opinion
Paul Murray: Does Roger Cook and WA Labor’s huge election spending really fit the bill?

While many secondary school students of my generation questioned the relevance of learning Latin, it did provide some interesting history lessons along the way. Latin remains a big part of the roots of our language and gave us many pertinent sayings that continue into the present. Take Juvenal, the Roman poet who wrote satires in the first and second century. We have him to thank for aphorisms like, “Who guards the guardians?” And “A sound mind in a sound body”. He is also given credit for being the first writer to lampoon politicians who try to win public approval with superficial inducements by labelling the practice as “bread and circuses”. As Rome declined before its fall, the “bread” referred to providing free or subsidised wheat to citizens when it became too expensive for the common man through inept government. The modern-day equivalent would be politicians who use public funds to pay household power bills having promised to lower them — and failing. What was known as the Grain Dole began in the late Roman republic and was used by Julius Caesar and others to keep the peace and prevent riots or uprisings. The second part of Juvenal’s sledge referred to big outdoor venues like the Circus Maximus where chariot races and gladiator fights were held, free of charge for citizens. Just hop on the Line B metro train if you can afford to go to Rome on holiday — you’ll have to pay your rail fare because Rita Saffioti is not the Treasurer there — and get off at Circo Massimo station to see the ruins. Or if you want the modern version, just look at the taxpayer money the McGowan and Cook Labor governments spent bringing UFC cage fighting to Perth. They still won’t fess up to the cost. Or that of the Coldplay concert, or the two Italian soccer teams that Saffioti sponsored to play here last year. And consider the $217 million election pledge Cook made this week to build a motorsport street circuit and outdoor amphitheatre in Burswood. Are these really his Government’s priorities in addressing the pressing needs of his citizens? Or are they just distractions, buying votes? Juvenal’s “bread and circuses” line came from his Satire X, which wasn’t a precursor to Twitter, but the 10th in a series of eviscerating commentaries on the decline of Roman society. Juvenal warms to his task in the second chapter, titled The emptiness of power, where he turns his derision from leaders who bribe the public, to those who allow themselves to be bribed: “But what of the Roman mob? They follow Fortune, as always, and hate whoever she condemns. If … the old emperor had been surreptitiously smothered, that same crowd in a moment would have hailed their new Augustus. “They shed their sense of responsibility long ago, when they lost their votes, and the bribes. The mob that used to grant power, high office, the legions, everything, curtails its desires and reveals its anxiety for two things only, bread and circuses.” So the message from 2000 years ago is clear. The powerful are cynical to bribe the public, but those entrusted with a vote are just as culpable if they are so easily bought off by distractions. Which brings us to the State election campaign. There are two questions people should ask themselves when confronted by a political party making promises to get their vote. The first is: “Why now?” That goes to the genuineness of the promise. If it is for something important, the voter should question why it wasn’t done during the previous term of government. WA adopted four-year terms back in the 1980s on the basis that it would allow governments to make well-considered plans and not be hostage to a short electoral cycle. The corollary of that should have been that those governments then ran on their records of achievement over that term, rather than making expensive promises about what they might do if re-elected. The second question is: “How much?” No voter wants politicians to write blank cheques to buy their way into office. The row that broke out this week over whether the Liberals should use Treasury for their costings was both hypocritical and fairly meaningless. In 2017, Labor refused to present its costings to Treasury on the basis they didn’t believe it would be fairly treated. Saffioti got found out very quickly after calling a press conference on Wednesday solely to deliver a political spray — at taxpayer expense. Decked in Labor red in front of a backdrop of party slogans — and holding the presser in an annex to Parliament House apparently to avoid using government offices for rank electioneering — Saffioti ran headfirst into Mark McGowan’s broken promise to establish a Parliamentary Budget Office to vet costings. She seems to have learnt nothing from the underlying message sent by the Corruption and Crime Commission’s castigation of Labor for misusing taxpayer-funded electorate offices and their staff, saying it posed a risk to fair elections, was fundamentally undemocratic and also skirted around serious misconduct. Saffioti should realise that until the election writs are called early next month and the Government moves into caretaker mode that signals the start of the formal campaign, she is the Treasurer first and her responsibilities are to good government — not bad politicking. But the push towards early voting — which I have always opposed — makes the costings far less important anyway. By the time they were released in the last week of the 2021 campaign, 44 per cent of enrolled voters had already cast their ballot. In 2017, it was just 20 per cent, the growth since then making it likely that more than half will vote this year without knowing anything about the costings. So the Liberals will be emboldened to hide theirs until the last minute. I’ve argued that early voting makes public funding of election campaigns wasted money — but this is worse. The West’ Australian’s Jessica Page noted on Monday that Labor had made more than $500m worth of promises in a week, exceeding the $438.8m set aside for “yet-to-be-announced decisions” in the mid-year economic review, suggesting the Cook Government’s spending pledges were now chewing into the State’s $3.1 billion surplus. Saffioti buried the review by releasing it two days before Christmas. It worked because exposure of her unprecedented, inflation-boosting 10.8 per cent increase in government spending got lost in the shopping frenzy. The most notable feature of the election so far is that the pundits predicted it would be all about the cost-of-living crisis, but we’ve seen no promises of substance to make a dent in it. No one seriously thinks that the Liberals can win, but you know when Labor MPs think they’re in trouble and might lose a lot of seats because they roll out “tough-on-crime” policies that their rank-and-file membership hates. Roger Cook’s promise of “life means life” parole reform meets the “why now” criteria, given the litany of cases advanced to justify it goes back well into Labor’s term in office. But the most questionable of the tough-on-crime promises has been the youth bail changes under which those charged with violent offences would be brought to trial within 28 days. The Aboriginal Legal Service says the policy would undermine the administration of justice, increase the likelihood of children being imprisoned, and do nothing to protect the community. “From a perspective of alleged victims and their families, cases that have to be listed for trial within 28 days mean there’s a chance not all the evidence will be assembled,” ALS director of legal services Peter Collins said. “Such that the prosecution will not be in a position to prove the charge to the required standard. “This may result in situations where charges are discontinued completely or a guilty plea to a lesser charge is accepted. That could cause distress to victims and their families. “From an accused young person’s point of view ... They may be found guilty and sent to Banksia Hill or Unit 18 and after that has taken place evidence is uncovered that not only demonstrates the charges could not be proven beyond reasonable doubt, it could even establish that the person is innocent.” What makes it even more questionable coming from Cook is that he attempted a reset from his predecessor’s tough approach to juvenile crime that led to the Unit 18 crisis. As soon as McGowan quit, Cook moved Police Minister Paul Papalia into the corrective services portfolio. Papalia was the author of Labor’s justice reinvestment policy that was adopted into the party’s platform. But the whole concept of justice reinvestment is at odds with the youth bail changes, which is driven by Cook’s electoral needs, not the best interests of WA’s young people. Juvenal would have a field day with this election season.

opinionPaul Murray: Does Roger Cook and WA Labor’s huge election spending really fit the bill?

opinion
Paul Murray: Does Roger Cook and WA Labor’s huge election spending really fit the bill?