Devolution

As I write, Mike Rann has just addressed a press conference where he has announced the timeline of his retirement. In recent weeks former leader of the Upper House Paul Holloway has also announced his retirement, and one suspects that Health Minister John Hill and Big Kev Foley are on their last legs as well. While many are referring to this as party “regeneration”, I would suggest that party “deterioration” is a more fitting term. Regeneration suggests the replacement of old and fatigued war horses with young thoroughbreds. It is more of a case, however, of replacing horses with donkeys, as the new breed of political animal within the ALP is a totally different species to their predecessors.
Mike Rann was often because of his moniker “Media Mike” because he used his previous career in journalism to “spin”. It is inevitable that a politician will bring skills from their previous career to Parliament. The problem with the new generation of ALP MPs is that the majority have never worked for any extended period outside of politics. Whilst John Hill was a teacher and a lawyer, Paul Holloway an engineer, Kevin Foley a corporate executive, the new breed of Snelling and Koutsantonis and Kenyon never developed careers outside of the union movement. Of course they worked diverse “jobs” such as taxi drivers and jackaroos, but a career involves extended devotion and development of expertise. Most importantly, a career gives a person an ability to attain specialist knowledge which can be used as a representative in parliament. Why are established careers no longer considered vital for pre-selection?
The answer unfortunately is that politics is now considered a career in itself. Councils across the state are filled with pimple faced babes in pin striped swaddling cloths. Party pre-selection is determined by a small handful of people, and the ambitious realise this. Everybody knows that the path to North Terrace involves building personal relationships with the king makers, such as Malinauskas, Farrell, Koutsantonis and Quirke (as far as the right goes). Pre-selection is made based on who owes who, who will scratch who’s back etc. While I wasn’t involved in politics when Rann and Foley were pre-selected, I venture to guess that the process was at least slightly more rigorous. What are the problems with such ad hoc and unmeritorious pre-selections?
When a candidate’s only life experience is within the political field, they have neither the knowledge or the people skills to relate to the common man. Budding politicians rarely associate with anyone outside of politics. They watch the West Wing, dine at party fundraisers, letter box and door knock together. If you only associate with a small micocosm of the community, you begin to think that how they think is how everyone thinks. A staff room in a political office is not the same as a staff room in a school or a hospital. This is why we are seeing the emergence of robotic politicians such as Julia Gillard, a person who cannot speak or laugh in a natural manner. The public is becoming aware of this phenomenon, which has had an immediate impact on politicos; reverse engineering of a career.
In the past year, Michael Brown and Stephen Mullighan, two senior political operatives, have left the political field to start jobs in the private sector. Whilst it is possible that they have tired of the political grind, it is more likely that they are padding their CV for the imminent jump into Parliament. Many vacancies exist for the Legislative Council, which would suit Brown, and Mullighan will likely run for a safe western suburbs seat e.g. Lee or Port Adelaide. They perhaps fear their candidate biography listing as “political adviser” and nothing else. While they are undoubtedly performing legitimate work in their new roles, they have still grown up in politics and it will take more than a couple of years to cleanse them of politico-speak.
Mike Rann’s ire when confronted by Peter Malinauskas and Jack Snelling was probably caused by a number of factors. I suggest that at least one of them was a disdain for the quality of talent that is readying itself to replace him. Wisdom is acquired over the years, through experience and toil. An army of inbred political careerists lack the wisdom required to run a state. He knows this. The public knows this too, and will render their judgement in a few years.