Do elections bring out the worst in politics?

Comment | Kingborough Chronicle | April 27, 2021   

Do elections bring out the worst in politics? It’s such a shame that at the time we are asked to choose our political representatives, they often provide us with a poor impression of their values and fitness for office.

Whether it is bickering and factional fights within parties, nasty secrets emerging from people’s social media histories, or just the aggressive negativity and sniping that becomes the default setting of our adversarial two-party dominated political culture, it’s enough to make voters pray for it all to be over as quickly as possible.

A particular bug-bear of mine is when the two major parties spend so much time trying to scare and bully the Tasmanian voters into a majority government outcome.

Of course, each party would like to govern in majority – with a majority it’s easier for them to do what they want and push their own ideological agendas.  But it doesn’t always result in good policy, good legislation or the best interests of the whole community being delivered.

A minority government means a government that has to work hard, be reasonable, put aside some of the more extreme ideological policies and negotiate.  I think most Tasmanians would like to see their state government doing just that – working hard to deliver reasonable, negotiated outcomes.

A minority government is likely to be a government that is more open, transparent and accountable. It’s much harder to keep secrets, withhold information and prevent access when you don’t have absolute power.

Minority governments are a very normal part of many parliamentary democracies around the world. They are effective, efficient and generally very productive.

If the Tasmanian voters deliver a minority government at this state election, then the major parties should respect the views of the community and work with that result.

There’s an arrogance in any political party insisting that it won’t respect the will of the Tasmanian people if an election delivers a diverse, non-majority parliament. 

It’s not the job of political parties to dictate to Tasmanians what form of government they must choose; it’s the voters’ choice who they want as their parliamentary representatives. Once chosen, it’s the job of all those elected to make that work in the best interests of the community.

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