If the last few weeks in Federal Parliament have taught us anything it is that the ability of the electorate to recall and possibly fire the government of the day, is of paramount importance because bad government should not be allowed to stand. As it currently stands, the current Morrison Government can let the clock wind down until September 2022; by which time the current set of outrages will have for the government hopefully have been forgotten by the general public and they can go back on their merry way of ruling on behalf of their minders. The old adage that a week is a long time in politics, is useful in that it even a fortnight or a month is sufficient time for outrages to be soothed by the salve of inaction. Here we are more than a year away from the country being on fire and the biggest bushfires in the nation's history, and that has been quietly forgotten by the people of Australia. Unfortunately, that kind of attitude also applies to sexual misconduct and rape within the parliament building and by September 2022, it will all be consigned to the doddering befuddlement of history.
Not quite 125 years ago when the rules for the federal government were being worked out, the 60-odd sweaty men who were arguing away in the Sydney and Melbourne Town Halls, decided upon a maximum term limit of three years for members of the House of Representatives¹ and six years for the members of the Senate². They also decided to retain the ability of governments to go to an early election if they thought that they could gamble upon the goodwill of the electorate, and they gave the reserve powers to recall and dissolve the parliament to the Governor General should the parliament become unworkable. In the light of 121 years of Australian parliament, I think that these original provisions have remained remarkably brilliant. Australia arrived at a very well constituted Federal Government and Parliament, not because of the myth of some founding fathers being wise, munificent, and godlike, but rather because they were all a pack of knaves who couldn't trust each other as far as they could kick each other. It is no accident that symbolically, Westminster parliaments are two swords wide if cut down the centre line of the speaker's chair. This is because politicians need to be close enough to hear each other but just far away enough from each other that they don't attack each other with swords in the chamber.
The Constitution Conventions of the 1880s and 1890s looked at other models of federalism and especially looked at the United States; which at the time, the Civil War was still very much within living memory. Four years it was decided was too long to have to endure, both for oppositions and the electorate and two years was way too short as that would put parliamentarians into perpetual campaign mode. Three years is the halfway point and was determined as being sensible; with governments retaining the right to call an early election because in principle that puts the choice back in front of the electorate. Say what you will about the horrid machinations before the 11th of November 1975, the fact that we had a double dissolution election in December of 1975 still referred the decision back to the people; which in my not very well paid opinion is both sensible and excellent.
I'm going to offend practically everyone here but even with the current set of outrages, the current Morrison Government should still be allowed to stand because the rule of law which put them there has not yet been broken. I could probably list three dozen reasons why they should be removed but ultimately if the rage is maintained, then the electorate will do precisely that.
Three years is just about the limit that most people can tolerate a government that they don't like and having fixed terms much longer than that, means that you get the same government for more than three quarters of a decade; which I think is never good for democracy if it is knavish government.
Good Government which is the phrase used in Section 51 of the Constitution³ has never been tested in court but it should be tested in the court of public opinion; at the ballot box. Bad government does not consider the cause of the poor, the vulnerable, or the afflicted because knaves simply do not understand or care about such knowledge. When good government rules and dare I say noble people are in positions of authority, then the people are quietly happy. However, when knaves, blackguards, thieves and awful people rule, the people groan. If governments deliberately go around giving blood noses to people, then all that is produced is strife.
Long time British MP and my political hero Tony Benn had five questions to ask of powerful people:
What Power Have You Got?
Where Did You Get It From?
In Whose Interests Do You Exercise It?
To Whom Are You Accountable?
How Can We Get Rid Of You?
If you can not answer that last question then you do not live in a democracy. Ideally I'd like to have that question answered sooner rather than later, or at the moment with the current outrages, immediately but I am forced to wait.
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