Many of the shots laid on Scott Morrison are as justified as they are cheap. But in many respects his hands are tied by what our forebears voted for more than 120 years ago: narrow, not national interests.
Launched by the Arnott’s Biscuit Company in 1904, the SAO remains an Australian favourite.
Nobody is sure what SAO stands for. The most common theory is “Salvation Army Officer”. One of the Arnott brothers was a Salvo.
I have another theory. This pantry staple’s name is actually a tribute to Australia’s most enduring characteristic. I’m not referring to “bland” or “crumbles and gets a little flaky under pressure”, let alone “hard to swallow in large quantities without taking a drink”.
No, SAO stands for Stubbornly Avoiding Obvious. We Australians have a great appetite for it, expending enormous energy nibbling around the periphery of issues, rather than addressing what lies at the heart of them.
We saw it again when PM Morrison skipped off on a week’s family holiday. A former head of Tourism Australia, he went overseas, for shame! While his “how good is Australia?” dominion suffered an inferno attributed, by many, to climate change. After much clamouring for him to come home and show some leadership while people were dying and losing their homes and businesses – with many others putting their lives at risk to volunteer in the crisis – the PM capitulated and issued a sort of apology for giving offence, if any had been taken, for taking his leave.
What people wanted him to do was take the lead.
The manner in which he made his escape, is one thing: carelessly neglecting to observe the convention and appoint an acting PM in his absence, part of a ploy, it seems, to trick the press gallery into not noticing that he was, in fact, away, out of the country.
Caught out, Scomo (or Smoko as people have now “christened” him) and his apologists pointed out that a PM wasn’t likely to add much value holding a fire hose. And besides, he’d offered at every opportunity to provide assistance from the government he runs, if he was asked for it by the state governments he doesn’t run.
Therein lies the kernel of the obvious but unremarked problem: it’s the Constitution, stupid. As it often is, not least in relation to the mildly related disaster of our river systems, their degradation, the mindless overuse of the land around them, the probable contribution of that to climate change, and so forth.
Put aside Morrison’s continued obfuscation on whether climate change was an issue, or appropriate to be discussed at a time like this. The political and legal reality is that the head of the Commonwealth Government can’t actually “take charge” of responding to something that falls within the remit of the States: like fighting bushfires.
At the most basic level, it involves questions like who takes command if the Commonwealth turns up: the army, the air force, the rural fire services, the state emergency service?
Can the Commonwealth make direct grants to those who’ve suffered losses? Or is that a State responsibility? Sure, the Commonwealth can make emergency grants to the States to distribute to bushfire victims. And, just as surely, you’ll probably see States which haven’t been affected by the fires putting their hand out for a share of the loot, for some disaster on their turf. Or an Independent, balance-of-power cross-bencher in the Senate saying, “Fine, but I’ll only approve that if you ban poker machines, get the refugees of Manus and ……”
We have in in this country the wonderfully named COAG (the Council of Australian Governments). It brings coagulation to mind. It was set up to see if it’s actually possible to work around, by consent, the byzantine constraints of our Constitution. In something of a timing miracle, COAG is due to meet next March, to discuss how the Commonwealth and the States might respond more effectively to natural disasters, like bushfires. They’re nothing if not quick on the uptake. We’ve been a continent of “droughts and flooding rains”, and bushfires, since long before most of us turned up here.
Lampoon and lambast “Smoko” as much as you wish. His political instincts might have proved somewhat limited on this occasion, but nothing compared to the limits the Constitution places on him to actually do much in times like these.
And, yes, the Whitlam Government responded to the Christmas Eve Darwin cyclone in 1974. But only, never forget, because the Northern Territory wasn’t a State. It wasn’t protected by the Constitution from such interference by the Commonwealth.
Richard Whitington was a member of Gough Whitlam’s staff from 1974 to 1977. After a subsequent career in advertising, corporate communications and executive recruitment, he retired earlier this year to do some freelance writing. Website: richardwhitington.com
Richard Whitington was a member of Gough Whitlam’s staff from 1974 to 1977. He’d been a journalist, briefly, and a political publicist, later spending 25 years in marketing and corporate communications, initially with the ALP’s advertising agency in the late 70s and early 80s. He finished his career with 20 years in executive recruitment and retired in 2019 to do some freelance writing. Website: richardwhitington.com
Comments
9 responses to “RICHARD WHITINGTON. Bushfire inaction from the Commonwealth? Federation is the real villain.”
Mr Whittington sounds like an apologist for Scott Morrison… oh hang on did i say “sounds like”? … instead of dealing with the problem which is this awful PM, people like Whittington and the media in general consistently make excuses for him and it’s just not bloody good enough.. not nearly good enough.
I think you should read the article again. If nothing else, the article makes abundantly clear that Whittington is no supporter of Morrison. He simply points out the limits of Commonwealth power over the States.
