Senatorial shenanigans
SOME mainland commentators think it is “a rort’’ that Tasmania, with a little over half a million people, has 12 senators: the same number as NSW with a population of eight million.
Back in 1900, there was good reason for this seeming imbalance. Smaller colonies like Tasmania, Western and South Australia would never have joined the Federation without some guarantee they would not be overwhelmed by the more populous states. And fair enough.
In the beginning, before the dominance of political parties, the Senate worked well enough as the “States House”, but the adversarial nature of the growing party system wrecked the joint. Senators who were once representatives of the state that elected them became mere delegates of the party that selected them.
As it remains today.
UNREPRESENTATIVE SWILL?
Civics isn’t a subject taught in Australian schools, but a lot of Tasmanians are surprised by our number of senators.
My Sydney friends, even journalists among them, are also often bemused to find we have 12 senators, the same as them. The apparent disproportion in senatorial representation frequently occasions loud and angry voices on Sky After Dark.
If you want to be shouted at and told how to think, have a look some time.
It is not quite as scary as Q+A, because I suspect a lot of the Fox mock-outrage is pure showbiz.
I am hopeful, for instance, that my old mate at Sky, former Labor senator Graham Richardson, doesn’t really mean it when he says that “Tasmania’s 12 senators represent the worst constitutional rort in Australian political history”.
Though we can be assured that back in November 1992 Richo’s boss, then prime minister Paul Keating, meant every vitriolic word when he denounced the Senate as “unrepresentative swill”.
A SALVER OF SENATORS
Like the proverbial pudding, the proof of the swill might be in the tasting.
So, here is a salver of Tasmanian senators.
As your representatives, they each earn a base rate of $211,250, plus generous perks, allowances and super. Ever met them?
What have they done you?
How many recognise?
ABETZ Eric, ASKEW Wendy, BILYK Catryna, BROWN Carol, CHANDLER Claire, COLBECK Richard, DUNIAM Jonathon, LAMBIE Jacqui, McKIM Nick, POLLEY Helen, URQUART Anne, WHISH-WILSON Peter.
I imagine readers of this column might do better than the average Tasmanian, so I refrained from helping you by naming the political party. Work that out for yourself. Score:
0 to 3. You are poorly represented. Get mad.
4 to 8. Good, but you need to read more.
Get the Mercury every day. 8 to 12. Excellent. But get a life.
I find that most people I ask cold can name Eric Abetz and Jacqui Lambie. Some even nominate ex-senator Bob Brown.
After that, most are struggling and are often perplexed do you for even
to learn they are paying for 12 senators.
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
Jonathon Duniam might have confused people by recently becoming “Jonno” Duniam. What’s in a name? Well, the former Jonathon Duniam was the bloke who intemperately described the good burghers of Swansea as “the anti-everything brigade”, all because they had the temerity to oppose the creation of a Chinese colony in their backyard.
Given ScoMo’s recent resistance to CCP influence in Australia, we are unlikely to hear that “anti-everything brigade” slur ever being reapplied to the conservative, right-thinking folk of Swansea.
“No, that wasn’t Jonno Duniam who said that — that was another bloke called Jonathon Duniam.”
Jonno and his colleague Wendy Askew have a bigger profile this week after unseating the legendary Abetz from the No.1 position on the Liberal Senate ticket for the next federal election.
Duniam won the No.1 position, while Askew took No.2. Eric Abetz was busted to the almost unwinnable No.3 spot.
Given that senators are often so little known, most people vote above the line on the Senate paper, thus following the preferences of a party machine.
Eric was not unknown nor universally loved, but being ranked No.1 made him invincible until his one-time protege, the former Jonathan Duniam, knocked him off the perch.
Sharper tooth? than a serpent’s
A VICTIM OF AGEISM AND SEXISM
Eric fulminated silently for days while Jonno intimated that it was nothing personal — just the politics of “renewal”.
But on Wednesday, Abetz came out swinging. He was, he claimed, the “victim of ageism and sexism”.
“One thing I can’t do anything about is the day I was born, nor the sex I was given,” he said.
Eric might have been advised to resort to Ancient Rome from whence comes the institution of the Senate (senatus).
The word derives from the
Latin senex — “old man”. It is also the root of “senile”, but that is a concern for much further down the track.
SENATE BLANCMANGE
Can I now assure readers who think I am “progressive” (as a pejorative, what a nonsense word) that the truth is I would miss Eric enormously.
You don’t need to agree with him to appreciate that he stands out from the blancmange that mainly represents Tasmania in the Senate.
The cruellest blow was Wendy Askew being given the No.2 spot, dropping Eric into no-man’s land.
We scarcely knew of Askew until this coup, and it was hardly an auspicious introduction when she described her victory at last Saturday’s preselection as “a fantastic result for northern Tasmania”.
Well, not quite, Senator. You are supposed to be representing the whole state of Tasmania.
Though clearly that is easily forgotten.
NEVERLAND
Perhaps Senator Askew wasn’t politically askew, but rather she was genuflecting to the traditional owners of the Bass electorate, her own Bushby family.
Her father, Max, held the seat from 1961 to 1986. Her brother David was a Tasmanian senator who resigned in January 2019 to take a diplomatic post in Chicago. His sister Wendy was then selected (not by you) as his replacement in the Senate for the duration of his six-year term.
And that, kiddies, is how things are done up North. Wendy is from the Neverland of Launceston (home to Robin Gray, John Gay and Edmund Rouse), where all things are possible, so long as you know the right people.
REINVENTING ERIC
Back in the 1960s, Eric Abetz was an immigrant kid from Stuttgart. In a new land, he had to fight hard for his success. Perhaps in later years he felt constrained to expend too much of his tactical and analytical skills on defending his position rather than solely in the service of the electorate.
On Triple M radio this week, Eric began his afterdumping reinvention.
“The thing that encouraged me immensely was that there was no criticism of work ethic, energy, capacity, advocacy skills [and] being a voice for reason in this silly politically correct world.”
Now he has been dumped by his party, he has an opportunity to become more of a representative for his voters rather than a party delegate.
Eric Abetz might even become a more effective senator.
If the Libs think he is too old, then he should appeal to the huge number of voters who are also “too old”.
Aged care in Australia is a disgrace, yet it comes to everyone to grow old and to want to do so with dignity.
If Abetz takes up the cudgels on that issue alone, he might be surprised how many electors will follow him down the Senate ticket and vote below the line.
On many fronts, at home and abroad, these are dangerous and fraught times.
Cast again a cold eye over the list of your federal Upper House Liberal and Labor representatives.
Do you think somewhere in that bland senatorial blancmange there might still be room for one hard man?