Julie Macken, The Australian Financial Review, 28 September 2001
Australians are more interested in better use of the tax dollar than tax cuts and, despite what the Treasurer says, do more volunteer work than any other nation. Julie Macken looks at an electorate that's misunderstood. The sign outside the churchyard was simple: JESUS CARES (so do we). While it's always tricky to speak on behalf of God, the small message scrawled between the brackets carries a grain of truth that has the capacity to re-model the Australian political landscape.
While John Howard blames the "It's time'' factor on the 9 per cent swing away from the Northern Territory's Country Liberal Party at the weekend, there is every indication that neither he nor Kim Beazley fully comprehend the change that is sweeping through the Australian electorate.
With a federal election just months away, politicians and commentators will be making a great deal of noise about "the cynical electorate''. When the community fails to engage in the electoral roadshow, voter cynicism will be blamed. When people refuse to get excited by, or even believe, the promises made by politicians, voter cynicism will be blamed. And every time it's blamed, the person making the allegation will be wrong.
Cynicism is not a primary emotion, say the experts, it is a by-product. A by-product of disappointment, which in turn comes only as a result of having cared in the first place. If Australians can be accused of anything, it is of caring too much and hoping for better leadership.
While Peter Costello called for more Australians to engage in volunteer work, the most recent Australian Bureau of Statistics survey of voluntary work found that 32 per cent of Australians aged 18 and over (4.4 million people) contributed 704.1 million hours and immeasurable energy and skills through volunteering in 2000 (not including voluntary work for the Sydney 2000 Olympics and Paralympics).
This rate of volunteering represents a rapid increase since the previous survey in 1995. The ABS originally reported a 19 per cent rate of volunteering in that survey. After reprocessing of the 1995 returns to make the methods more comparable with the 2000 survey, this figure has been increased to 24 per cent.
A British psychotherapist and consultant to New Labour during the 1997 UK election, Andrew Samuels, told The Australian Financial Review, "There is a great deal of talk about community cynicism, but I think the real issue is the Australian community has a great deal of passion and strong aspirations, which inevitably leads to disappointment and withdrawal when the political leadership fails to deliver.''
Social commentator Hugh Mackay believes it is the cynicism of the political leadership which exacerbates the problem, saying, "When leadership is cynical it makes the problem worse for the community and this present leadership is extremely cynical.''
It is tempting to see this as hair-splitting psychobabble, of little relevance to the real game of governing and being governed. However, playing to the electorate's cynical or altruistic side has a direct effect on the real-life issues of taxes, education, health and the environment, to name just a few.
The question of tax is shaping up as one of the defining differences between the Opposition and the Coalition. Already Prime Minister John Howard has pledged the Coalition to delivering more tax cuts as soon as the Budget allows. While Labor has yet to announce firm proposals on tax, Opposition frontbencher Bob McMullan has suggested that tax cuts or rollback are now considered to be "a secondary question''.
If politicians put their faith in a cynical electorate one that has little interest in the well-being of the wider community then the promise of more personal tax cuts is a logical position to take. After all, if it is every man for himself, then personal tax cuts that deliver private gains, even at public cost, are the way to go.
The problem with that simple formula is that every time polling is done on the question of taxes, people consistently say they would be willing to pay more for the Medicare levy if they could be sure it would be spent on health care. The idea of an education levy is also gaining traction, as has a levy to combat salination and environmental degradation.
This week, The Sydney Morning Herald published the results of an ACNielson survey which found that, when asked what should be done with any Budget surplus, seven out of 10 Australians would prefer to see it spent on health or education rather than tax cuts or rollback. When East Timor was put to the torch and Australian troops sent in to restore safety, no-one begrudged the Timor Defence levy. Given the opportunity to direct their taxes to create something of value in the form of community infrastructure, Australians give unflinchingly. Where they resist paying increased taxes is when they have no control over how those taxes are used. But this is a consequence of a deep distrust of politicians, not a reflection of greed on the part of the taxpayer. Nor are Australians alone in their desire to reinvest in community infrastructure. In the recent UK elections, many political commentators believe William Hague comprehensively lost the election when he started promising more personal tax cuts.
Likewise, according to US economist James Galbraith, "The Bush tax cuts are deeply unpopular with the American people. They want better schools and hospitals, not another couple of bucks in their pocket and a health system that's on its knees.''
According to Irving Saulwick, having listened closely to the views of many people over several years, Australians are far more community-minded than either of the major parties give them credit for, saying, "There is, in our observation, an immense sea of goodwill among voters. At the personal level, people are prepared to be co-operative and helpful citizens. There is a growing interest in communalisation. "This can be seen in the way people participate in local sporting and charitable organisations, the way they pitch in in times of crisis, by the way they respond to community-wide movements, such as the reconciliation movement.
"Of course, this is not the total picture. Nevertheless, the communalisation sentiment is again growing. The political parties grew out of this process. It seems they are no longer seen to be part of it.'' Nor is it only politicians who appear to be oblivious to the essential altruism of Australians.
Recently, AFR BOSS magazine hosted working lunches in Sydney and Melbourne with people from academia, the corporate sector, unions and consultancies, in order to find Australia's true leaders. While the discussion covered several areas, the two standout issues were the need to be a values-based organisation and the overwhelming desire on the part of employees to be engaged in work that gave their life meaning.
Les Fallick, director at Gresham Investment House, began by saying, "Money is not a good motivator and not a good rewarder and if our leaders [in the corporate sector] only provide us with more money, then I don't think they pass the test of leadership. People are looking to be inspired in a much broader and deeper way.''
According to Dexter Dunphy, professor at the University of Technology Sydney, he is constantly approached by former students all asking the same question, "Can you tell me a corporation where I can go and find a job where I'm doing something that has some meaning?'' Talk of meaning, decency and altruism makes a lot of people nervous. Nevertheless, an example of when Australians were given an opportunity to show what they are made of was the Sydney Olympic Games. Sydneysiders were more shocked by their own welcoming smiles than they were by the unseasonally brilliant weather.
And when people got an opportunity to show their support for reconciliation, millions took part in walks across Australia. When East Timor had its darkest hour, the demonstrations that broke out across the nation forced John Howard to scramble for an international military intervention. However, according to Samuels, "To alter our ideas about leaders also means we need to alter our ideas about ourselves as citizens. "What looks like political apathy is actually a pervasive sense of powerlessness, often accompanied by intense self-criticism. We feel we don't have the power to do what we know needs to be done. We can't solve the problems of poverty, injustice, environmental vandalism, so we give up on politics and retreat into our own private lives."
For Samuels, the solution is a simple one. "If we can accept that perfection is unattainable and that we can only be good-enough citizens, then we are freed to take the actions that we are capable of, and leaders are freed to become good-enough leaders. That may sound pretty unspectacular, but it would be a vast improvement on where they are today."