Every now and then, a story comes along that throws a lot more light on the state of Australian politics than it has any right to. Earlier this week four retired federal MPs from both major parties, including two former ministers, over their post-parliamentary entitlements.
Between the long-awaited death of the marriage equality plebiscite, Mike Baird’s backflip on greyhound racing and the latest horrors to come out from the Trump campaign, an obscure court case featuring a group of people you’ve never heard of probably doesn’t seem particularly important. But the fact that the case existed at all says some pretty dreadful things about our political system and the people who dominate it.
"The litigants argued that the loss of their gold travel passes amounted to the Commonwealth unlawfully seizing their property"
First, some context. One of the main perks the four former politicians — Howard defence minister John Moore, Hawke minister Barry Cohen and Labor MPs Anthony Lamb and Barry Cunningham — were hoping to hold onto was the so-called ‘’, a longstanding benefit that entitles former Parliamentarians to 25 free return domestic flights each year. In 2014 proposed cutting that number to 10 return flights a year, announced plans to eventually scrap the travel pass altogether (except for Prime Ministers), and stipulated that all flights in the meantime must be for the public benefit.
Hence the court case trying to throw those changes out. The litigants argued that the loss of their gold travel passes amounted to the Commonwealth unlawfully seizing their property, as outlined in Section 51 of the Constitution. That legal principle, for those playing at home, is the same one old mate Bud Tingwell invokes to save the Kerrigan family home from the grasp of greedy developers.
Parliamentary entitlements, especially for retired politicians, are unpopular at the best of times, especially when they seem luxurious or underhanded. For a bunch of ex-politicians to front up in court and invite comparisons between the ultimate Aussie battler and their quest to keep a lifetime’s worth of free air travel is gloriously, poetically stupid.
But what’s more telling is the foursome’s assumption that in rescinding taxpayer-funded travel entitlements, the Commonwealth was seizing their property. The thoughtless privilege of that mindset is one of the great features of Australian politics, and explains a lot of the dysfunction, inaction and general mediocrity that dominates it.
Put simply, they’re examples of what happens when governments and Parliaments become dominated by people who’ve done nothing their entire lives except politics. Our political institutions are filled with people who are there not because of any great talent or vision, but because they joined a political party early in life and made a career out of it. They’re there not to advance a set of motivating principles and goals, but to fill their assigned seat, vote the way they’re told, and retire on the public dime. Either that, or score a lucrative post-politics gig as a lobbyist or in-house adviser for an industry with pockets deep enough to buy access and policy.
"It must become pretty easy to think of things that belong to no one but the public as 'mine'"
And the problem’s getting worse. come from a narrow and unrepresentative range of backgrounds, living their entire adult lives in the strange, insular bubble that is professional politics. If you don’t know anything else, and spend all your time around people with similar experiences and assumptions to your own, it must become pretty easy to think of things that belong to no one but the public — Parliamentary seats, taxpayer money, sweet airline deals — as ‘mine’.
Adding insult to injury, plenty of these people who have no life experience outside the Veep-esque insanity of professional politics aren’t even very good at it. This week, the government somehow managed to vote for a motion calling on itself to explain why it’s giving a free ride to multinational tax evaders. In September, Coalition Senators were forced to give long, rambling speeches in Parliament after the government literally ran out of things for the Senate to do. When people pursuing power and high office for no higher purpose than ‘because it’s mine’ get what they want, they don’t know what to do with it.
Now that the High Court case is over, the Turnbull government is with its plans to gut the travel plan, and it should pass with support from Labor, the Greens and others. But before you take that as a sign that Canberra is looking out for anything other than itself, it’s worth noting that both major parties also passed a bill this week for people earning over $80,000 a year. Given that the average Australian wage is around $60,000 a year ($50,000 if you’re a woman), the government’s claim that the move is a middle-class tax cut is a pretty dodgy one. The next time some politician invokes The Castle to try and sell you some dreadful, inequitable piece of policy, tell ‘em they’re dreamin’.
Alex McKinnon is a journalist based in Sydney. Most recently he served as political and opinion editor of pop-culture website Junkee and editor of the Star Observer, Australia's longest-running LGBTI newspaper.
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