Abstract

It is a sad irony that the Australian media's coverage of Lindsay Tanner's latest book Politics with purpose: occasional observations of public and private life focused almost exclusively on the ongoing tensions in the Labor Party over the toppling of Kevin Rudd, and his less-than-flattering assessment of the party's current state. Since leaving Parliament in 2010 Tanner has repeatedly said that the reduction of our national politics to a tabloid-friendly squabble between personalities was a driving force behind his decision to quit, and the media's one-dimensional presentation of this book as an attack on the Gillard Government seems likely to reinforce this view.

Politics with purpose is a serious and thought-provoking look at the major policy and political challenges Australia has faced over the past 20 years, and those which remain unresolved today. Tanner's critique of the current government and ALP leadership makes up just a handful of chapters in its latter section; the majority of the book is devoted to unpicking some of Australia's knottier public policy issues. In exploring important topics like education and income inequality, multiculturalism and integration, the ties that bind us as a community and the changing nature of work, the economy and industry in a highly globalised world, Tanner has applied both his formidable intelligence and an abiding concern for the human outcomes of political decision-making. It seems only fair then to apply the same measured and rounded approach to analysing his work.

So what are the ideas at the heart of Politics with purpose? The articles, speeches and comment pieces range across the full span of Tanner's Parliamentary career (1993 to 2010) and cover dozens of individual topics, but there are five significant themes which run throughout the book.

First and foremost, Tanner seeks to remind us just how far Australia has come in the past 20 years: economically, socially and culturally. He repeatedly contrasts the 'fairly basic' living standards of his youth with the comfortable lifestyles enjoyed by a majority of Australians today, and emphasises the importance of the Hawke/Keating Government's economic reforms in bringing about this rise in wealth and prosperity. He also points out how much attitudes have changed towards some migrant communities, Indigenous Australians, women and gay and lesbian people, and argues that Australia as a whole has been greatly enriched by the increasing social and economic inclusion of these groups. Not surprisingly, he suggests that the Labor movement generally, and the Labor left in particular (of which he was a prominent member) has been central to bringing about this more progressive and tolerant Australia.

At the same time however, Tanner chides the Left—and especially the current crop of Labor Parliamentarians—for acting as though the work of building a fair and equitable society is largely done. He repeatedly points out that the gains and rewards of the past few decades have not been equally shared, and lists older Australians, those living with disabilities and newer migrant communities from Africa and the Middle East as groups which continue to exist on the periphery of our communities. He acknowledges that maximising the economic and social potential of these groups will likely require some innovative (and costly) policy interventions, but argues that Labor is the natural party to tackle these challenges because making people's lives better is its historical raison d’être. Interestingly however, Tanner does not himself propose any specific solutions to deepen the bonds between new migrants and their adopted home, help older people feel valued and purposeful or maximise the wellbeing of people living with disability. This is quite disappointing considering his reputation as a serious policy wonk, and means that although we get a very clear sense of these being the most pressing issues in social policy today, we don't gain any insights into what Labor—or any other government—should be doing to address them.

Tanner is more willing to put forward specific prescriptions when discussing the third key theme of the book: the importance of embracing internationalisation and opening up Australia's economy to the world market. Readers born during the Hawke/Keating era may be surprised to learn that there was ever any question about embracing the opportunities of a more globalised economy, but Tanner engagingly charts the ideological and internal struggles this posed for a Labor Party built on protectionist and isolationist tendencies. He places himself firmly on the internationalist side of these debates, and states that the only real path to prosperity lies in maximising Australia’s connectedness with the economies of the wider Asian region first, and the world beyond second. Specifically, this means investing more in technological infrastructure which facilitates global connectedness, strengthening and prioritising both tertiary education and vocational skills training, and working to dispel any lingering economic nationalism.

It is hard to fault Tanner’s arguments about the importance of internationalisation, although his passion for the topic is somewhat puzzling considering the widespread consensus within national politics about this approach in recent years. That said, the recent outcry over the proposed sale of Queensland’s Cubbie Station to Chinese interests suggests that economic nationalism may not be entirely dead in Australia, so perhaps he is right to continue forcefully arguing the internationalist line.

