Ben Morton: Let’s celebrate Australia’s democracy

In what will be the last of my weekly columns, I thought I would make some acknowledgments and provide initial reflections on the election.

There is no greater honour than being elected prime minister of the nation that you love and so I’m pleased to offer Anthony Albanese my sincere congratulations.

Likewise, I thank Scott Morrison for his service to our nation during one of the most difficult times in our history, a time where we not only succeeded, we came out stronger. Few nations can claim such success.

Locally, it has been an honour and privilege to serve as the Member for Tangney. I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved together for our community and our country.

Thank you to all who have worked with and supported me over the past six years — colleagues, staff, volunteers, friends, and of course my family.

I love our democracy. I love that we live in a country where fellow citizens decide who represents and governs us.

How lucky are we to live in a nation where the victorious and the defeated can come together as the incoming Member for Tangney Sam Lim and I did when I called to congratulate him.

I was taken aback when Sam asked me if I would be his friend, and of course I am doing what I can to make sure Sam gets the best start possible. What a great example to celebrate our democracy and Australia, where these conversations can happen like this.

I have not met any parliamentarian from across the political spectrum that doesn’t want the best for our nation. Sure, we have different ideas on how to achieve that, but we must respect diversity of ideas and celebrate that we live in a nation where that diversity of opinion can exist.

There is a growing tendency by some to dismiss ideas, views and opinions that are different to our own. Some people are even shocked that different opinions can exist. I’ve railed before about echo chambers of social media where views, opinions, biases and prejudices are amplified or reinforced because we are living in a social media world where you only get exposed to things that interest you and are agreeable to you.

This is where greater respect of diversity of opinion is needed.

We need to step back and allow Australians to take the reins of their lives again and for businesses to take the reins of the economy.

I’m not talking about between parliamentarians, indeed you will find a great respect for each other. Over the last few days, I have been contacted by colleagues from across the political spectrum offering their commiserations and support.

If there is one thing I won’t miss about politics it’s the personal abuse, character attacks and foul language directed towards all MPs, sadly more so towards female parliamentarians, from those in the community that don’t agree with them and who lack the capacity, intellect and decency to engage respectfully.

Respect for diversity of views and opinions is one area we can all work harder to make our Australian democracy even better.

There will be time to assess the election campaign. This will be important for the Liberal Party, particularly here in WA, as we must embrace reform. The future is bright and the only way is up, it will be an exciting time to get involved.

I want to reflect on a theme in Australian politics over the last few years that might have gone unnoticed and one that we need to pay more attention to.

It’s about the role of government in our lives, the size of government and its control. It’s also about the expectations that we have of government.

The Morrison government was not returned because we had not met the expectations that the Australian people had of us. We failed.

This is important because, sadly, in politics meeting expectations is more important than actual delivery.

No matter what it achieves, no government will be returned if it does not meet the expectations of them.

Think Kevin Rudd. I remember at the time my friends had an expectation of what the election of Kevin Rudd meant for them that was way ahead of what Rudd was actually promising to deliver. He was doomed from the start.

Prime Minister Albanese has not created the same high expectations of himself personally, this allows him a good foundation to build from.

However, the Albanese opposition jumped at every misstep over the past two years and has contributed to an expectation of what the Government can and should do. They may now struggle to meet the standard they have set themselves.

We have seen the role of government increase during the pandemic, rightly, but reluctantly so.

There was no doubt that as the chaos struck and our economy was shut down, the government would have to step in.

As Scott Morrison said in the last week of the campaign; “Governments must know what government can do and what it can’t, and more importantly, what it shouldn’t. And when is the time to step in, as we certainly did, and knowing when it is time to step out.”

From my own experience, one of the biggest mistakes people make in government is they think the government knows everything and knows everything about everything. I can assure you they don’t.

The design of JobKeeper was a good example. It understood that government worked together not to control the economy or put itself at the centre of the economy, but to do its bit where needed, to enliven and back up the individual businesses, the individual employees, the judgements that were being made about how they would see themselves through.

The objective of a government is to enable the aspirations of Australians to buy a home, to raise their families, to save for their retirement, to run their own business, to make their own choices. Not to make those choices for them or be at the centre of their lives.

Like many, I’ve been looking forward to putting this pandemic behind us, as well as the intervention of government in our lives that came with it.

There are some who see this time as an invitation to keep the role of government at that level in our lives. I suspect that Prime Minister Albanese is one of them. That’s not a personal criticism, but an observation of his longstanding political objective given his celebrations of the role of government over many years.

We have seen it in other left-wing governments around the world. They see the pandemic as a reason to keep government at the centre.

We need to step back and allow Australians to take the reins of their lives again and for businesses to take the reins of the economy.

When you combine the increasing expectation of government from some within our community with a new Prime Minister that celebrates the power of government, this will be the underlying debate over the next few years. A debate we should engage in thoughtfully and respectfully.

Ben Morton is a husband and father of two