We need leaders willing to act with integrity — and in the absence of entitlement

As I was contemplating the topic of today’s column, I was struck by two successive headlines in The Age. The first, reporting ASIC’s decision not to prosecute Crown Resort directors and senior executives for possible breaches of corporate laws. The second, the Morrison government’s decision to ignore concerns that the retirement income system is “heavily weighted toward those in higher income brackets” in favour of maintaining provisions that allow a handful of Australia’s mega-rich to use their super funds to minimise tax and hand their nest egg on as inheritance.

Here, in a nutshell, are the two types of corruption — individual and democratic — that have brought American democracy to its knees and, if not addressed here, will hobble Australian democracy too. It starts with distrust. Not just of the basic integrity of our leaders to play by the same moral rules that apply to the rest of us and be held accountable when they don’t. But also, and just as importantly, trust that the leaders will use their power to establish laws that are fair.

By fair, I mean, not “rigged” — the word of the decade for a reason — to give advantages to some that are not enjoyed by others. Indeed, one reading of the rise of demagogic leaders in the Republican Party (a process begun by Pat Buchanan in the 1990s, continued by Sarah Palin and culminating in Donald Trump) was the rage of what journalist Jeremy Peters describes as the party’s “valley trash” at being passed over by establishment members for leadership positions.

But the rage of non-establishment Republicans ran deeper than that, targeting the policy tentacles of trickle-down economics — everything from high immigration to borderless trade — that benefitted the establishment but delivered downward mobility and economic insecurity to them.

Only when such grievances were ignored, the argument runs, did the “base” go nuclear. Nominating and then helping to elect a president whose appeal was tribal. He looked and sounded like them, and proudly trumpeted their religious and racial biases. But most importantly, he was disdained by the same people who disdained them, which meant every time he was up there giving the other side a black eye, it felt like a win for them.  

In other words, it was only when rank-and-file Republicans gave up on democracy delivering for them that they lashed out by electing a leader like Trump. A man who, while certainly lacking in experience and integrity, would at least ensure the chronic corruption that characterised Washington would favour them for a change. And if he burned it all down? Well, no loss for them, and at least it would be “wild” — and they’d be in charge.

These tragic yet understandable conclusions are instructive for Australians keen to learn the lessons of America’s democratic unravelling so we can avoid them happening here. The main one is that everyone must have a stake in democracy for it to survive, and that this faith is undermined by individual and democratic corruption.

So, what can we do? The first step is to close the book on what experts commenting on the ASIC decision not to prosecute called “the long-term narrative” of impunity surrounding senior government and political leadership in Australia. No one can be — or be seen to be — above the law.

But the problem runs deeper than that, and goes to the corruption of the democratic process itself. The issue of differential access for the rich and other high-fliers to the policy process, and the distorting impact this has on the nature and type of laws passed. How in a democracy designed to serve the public interest did we end up with a law that allows the richest Australians to both pay less tax and to shelter their enormous wealth? And how can we expect Australians to support that system, especially when it stubbornly refuses to change things, even when the rabid unfairness to all but 11,000 of us is pointed out?

Which returns us to the question of the leaders we need to restore faith in Australian democracy before time runs out. Leaders who act with integrity and an absence of entitlement. Who don’t see themselves or anyone else as above the law and will demonstrate this by creating and adequately funding the agencies — from a federal ICAC to ASIC — designed to ensure accountability from those at the top.

And, just as importantly, leaders who will ensure equal access to the policy process so that the only laws that remain on the books, and are written into them, are ones that are designed to serve us all.