Although Tanner is unashamedly in favour of economic growth and social progression, he does acknowledge that rapid change in these areas has undermined some of the bonds which previously held our communities together, and altered social roles in ways that young men in particular are struggling to come to terms with. He is particularly preoccupied with isolation, and the way the modern world creates distance between people even as technologies, population growth and social mobility ostensibly bring us closer together. This fourth theme is perhaps the most personal of the book, as his views seem to have been particularly informed by his own experience of divorce in mid-life.

He writes of finding himself ‘unexpectedly single’ at a time when his peers were deeply immersed in building their homes and families, of the depression, financial pressure and sense of failure that came from living alone in a single flat and wading back into the dating pool after many partnered years, and his growing awareness that our community offers few supports for single people who don’t already belong somewhere. While this period of his own life was reasonably brief—Tanner writes of subsequently re-marrying and beginning a new family—he reminds us that there are many people who go years or even decades without the meaningful social connections they crave. His solution is to re-invest in the footy clubs, neighbourhood centres, CWA circles and community groups which were once at the centre of Australian social life, and to rebalance policy conversations away from a focus on the individual, towards the collective or social good.

These are well-intentioned sentiments, but his suggestion that footy clubs and neighbourhood centres are the solution to modern-day loneliness betrays a creeping nostalgia for the Australia of the past. Today’s generations are far more likely to join a language class or learn Thai cooking than contribute to a CWA bake sale, and Tanner’s high praise for these traditional community networks overlooks the fact that they often served up a rigid and stifling dose of social control along with amiable companionship. The downside of the modern world may very well be occasional loneliness, but at least we’re free of the value judgements and social constraints imposed by the more ‘connected’ Australian communities of the past.                         

The final theme of the book, and the one which has most irritated Tanner’s former party colleagues, is that Labor needs serious reform if it is going to have the energy and ability to address the challenges still facing Australia today. His complaints range across territory that would be familiar to any regular reader of the op-ed sections: the branch system is rotten, candidate and policy selection processes are undemocratic, the parliamentary wing runs roughshod over the grassroots, and the professionals have stolen the party from the ideologues. Like many other Labor critics, Tanner suggests that the party needs root and branch reform, but acknowledges that this is unlikely under a leadership which is solely focused on winning and being in power. There is little to argue with in Tanner’s analysis of the party’s current state, although given that all previous demands for reform have been stonewalled by the party’s chiefs, it’s hard to see what good he thinks such a critique will actually do.

Something that certainly can be argued with however is Tanner’s position on The Greens. He argues that the minor party poses a serious threat to Labor—a view no doubt informed by watching his own margin in the seat of Melbourne gradually be nibbled away by Green voters. Tanner claims that the Greens are so dangerous because they a ‘removed from the responsibilities of governing’, and so can pursue more progressive policies than would ever be implemented in real legislation. He further argues that governing pragmatism means Labor must always balance progressivism with the more conservative preferences of mainstream voters; a fair point, but one that lets his party off a little too lightly. Many would argue that Labor has tipped this balance firmly in favour of conservative interests in recent years and so has left its more progressive members little to keep faith with. In Tanner's telling Labor is not responsible at all for the membership drain on the left, when in fact it appears that the party has consciously traded off progressive support in pursuit of the middle ground.

Further, Tanner is simply wrong to state that The Greens never have to bother themselves with the messy business of governing. Since 2010 the Tasmanian Government has been managed by a Labor/Green coalition, and in both the federal and ACT parliaments Green members play a critical role in supporting minority Labor governments. Former Tasmanian Premier David Bartlett—who negotiated and then led the coalition government after the 2010 election—has often said that the arrangement led to better policy outcomes and stronger consultation than would have been the case under majority government, while the federal Greens have shown that they can both negotiate and compromise when the situation demands it. So if Tanner is really concerned with the end product of policy and the effective representation of views from across the political spectrum, he should be welcoming the rise of the Greens, not condemning it. The fact that he does take such a firmly critical line against the minor party shows that he continues to be a Labor man through and through, however much he may rail against the party’s current state.

Politics with purpose makes an important contribution to the ongoing debate about Australia’s path into the coming century, and provides us with a clear insight into the history and ideology which still informs Labor thinking today. Don’t read it because you want to know who did what to whom inside Kevin Rudd’s ‘gang of four’; read it because, like Tanner, you care about where this country is going and how we’re going to get there together.
 

Jennifer Rayner is a doctoral candidate at the Australian National University.

Lindsay Tanner, Politics with Purpose: Ocassional Observations on Public and Private Life, Scribe 2012.