument from Marles that tow backs must be an option for a future ALP Government.

This conference did not tear the ALP apart. It set the benchmark for transparency and public policy discussion.

Because, as Abraham Lincoln observed, we “cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”

This is the only way our city and our country will ever find itself again. Ross Mueller is a freelance writer and director.