Photo: AAP Image/Lukas Coch
Remember when the press gallery thought the only new laws the Albanese Government could introduce before 2028 were the ones they sought a specific ‘mandate’ for at last year’s election? I’m glad to see those days are long gone.
Luckily for Australians, no one is seriously arguing that the Prime Minister should wait two years to seek a mandate for gun law reform.
Likewise, none of those in the media or parliament demanding curbs on free speech or crack downs on protesters ever suggested we wait until the next election to seek permission for such change.
The powerful only complain about the lack of a ‘mandate for change’ when governments are at risk of doing things that are progressive and popular.
Prime Ministers and premiers know how to make big bold decisions when they want to. And they know how to kick things they don’t want to do into the long grass. Our leaders know how to ignore cautious bureaucrats and ignore the expense of their grand ideas when it suits them, or to claim a lack of evidence or lack of money when inaction is their preferred path.
Indeed, our elected leaders are so decisive when they want to be that Scott Morrison committed us to the $360 billion AUKUS deal without Treasury’s input. Likewise, as we saw in January’s release of 20-year-old cabinet documents, back in 2005 John Howard was willing to ignore his own military advisors and write a blank cheque to send Australian troops back into harm’s way in Afghanistan.
Our troops would subsequently stay there until 2021, 47 of them would lose their lives in combat, and estimated 250 would subsequently die by suicide. The financial cost of Howard’s war was estimated to be almost $10 billion. And all without a budget, a long run plan for victory, let alone a ‘mandate’ from an election.
Australians are often told that we can’t tackle some big problems like climate change because of the cost, because of the uncertainty, or most bizarrely, because Australia acting alone wouldn’t be enough to stop global heating. But imagine if that logic was applied to defence spending, or indeed, to our decisions to go to war. Luckily this week none of these excuses are being applied to the billion-dollar cost of the gun buyback.
For all the talk of the need for mandates our Prime Ministers are always quick to act when they feel like it. Which is as it should be.
One of the Albanese Government’s biggest and best decisions in its first term was to abandon the ‘mandate’ they had from the 2022 election to keep Scott Morrison’s stage 3 tax cuts. Instead, they reformed the tax cuts to divert more than $80 billion from the highest income earners to low- and middle-income earners.
Democracies require far more from their leaders than to make some cautious promises in the lead up to elections and then spend three years implementing them. Just as a CEO who ignored crises and opportunities while they ploddingly implemented their three-year plan would be pilloried, so too would any Prime Minister or Premier who refused to fix new problems as they emerged.
December’s horrific attack on the Jewish community has shocked Australia’s sense of safety, but it is not too late for that terrible event to help Australians have more faith in our democracy. The Prime Minister, premiers and chief ministers were quick to call a meeting of the National Cabinet and quick to agree to significant new gun laws. And while there were urgent calls to curtail some people’s freedoms to speak in the hope of protecting others safety, it now seems that these changes will take some time to debate and resolve. This is at it should be.
Our leaders don’t need mandates to solve big problems, but they do need bravery, judgement and the rhetorical skill to bring the community along with them.
Leading a democracy is a lot harder than getting through your to-do list. And for leaders with good judgement and good timing, driving big change can be a lot easier than spendings an entire election campaign answering endless questions about small policy details.
Keeping promises is one way to build trust with the public, but the best way is to help solve the problems people care most about.
Richard Denniss is co-chief executive of the Australia Institute.
