An Open Letter to Preselectors
Dear preselectors,
Politics is campaigns, policies and publicity, but above all, politics is people. The people you select to represent us will decide the future of our party and our nation. If, like me, you were despairing of the ABC’s Nemesis documentary, of the plotting, the total self-absorption, the blatant neglect of the huge responsibility and privilege of governing the nation, it is you who have the power to choose between a better alternative, or more of the same.
This starts by making character our first criteria. When I hear talk of preselection candidates, I usually hear about three criteria: values, campaigning ability and community connections. In short, pick someone who shares our (*our faction’s) values and can win votes. The problem is, people who effectively convey these attributes often fall short on a far more important but harder to judge criteria: character. In particular, our politics desperately needs people who have courage, honesty and humility.
Modern politics is plagued by three No’s: No Losers, No Mistakes and No Mercy. No Losers politics is a battle of small targets and fear campaigns, marked by total unwillingness to pursue policies in the national interest that might leave some people worse off. We lack differentiation from our opponents because all sides are competing to be the least offensive, most prolific pork-barrellers. It is the opposite of what politics should be: a contest of ideas. Looking back at major reforms of the past 50 years, how many would pass the No Losers test? The Hawke and Howard governments are touted as our best in recent history, but consider their achievements and associated Losers: floating the dollar was set to hurt farmers, miners and tourism; removing protection ultimately destroyed much of our manufacturing industry; GST was regressive and hurt low-income earners; the gun ban hurt farmers… the list goes on.
How do we do away with No Losers politics? By preselecting courageous people who are prepared to risk their political skin to make the changes they believe in for the sake of the country. Career politicians are unlikely to fit the bill. Many (not all) see politics as a game, power as its own end, and political office as a means of satisfying their need to feel important. They are easy to spot, but sometimes hard to resist in a preselection. Usually, they have spent years serving the party and building their credentials for office: they are seasoned campaigners, are particularly fluent in espousing Liberal values and have a Menzies quote for every occasion. If they don’t work for a prominent politician, they are usually a councillor, or on staff at a think tank or industry lobby. Lest I make too many enemies in writing this, I should qualify it by saying that none of these are problematic in of themselves, and I have the utmost respect for many who fit my description of career politician. I simply think we should be selecting more candidates who have successful careers outside of politics. It’s not a guarantee they will be courageous, but they certainly have less to lose and might therefore be more willing to pursue with conviction the causes they believe in. They bring professional skills and life experiences that are impossible to acquire in politics.
Another reason for selecting such a candidate is a hugely important factor in improving decision making in government: diversity. Not the superficial box ticking kind of diversity, mind you. Rather, we should strive for the kind of diversity that does matter: diversity of skills, life experiences and ways of thinking. Much has been said of gender diversity, and I’m not one to minimise that issue, but I’m also concerned that 43% of current federal members were either lawyers, unionists or lobbyists before entering parliament. We need fewer debaters and more creative problem solvers of all stripes.
If No Losers politics comes from a deficiency of courage, the equally degrading No Mistakes politics comes from a deficiency of humility, especially intellectual humility. No Mistakes politics is easy to spot: a total unwillingness to admit fault, change one’s mind or step out of the echo chamber. The Australian public has greater respect for leaders who are flawed and admit it than they do for leaders who exude self-righteous infallibility. They have nothing but contempt for the weasel words and robotic parroting of talking points that they hear so often. It’s a hard thing to judge in a preselection, but humility is conspicuous in its absence. There is no shortage of boasting, big-noting, brown-nosing and general skulduggery and this behaviour should not be rewarded with preselection. Intellectual humility matters too. Ideological dogmatism is easily conflated with strong leadership, but it’s easy to be the leader of a cheer squad. What we need are candidates who are strong in their convictions yet also curious, prepared to speak less and listen more.
No Mistakes politics has given rise to “gotcha” journalism, where the media focus on generating controversy through tripping up politicians with trivial mistakes. It’s easy to blame the media for this, but it is the politicians themselves who are responsible. They are the ones who have created an unrealistic standard of infallibility, thinking, wrongly, that the public prefer a polished politician to a real human being. They then join in the pile-on whenever the journalists succeed, in what I call “No Mercy” politics. Perhaps the most egregious example of this in recent times was the Cartier watches scandal, but the culture is so pervasive now that examples of people refusing to buy into No Mercy politics are more remarkable. Mark McGowan’s refusal to join the Nemesis pile-on of Scott Morrison hints at why he achieved a 91% approval rating as premier and largest election victory in Australian history. Addressing gotcha journalism and No Mercy politics ultimately comes down to preselecting candidates who have a reputation for not buying in to disparaging gossip and petty politics.
When it comes to preselecting a candidate, let’s put character before charisma. We need candidates who have the courage of their convictions, a long-term vision for Australia, the creativity and intelligence to find solutions to our most pressing problems, the honesty to speak uncomfortable truths when necessary, and a preparedness to put the national interest before their political survival. If we can get rid of the politics of No Losers, No Mistakes and No Mercy, we’ll be able to attract more of the high calibre candidates that we need, not only to win elections, but more importantly to govern well.
Yours Sincerely,
Tim Kallady