The alleged attack on Dr Helen Haines MP and the revelations of an alleged ‘dirt file’ on her held by the Prime Minister’s office are a microcosm of what is wrong with Australian politics. The accused has a reported history of environmental and anti-Israel activism – no motive has been suggested or established by authorities.
As the news unfolded, an American journalist referred to Dr Haines as an Australian ‘lawmaker’. Australians do not usually think of politicians that way, but that is exactly what they are.
When those lawmakers prefer symbolic bans on tools to precise laws that target people who intend harm, the results are predictable. Rather than governing, Labor’s instinct at both federal and state level is to ban the object.
When machete attacks were occurring in Melbourne, the Victorian government’s response was not only to ban machetes but to create ‘machete bins’ for people to dispose of them. A wrecking bar, shovel, pick, or axe can do the same damage. Banning those would stop legitimate work. In NSW, following the Bondi Beach attack, the response was to tighten gun ownership limits and launch a buyback. Guns do not start shooting people on city beaches by themselves, and most people who need firearms live in regional and rural areas. Banning Landcruisers will not stop future attacks on politicians. A Western Australia MLA was allegedly attacked with nunchucks – these are already illegal to carry in public in the state.
Take social media as another example. Bullying has existed in schools and workplaces for as long as those institutions have existed. Bullies now use social media. The solution has been to restrict under-16s from holding accounts and threaten platforms with legal action.
The issue is not the tool. The solution is to make watertight laws that punish the criminal. Our lawmakers should be making laws that ensure people who intend to harm others bear the full brunt of responsibility for their actions. Instead, the banning of tools is hamstringing society. As long as Labor focuses on bans instead of governing, real criminals will use everyday tools to achieve their ends.
This preference for bans provides a symbolic response to an event rather than a practical outcome that protects citizens from criminals. Governments set policies which are enacted as laws. Those policies reflect the values the government is selling. Contrast John Howard’s ‘we will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come’ with Anthony Albanese’s ‘kindness isn’t weakness’ or ‘Labor will bring integrity back to politics’.
Laws must be precise, clear, and targeted. Vague laws invite judges to make up their own minds, as Mia Schlicht noted in relation to the High Court’s Mount Pleasant decision (concerning the use of coal and Scope 3 emissions). The NSW Minns government is now legislating to change the legal position of the mine rather than waiting for the courts.
A former NSW Supreme Court judge argued that this ignored respect for the rule of law by overriding senior courts for political advantage. That is precisely what the separation of powers is meant to prevent. Lawmakers cannot make laws and then decide how they should be interpreted. Our system works best when lawmakers make sound laws and then honour the policies on which they were elected.
There is nothing more dangerous than an efficient bureaucracy without those checks.
Imagine if Labor could do whatever they want without having to carry a majority in both houses or clear the public service. Your super investments would be like a Khemlani loan on steroids for Chris Bowen’s hare-brained energy scams. The ATO’s refusal to absorb card payment surcharges shows the system still forcing a rethink of a stupid policy.
Instead of governing for the people, Labor are hellbent on banning things. The result is that ordinary people lose tools while criminals continue to use whatever is available.
Dr Michael de Percy @FlaneurPolitiq is the Spectator Australia’s Canberra Press Gallery Correspondent. If you’d like to support his writing, please shout him a drink over at Donorbox.
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