Senator Andrew Bartlett
Tuesday, October 19, 2004
 
It's certainly not for me to comment on what other parties should do in the current situation, but it has been interesting as an observer to see some of the tos and fros regarding the ALP frontbench options.

I will make the comment that the faction system seems to be working against ensuring the best talent gets to the fore - slicing positions up according to faction and then again by state would seem to make it harder to get the best outcome. However, you are dealing with a group of people and there will always be a range of factors that might not seem related to talent that have to be taken into account.

Even though John Howard has a lot more freedom to pick and choose his Ministry as he sees fit, there are still factors such as state representation, the personal and ideological groupings that pass for factions in the Libs and things like the need for fresh blood that always make for a balancing act beyond just pure 'talent'. (Of course there's also the wide variance of views as to who is talented and who isn't that complicates things further.) It should be emphasised that people can also play a valuable role on the backbench too. Whilst it's true that both major parties have a few long-term and short-term duds on their backbench who they have to try to find various other positions for, there are certainly good value backbench people too. I can best comment on the Senate people as I don't know many of the Reps people well enough.

Of the ALP people, there's already been wide comment on the skills and ability of John Faulkner and the loss of his skills from the Senate Leader position. However, I expect he can still be of great value in the same way as Robert Ray has been for some time now. One who is now gone but performed a good value bringing some intellectual rigour into some Senate Committees is Barney Cooney.

Another, who I noticed got a bit of criticism in the last day or two, is Claire Moore. I assume the criticism is just some cross-factional point scoring, but Claire undoubtedly plays a valuable role for the ALP in Qld. She is not someone who is ever likely to be a Minister, but she has certainly been very valuable in retaining some credibility for the ALP amongst refugee groups and is a very regular attendee at a lot of social justice events. This is not likely to be the key focus of the ALP over the next 3 years (sadly) but they still need people present on the ground, linking in to and supporting those people who support those issues. Claire does that better than any other major party MP I know and she is probably able to do it so well precisely because she isn't preoccupied with angling for a front bench spot.

Craig Emerson is someone else with ability who will also be able to be useful on the backbench if he is allowed to be, although it may well be more of an intellectual role than a community group or parliamentary focused one. On a related matter, I should put in a positive word for the guy who is replacing him on the frontbench - Joe Ludwig. I guess it's understandable that people assume he is just being promoted through factional muscle linked to his father, Bill Ludwig, who is usually described as a major Qld Labor powerbroker. I don't know his father, so my perceptions of him are just as much shaped by the media portrayal as everyone else's.

However, regardless of what Bill may be like, from my experience with Joe, he is a very intelligent and thoughtful Senator. He does bring an intellectual rigour to the issue before him and he is willing to consider issues, rather than just try to spout whatever the party line is. He actually has quite a lot of valuable real world experience - a lot of it may be as a Union advocate, but that can bring you into contact with a lot of people's real life experiences when they are in very difficult circumstances. Seeing the actual impact of decisions (whether they are by Govt, business, employer or union) on the lives of individuals is very important. Anyway, I think he'll probably be quite good, although it may depend a bit on what portfolio he gets.

It probably isn't helpful for me to give personal assessments on heaps of other people, but there are still some good policy minds that will be on the Labor frontbench, regardless of the horse-trading overt he next few days. Chris Evans and Stephen Conroy both know their stuff and have a sense of what is realistic. Nick Sherry certainly knows the superannuation area (even he has been unfairly harsh about some of the Democrats' decisions). I don't know if he's at risk of the 'generational change' excuse or being factionally squeezed, but I hope not.

Anyway, whilst I imagine most of the media focus will be on the personalities and factional dramas and the surrounding soap opera, underneath it all there will still be a fair number of capable people with good brains and a reasonable amount of heart. The issue will be whether those hearts and minds will be allowed to produce what is needed.

posted by Andrew Bartlett @ Tuesday, October 19, 2004
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