By Railton Hill
Democracy isn’t perfect, but sure beats the alternatives. Looking at the election result, did Australians get their money’s worth?
Election wrap: did we get our money’s worth?
Quite a while back we were told that the ABC was costing each of us ‘eight cents a day’. So what does a federal election cost? I for one don’t begrudge it. Democracy isn’t perfect, but it sure beats the alternatives. By the time you read this, the election will have delivered a Federal government. But did Australians – and we (saved) sinners in particular- get our money’s worth?
As elections go, this one lacked the excitement of an obvious cliff hanger. The background of a booming economy appeared, ironically, to provide the context for a kind of latter day 1972 ‘It’s Time’ handover, 35 years on. By now we’ll know how it turned out…
Early in the campaign we learned that few people care deeply if a senior political leader is seriously drunk in a strip club. That was probably the only mention I saw in the campaign of one this country’s most severe problems - our rampant ‘alcohol culture’, which accepts alcohol abuse- with its incredible human cost - as normal.
Both major parties appeared to play policy ‘me too’ quite shamelessly. Mr Rudd offended an accordion player in a community centre. Tony Abbott and Mark Latham provided momentary light relief: Peter Garret’s ‘jocular’ candour at an airport reminded me of former Federal minister John Button, who tended to call a spade a spade. No-one took up that other key issue of the future of the MCG Mexican wave.
The modern election style is presidential, focused on carefully stage managed leaders, and avoidance of both surprises and detailed policy analysis. It is almost amusing to see journalists actually following around a roving leadership entourage, not even knowing where the polls will drive them the next day.
Yet the business of government is serious. Policies implemented could see workplace or other injustices entrenched or rectified, religious freedoms curtailed or protected, a child deprived of one of its parents through abuse of (legitimate) infertility treatments, or life improved for people who suffer terribly. Christians have a special responsibility to be salt and light, to ‘do good’ with whatever influence they may have. Did we see this over recent months?
Army publications called for attention to critical issues such as poverty in our midst. The Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) ran its excellent Meet Your Candidate Forums, and issued a summary of party positions on a range of issues. Yet I have doubts. Although the ACL survey canvassed many issues, I am aware that the Lobby, which claims to represent moderate Christian ‘middle ground’, spends most of its time and resources between elections lobbying strenuously for a very narrow range of issues, and taking some quite extreme positions.
It can be dangerous for denominational leaders to make public pronouncements on political issues – they are not infallible, and often would be hard pressed to claim an actual mandate from their ordinary church membership for particular policy positions. Nevertheless, one of the more significant events of the campaign went largely unreported, when 14 top leaders of most Australian church denominations made an unprecedented united appeal for serious poverty relief action. I don’t doubt that Christians are genuinely concerned for the poor and marginalised. The depth of that conviction however still worries me. Could it be that we (saved) sinners tend towards lip service on many matters, just as our politicians do, and not just during elections?
Did we get our money’s worth? If not, the fault is not to be sheeted home entirely to the politicians, nor to the media which provides space for party spin, a highly organised right leaning ‘Christian’ lobby, or a number of other interests. The fault may well be within each of us. It is not enough just to mark a ballot paper every few years. Join a party. Visit your representatives. Write some letters. Support a worthwhile lobby group, at a level which actually costs you something. There is plenty of choice. I long to see genuine broad based advocacy by (saved) sinners, working consistently across a full range of vital issues. We may even disagree amongst ourselves at times. The truth is indeed like an elephant- it is subject to different points of view - but we will agree on the basics. If we could achieve that, the next election, and the years from now until then, would be anything but boring. Even Christians get the government – and the campaign – we deserve.
Dr Railton Hill is a Melbourne academic, activist and musician. He worships at the Waverley Temple Salvation Army Corps, and is a former Victorian State Director of the Australian Christian Lobby).