The Democrats - a party with punch

Don Chipp's recent passing is a great loss to Australia and the party he helped create is deeply saddened. But we are also angry that his death generated another round of media reports ringing the death knell of the Australian Democrats.

For one thing, the reasons Don helped form the party have not gone away. Indeed the new Howard-takes-all environment is at least as dire as that in 1977 when Don … wondered if the ordinary voter was not ... becoming sick and tired of the vested interests which unduly influence political parties and …  fed up with the politics of cynicism, character assassination and misleading statements.

For another, the Democrats still offer Don's politics based on three simple virtues that have been badly battered and abused … I speak of honesty, I speak of tolerance, and I speak of compassion.

I'd say Mr Howard's record in acceding to the will of a foreign power in a pre-emptive attack on another country on grounds known to be false, incarcerating asylum seeker families and dog-whistling Australian Muslims in the name of protecting Australian values, show a lot less honesty, tolerance and compassion than the worst that Malcolm Fraser had dished out by the time Don resigned in 1977.

Since sidelining opposition parties with its slender majority, the Coalition has taken an axe to the Senate's capacity for scrutiny. 

Extreme industrial relations and anti-terror laws were pushed through with the most minimal debate. Anything is now possible: big tax cuts for the rich; tax free superannuation for the rich; and ditched responsibility for what's left of public ownership in Telstra with little consumer protection and no guarantee of universal broadband. 

No negotiation beyond Coalition ranks unless Barnaby Joyce threatens to play up, no successful amendments, no legislation knocked back for being too extreme, no more inquiries revealing uncomfortable truths, all committees chaired by government, all but the most benign motions knocked back. This is the new order.

And the ALP is not much of an opposition. Mr Beazley's mob votes mostly with the Coalition, afraid of losing the shock jock debate on the war against terror, biofuels, uranium mining, funding to wealthy schools, anything that just might cost more - the list is long.

Australia, under the major parties, is going backwards on human rights, greenhouse emissions, conserving biodiversity, depleting aquifers, retaining carbon in the soil, affordable housing, affordable mortgages, foreign debt, interest rates and value-adding.

For almost 30 years the Democrats have been drawing attention to these problems and coming up with solutions that are taken up only when our vote matters - which means they are mostly ignored.
 
Don said we would be a third political force representing middle of the road policies but we've also been ahead of the pack with many firsts: Janine Haines - the first woman in Australian history to lead a political party; Natasha Stott Despoja - the youngest woman to ever take a seat in the Senate; Aden Ridgeway - the first Indigenous deputy leader of a political party and only the second Indigenous Federal parliamentarian.

The work of early Democrats senators transformed the Senate from a rubber stamp into a proper house of review.

We didn't always agree with one another: our differences, fanned by the media, were usually played out in public rather than behind closed doors. Playing balance of power politics is like being on a roller coaster. You need to be bold but prepared to compromise and your enemies are out to get you. Labor told voters we went back on a promise to stop the GST. Not true - we promised to make it fair.

Don and his colleagues were successful very early in saving the Franklin River and setting up World Heritage legislation. We have since negotiated fairer native title and industrial relations laws; taken GST off essentials; introduced fuel standards and vehicle emission; the National Safe Schools Framework to tackle bullying; removed taxation from full-time postgraduate scholarships; increased levels of overseas development assistance; won discounts on Telstra services for pensioners; toughened trade practices laws and laws on accountability of parliamentary entitlements; won hundreds of amendments on Federal environment and heritage laws; forced equal treatment of same sex couples in superannuation law, to name a few.

It’s not a bad record for a party that’s said to be finished.

So why do journalists argue that the Democrats are dead?

What do they hope to achieve by this constant negating? Do they want a return to the bad old days where the Senate is an emasculated house, a rubber stamp for the government's ideological excesses? And do they realise that they are now in fact driving the potential demise? Who's going to vote for a party when they are constantly told they are dead?

Let's face it, people's views on politics are shaped by what they read, see and hear. And the majority of voters get their information about politics from TV, newspapers and radio.

I challenge journalists to tell us what else we need to do to stop the graveyard stories. Our influence in the parliament remains high and our small team is highly regarded by those who know our work.

Even without the balance of power, we have delivered a $1.8 billion increase in mental health spending, our sustained campaigns contributed to offshore migration Bill being pulled and agreement for critical inquiries into stolen wages and gynaecological cancer. We forced a conscience vote on RU486 and won, and will likely do this again on stem cell research. Which other party or individual parliamentarian can claim this many wins in less than a year?

We are still the centrist party Don started. If anyone bothered to analyse his platform they would see that we are still campaigning on many of the issues Don did, like human rights, the environment, level playing field for small business and accountability. It’s because the Coalition that has moved so far right that makes everyone else look like they are on the left.

The media yearns for the charisma that was Don Chipp. Good, entertaining one-liners and rousing speeches delivered with conviction and style - combined talents that were as rare then, as they are now. But in any case people expect those of us in politics to have vision, sound policies and to work for the common good: expectations that are usually dashed by the media focus on the contest rather than the content.

I don't believe that the Australian Greens can play the role of balance of power as the Australian Democrats have done. The record of the Green Party shows they eschew the benefits of incremental progress and do not engage in the processes of negotiation needed to achieve it. And, unlike the Greens, we believe that business can and should play a role in the solution to our social and environmental challenges, rather than being sidelined as part of the problem.

I think there's still a future and a need for the Australian Democrats. We can point to a long line of achievements that, through incremental change, has improved society, the environment and the economy.

We believe business can and should play a role as part of the solution to our social and environmental challenges.  Our economic efforts have played a key part in enabling our society to be as prosperous as it is. If we want a democratic and fair society that values justice, diversity and individual freedom - a party that protects Australians from the extremes of Liberal, National, ALP and Green ideology - then the Democrats must survive.