Today, I bring you an editorial column I was invited to write for the latest edition of the Hawkesbury Post.
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“Have you noticed how nasty politics has become? I’m tired of it, and I suspect you are too.
People used to be willing to admit that people of differing convictions are capable of being honourably motivated. So why has a conversation about ideas been replaced by recrimination and litigation? Blame politicians who declare the press to be their enemy, shrug off any negative commentary as ‘fake news’ and endlessly play the victim card when called to account. Donald Trump has a lot to answer for, and we shouldn’t reward those who now emulate him.
Perhaps this hyper-partisanship comes from social media and the age of misinformation we now inhabit, along with the shorter attention spans our device-addictions have given us.
When I teach my students about critical thinking and ethics, I start by asking them to put up their hands if they’ve ever received a scam email, text or phone call. Almost always, every hand goes up.
This starts useful conversations about evaluating truth claims, wherever they come from. Is the caller claiming to be from my bank trustworthy? Is vaccination safe? What should we do about the environment? Is that charismatic, rolex-wearing pastor just filling his pockets? Which party and their policies will leave a better world for our kids? Teaching is as much about encouraging sceptical and evidence-driven habits of inquiry, as it is about ‘right answers’. It’s satisfying to see ‘lightbulb moments’ in the faces of young people, and this keeps me upbeat. It convinces me that people want to care deeply, if information is put before them in a way that respects their intelligence and invites their engagement.
Time-poor people often use the shortcut of picking a political brand to make sense of the world. 66% of voters voted for a Party at the last Council elections in 2021, winning nine out of the twelve positions on Council. Before 1995, there were no parties on Council, just twelve good citizens. Perhaps we should return to that.
When I speak to locals, many report disenchantment because of a perception that there is no longer any meaningful difference between the Labor and Liberal parties on Hawkesbury Council. For many years they’ve regularly backed each other in to stitch up the positions of Mayor and Deputy Mayor, lock others out of committees (and recently, abolish them), and have spent their time backing policies that are sharply out of step with their grass roots, whether that’s on the environment, or heritage, or development, or accountability.
It’s one thing to be collegiate, but this looks increasingly like a racket.
Fortunately, Aussies can spot such inauthenticity a mile away.
Many of those elected on party tickets would never be elected under their own steam, and contribute very little to chamber debate. It seems likely that the candidates the Liberals will offer up won’t even be the subject of a preselection or a face-to-face meeting to endorse the ticket, leaving their aging and dwindling membership put out that they are expected to show up on election days, pay up, and shut up, robbed of any debate about whether these candidates meet their approval.
After 32 years in the Liberal Party, I confess I was for too long complicit in this pantomime, but I’ve been strongly encouraged by many since finding my independence and my voice, even though this has come at some personal cost. Clearly, the feeling isn’t isolated, evidenced by the decade-on-decade decline of the Labor-plus-Liberal vote from 98% in the postwar period to 68% at the 2022 Federal election.
Modern voters are now far more a-la-carte about their politics. Each of us can find positions we agree and disagree with within the Liberals, Labor and even the Greens. That’s why we get angry when politicians don’t work together.
At my school, as on Council, we think a lot about building ‘culture’. I dream of the Hawkesbury as a city with high social capital, respect for both the natural and built environments, a respected and engaged citizenry, naturally low crime, where growth is guided by need and not greed, where our focus is properly on the basics like roads and equitable rates, but where those in need or distress find themselves promptly surrounded by practical and moral supports.
Council has a role in fostering such a culture. But it can’t come if our elected leaders bicker like schoolchildren, cynically use their platform for higher ambition, or limit the reporting of data that shows who turns up and votes which way. Voters deserve a Council where the views, skills and life-experience of all twelve members are valued.
Thankfully, all such problems can be solved with an election.”
Nathan Zamprogno is an independent Hawkesbury Councillor and local high school teacher.
