Our politicians do not gerrymander boundaries, or pardon criminal mates, or stack the highest court as Trumpian America does. But we still need a national integrity commission.
When you are thinking that after the bushfires, floods, coronavirus and economic destruction not much more can go wrong in 2020, just turn to the United States for assurance that it can. But whatever calamity the hand of fate delivers us in the future, we Australians can be far more confident of our institutions protecting us against political and criminal abuse than can the American people. Maybe it’s time to count our blessings and ensure they keep flowing.
Let’s start with the democratic process of voting. State governments run the American electoral system. Eligibility to vote and the convenience or difficulty of casting a ballot depends at least in part on the political stripe of their governors and their legislatures. In Australia, in the Orwellian year 1984, the Australian government established the independent Australian Electoral Commission to conduct elections and maintain the electoral roll.
Australia has mostly adopted the principle of one vote one value, ending the practice of gerrymandering where some state governments drew electoral boundaries to their political advantage. Yet a vote in sparsely populated American states is worth more than a vote in the populous states such as California and New York. This helps explain why Hillary Clinton outpolled Donald Trump in 2016 by 3 million votes but lost the presidential race.
These weaknesses in the American system predate Trump. But he has systematically attacked American institutions designed to provide checks and balances against the misuse of political power. The American President has the power to pardon criminals convicted under federal law. Trump’s predecessors have exercised this power, but Trump’s commuting of a 40-month prison sentence for his political ally, Roger Stone, was described by Republican Senator Mitt Romney as "unprecedented, historic corruption."
If an Australian politician sought to influence a court to grant clemency to a friend or ally it would be a national scandal. Australian politicians criticising court decisions can be found to have committed the offence of contempt, a prospect that led to three federal ministers apologising to the Victorian Court of Appeal in 2017 for their adverse comments on a sentencing decision.
During the Black Lives Matter protests in Washington DC in June 2020, Trump called in the military and the police to clear a pathway through the protesters so that he could display a bible in front of a church. Australian media representatives were among those physically attacked by police. America’s top general, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley, wearing his combat uniform, followed Trump to the church. A week later, General Milley issued an apology, stating “I should not have been there.”
Australian political leaders would not countenance deploying the military in this way and nor would our military leaders.
Trump is determined to install a conservative appointee to the Supreme Court to replace progressive Supreme Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, before the 3 November presidential election. This would further tilt the Supreme Court to the conservative side.
Australian political practice generally has not been to seek a High Court that is politically biased one way or the other. At least in the modern era, the High Court has not been perceived to be particularly conservative or progressive.
If, compared with Trump’s presidency, Australia is doing pretty well in protecting its institutions and maintaining the separation of powers, where are we faltering?
The Australian National Audit Office has exposed the so-called Sports Rorts scandal that led to the resignation of a minister, its audit raising numerous largely unanswered questions. It also found the infrastructure department had paid 10 times the market value of a block of land at the Badgery’s Creek airport site.
The Auditor General has written to the Prime Minister, requesting the Office’s funding be placed on a more sustainable basis following recent budget cuts and a reduced number of audits. With the budget deficit this year likely to exceed $200 billion, a request for several million dollars to restore the Audit Office’s budget seems entirely reasonable.
Some federal Victorian politicians are alleged to have misused their electoral allowances for branch-stacking purposes. The government has called in the Department of Finance to investigate. Without physically witnessing these transgressions as they occurred, the department will need to rely on written statements that no misuse occurred. Those statements are very likely to be forthcoming. Case closed.
The major parties are committed to establishing a Commonwealth Integrity Commission. Attorney-General, Christian Porter, confirmed in May 2020 the existence of draft legislation, but has indicated its release is being delayed owing to the government’s attention being diverted to dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Release of the draft legislation for public comment would provide assurance that the government is genuinely committed to establishing a Commonwealth Integrity Commission during the current parliament.
Unlike Trump, the Australian government is not systematically undermining the institutions and the separation of powers vital to protecting our democracy. Australia’s democracy would be strengthened by reaffirming the protections put in place by the Constitution, the courts and successive Australian governments. And our hopes and spirits would be lifted by a properly funded Australian National Audit Office and the establishment of a Commonwealth Integrity Commission.
Craig Emerson is a distinguished fellow at the ANU, director of the Australian APEC Study Centre at RMIT and an adjunct professor at Victoria University’s College of Business.