I completely agree that this LNP Government cannot be trusted with anything. Dutton is a pernicious threat to basic freedoms, waiting in the wings. It is also true that the Constitution left all remaining powers to the states – income tax to hospitals. And yet, much has been centralised – income tax by John Curtin in the national war emergency; many more security forces for good and ill, and so on. The former fire brigade bosses have asked for retrofitted RAAF planes (more than the scant few at the Richmond base). NSW endures another LNP government, stubborn about anything decent. If Australia loses its capacity to feed itself, or to provide potable water, surely this is a national security disaster. State boundaries are meaningless in this crisis. The ADF medical corps could go out. And 100 days for many volunteers fighting fires for what was usually a few days, in a few months, is all in line with LNP austerity surpluses. They have asked, and need, decent recompense. COAG-ulation should meet forthwith and, I hope, keep Dutton and that mob at bay. I see NSW is about to privatise state forestry; Qld Labor sticks with Adani and so, it’s all bleak.
If we want to reduce the danger of bushfires in Australia we need to keep the Prime Minister, the fire chiefs and all levels of government as far away from the problem as possible.
Preventative burning is done at the local level and cannot run to a bureaucratic timetable. Over the years I have preferred early morning in calm weather when the bush is still damp. This means the fires have to be constantly re-lit but that is preferable to having them get away from you.
Preventative burning is now over-regulated. This is not the issue of crisis management discussed by Richard and correspondents. It is about crisis reduction. In such a hot summer on top of a drought it was always going to be a tough fire season and our emergency professionals and volunteers are doing a wonderful job.
Mr Whitington, I tend to agree with you. And add one more thing. I am nervous about the Commonwealth, particularly this Government, (being asked to) declaring ’emergency’ about anything. Misusing power, in the name of some supposed imperative, is something not new to this lot. Consider https://publish.pearlsandirritations.com/ernst-willheim-secret-trials-in-the-act-courts/ or what Justice Gagelar had to say in M68 e.g. classic.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/UWALawRw/2018/20.html. Given this, I think it quite appropriate here – where there are calls to ‘bring in the army’ – that the Commonwealth be only able to act at the request of a State.
He cut funding.
He could have given leave much earlier.
He could provide funds for wages and equipment.
He could deal with the causes by shifting to renewables.
Well .. How about the actual Westminster model ?
Three levels of government, each doing its best to claim the highest ground ? – why not two ?
But which two ?
Federal and local my original idea; but even I can see the potential fraughtness there. I’m thinking Andrew Theophanous vs Salim Mehajer ..
And State and local ? – Eddie Obeid vs Salim Mehajer ? There would be, within about six months, internecine chaos.
There’ll never be ease between feds and staters, because staters want Oz to be like Italy once was – a group of small kingdoms.
Whereas, of course, the feds are already a kingdom.
The Constitution couldn’t know how it would handle monstrous egos.
I don’t accept that Morrison’s hands are tied by the Constitution. Howard managed to distribute funds to States for the crumbling road infrastructure through his Roads to Recovery program, which had to be modified to comply. He pushed through the Murray Darling plan buyback, which has largely been derailed by the LNP coalition by the actions of Joyce and Canavan – the drought has shown how disastrous the loopholes those two produced to protect mining and irrigators at the expense of the river system.
Morrison could immediately make funds available in the form of tied grants for the purpose of upgrading the fire proofing of the States. He could create a fund for federal assistance for those who lost their homes – let’s not forget that he has done it for the farmers, many of whom created their own drought issues by over stocking and little forward planning. If Centrelink were agile enough, they could provide assistance on the ground in the form of face to face assistance determination to get money to people within the week. Maybe if the call centres were in Australia, that assistance could be provided more quickly – just saying.
But the big issue that Morrison has completely failed on is his stubborn insistence that the droughts and bushfires have not been made worse by climate change created through burning fossil fuels that we dig up and send overseas, not to mention our own coal burning power stations. He could change the political and environmental scenario overnight by simply stating that the Commonwealth recognises climate change and will introduce legislation to mitigate the harm from fossil fuels, land clearing, water over use and associated climate busting activity. He won’t because he is not a true leader. Rather he is frightened, overweight, white, uneducated buffoon who has worked out with rat like cunning how to game the politics in this country. He is covering his ample bottom at each and every opportunity, while appealing to sky fairies to deliver the goods. History will write him up as a blight on the political landscape. He is a bad joke which won’t go away until an alternative arrives. It doesn’t help that Australians were stupid enough to elect his Government.
Richard Whittington identification of Federation being a thorn in the capacity of the Federal Government to act in the national interest may be factual – but this in no way absolves the Prime Minister of this country from his leadership responsibility. He had significant advance warnings of the potential for these catastrophes to occur.
He could take a leadership role as Bob Hawke did. He could invoke emergency powers. He did nothing except run away – in my opinion so hi family could escape the smoke.
Yes – Federation is an inconvenience, but it is no excuse for failure to lead.