Can this former Australia captain solve politics’ image problem?
He put his body on line on the field, but now David Pocock is a politician battling racism and climate-change sceptics
IT is 11am in the Parliamentary Office in Sydney and David Pocock’s aides have blocked out an hour from his diary. He has a busy day ahead, including an integrity commission with the Attorney General and a series of briefings.
The diplomatic vehicle in the underground car park is a sign that the prime minister is also in the building. The Protective Service have double security checks to get inside and Pocock is waiting in his office on the 20th floor. Welcome to the new world of the former Wallabies captain, or Senator Pocock as he is now known.
He has swapped the gold jersey for a crisp white shirt. A few kilos of muscle have dropped off since his retirement in 2020 but he still looks fit enough to last 80 minutes. ‘The parliamentary rugby team have been trying to rope me in,’ he says. ‘I might have to go and find a pair of boots!’
An easy gag about tackling Boris Johnson is laughed off and he asks about the mood in the UK as news from No10 Downing Street is beamed around the city. There are bigger issues but first Pocock reflects on the England series.
‘This is the first year that I’ve actually started to enjoy watching rugby again,’ he says. ‘For a couple of years, I couldn’t really watch because I’d get annoyed if the commentators were bagging my old team-mates. I know how hard they work. It was too close to home. I watched the first Test on TV and it was good to see the Wallabies win because against England it’s been one-way traffic for a while.’
JUST 34 years old, Pocock’s political career has progressed quickly. He was an activist during his playing days. In 2014 he was arrested after chaining himself to a digger in protest against a new coal mine. He also publicly declared that he would not marry his partner, Emma, until same-sex marriage was legalised in Australia. He always had a political streak but how has he ended up sitting here, in one of the most powerful seats in the country?
‘Good question! Growing up in Zimbabwe, I saw how much of an impact politics has on every part of our lives. The land reform programme started and we were kicked off our farm. It was pretty unsafe. Very few people would argue that land reform was unnecessary, but the way it was done was farcical. A couple of guys in our district were killed.
‘We were lucky my mum was a qualified teacher and we were able to get into Australia as skilled migrants. I arrived in Brisbane in 2002 as a 14-year-old. In Zimbabwe politics was the only thing people talked about because everyone was affected by it. I was always aware of it and interested in it. More recently, I’d been working on an agriculture and conservation project back in Zimbabwe. I had a bit of time on the side in 2020 and just threw myself into it, going out there with my younger brother.
‘I kept getting hassled by people in Canberra saying, “We think there’s an opportunity for an independent candidate in the senate”. It had never been done before but they said they thought I was the right person. Initially I thought, “Politics? Nah”, but I thought about it. I love Australia and the opportunities it’s given me and when you love something you want to make it better. It felt like a long shot but I knew I’d regret it if I didn’t do it. The complicated thing was forming a party with 1,500 members. It’s a pretty big ask but within two days we had 3,000 members.’
I ask if he is conscious about the image problem facing politicians. ‘That’s one of the tragedies of politics. People think, “This is a bunch of people without integrity who don’t have our best interests at heart and don’t make decisions that benefit everyday people”.
‘Certainly in Australia we’ve seen this movement of independent candidates who aren’t part of a major party. Communities are realising they don’t have to have someone who has to toe a party line.’
Pocock has been in the headlines this week for supporting the Labor party’s climate targets, ahead of a visit by New Zealand premier Jacinda Ardern. Looking out from the office window, cars are clogging up the road.
A few miles away, evacuation alerts have been put out due to extreme flooding. He believes the effects of climate change are there for all to see and that rugby can play its part.
‘The conversation around climate change is a thorny issue in rugby because it potentially upsets administrators who are fielding calls from sponsors. Here in Australia, over the last five or 10 years, there’s been a huge push by fossil fuel companies to get into sport. They know they’re losing their social licence and, like we saw with tobacco, they see sport as a great way to stay in people’s mind. They present themselves as being part of the culture.
‘Eventually the public and government said you can’t be advertising tobacco because we know the harm it causes. We’re close approaching that point with the fossil fuel industry. I totally get the pressure that sports are under financially and the need for sponsorship but there’s increasingly going to be a requirement to be a good corporate citizen.
‘It’s looking at the footprint around stadiums, how fans travel, scheduling of games. Lord’s has solar now. Old sports grounds haven’t really had to think about it.’
The conversation moves on to racism, following Luther Burrell’s revelations about dressing-room ‘banter’ in The Mail on Sunday two weeks ago. Pocock has spoken out about rugby’s challenges around sexuality and welcomes the conversation raised by Burrell. ‘I saw the article. You can’t discount people’s experiences. We’ve got to be listening. Moving to Australia as a white Zimbabwean, my experience in sport was completely different to a black Zimbabwean friend who moved over at a similar age. He also loved his rugby but he copped so much racism at school and in the rugby team.
‘There was some venom in it from the opposition, but there was also what people refer to as “casual racism” within his own team. It affected him. We’ve got a long way to go. ‘I’ve always thought that sport is at its best when it’s actually getting ahead and challenging people on these issues. Despite what people like to say about sports and politics not mixing, it’s got a long history of shining a light on the social issues we face. The important thing is that we have conversations about them. Whether you like it or not, athletes are a role model for young kids.
‘If somebody brings up concerns about racism it isn’t just dismissed as somebody crying foul, we have to deal with it.’
On a light-hearted note, the extent of Pocock’s parliamentary banter has been around the wardrobe for his election campaign. Jokes flew around about him rotating between the same two shirts, with every photograph looking the same. Consistency was also a theme of his playing career. Blood is streaming down his face in most of his old Wallaby photographs. Is his body paying the price? ‘It definitely takes its toll. By the end, I’d had a bunch of injuries. Nothing too major but I got to a point where I felt like I’d got a lot out of rugby. My dream as a kid was to win a Rugby World Cup. I never did that but I played at a few and loved it. ‘I had two cruciateligament reconstructions, five knee ops, split a disc in my back, one of my elbows is a bit funny, neck every now and then. I’ve got things that will be there for the rest of my life but you just have to manage it. Keep the mobility up and keep the strength up or you might run into strife. It’s great to see the changes around head injuries. I’m really glad that’s being taken more seriously.’
Before he gets back to the new day job, he reflects a little more on his playing days. He recalls the 2015 World Cup and ending his career in Japan with Damian de Allende and Sam Whitelock.
But there is not too long to dwell on the past. The Attorney General is waiting, after all.
Climate change and rugby is a thorny issue but there has been a huge push by fossil fuels to get into the sport