In order to win the government, John Howard, like Anthony Albanese a quarter of a century later, campaigned for greater responsibility. A ministerial code of conduct was established. He soon suffered for this justice. In two years, several ministers and two employees had resigned due to various mistakes or oversights. Then the crisis ended. The remaining 10 years of Howard’s government saw an almost total absence of ministerial resignations.
Illustration by Jim Pavlidis. Credit:
By now, this story is crushed. Even in 2005, under the title “If You’re a Howard Minister, it’s very difficult to be fired,” wrote commentator Shaun Carney. the dismissal of ministers never since he saw his political life shine before his eyes. “
In other words, the explanation for the sudden pause in ministerial disasters was not that the government cleaned up its action, but simply that the prime minister got tired of firing people.
This story is often told as an illustration of immersion in ministerial standards ever since. But it is also enlightening as an explanation of what issues become political crises. What Howard finally realized was that the crisis was caused not only by the problems themselves, but by his decision to call them problems. If it was guaranteed that a travel error would result in a waiver, then, by definition, it was worthy of news. The opposite was also true: once it became clear, Howard was unlikely to answer all but the most egregious mistakes, the smallest mistakes ceased to attract the public’s attention. A crisis could be avoided by simply refusing to treat it as such.
It has been fascinating to see the rapid change of atmosphere since the election of the Albanian government. In much of the country, there was relief, in some sectors hope, but for three weeks it seems as if the biggest change could be the sudden feeling of crisis. There is inflation, of course, and gas. The word “recession” is often heard on the airwaves. But there are others. It seems like we’re hearing more about hospital overload. The climate crisis is building.
Anthony Albanese has had a very productive start as Prime Minister. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
There was a certain sense of this before the election, as can be seen from Coalition announcements emphasizing uncertainty, but the change since then seems seismic. Part of that is based on reality. The last rise in interest rates was greater than the first. But what part of this new atmosphere can really be explained by new facts on the ground?
Even before the campaign we knew it wouldn’t be long before rates would go up; and that once they did, they would not stop. We knew house prices were high. Gas was definitely an issue, as was inflation and wages, and it’s not as if the relationships between these different factors were a mystery. Obviously, similar observations can be made for hospitals and the climate.
So where did this sudden feeling of crisis come from? Or, to put it another way, why wasn’t he there before? Is it a sinister conspiracy by those anti-Labor media outlets, exaggerating issues they previously ignored? That could be part of it. But I suspect the biggest problem is more insidious. As Howard learned, a government that does not want to act on an issue will eventually stop calling for action, as if the problem simply did not exist. This is also, to some extent, a media failure, allowing too many governments to define their own realities.