****
As Jerry Seinfeld
might put it, what’s the deal with secondary school assemblies? They’re
ritualistic to the point of mundanity, with a side order of militaristic
discipline to boot. Or maybe it’s just a Catholic thing. One particular
assembly at my secondary school – in a land far, far away, obviously (it’s
actually in Melbourne’s western suburbs, which is the same thing, really) –
sticks in my mind. The principal – rumoured to be eccentric – strode to the
lectern and pulled out a note. The date was Friday, 27 July 2007; the principal
declared (in the same tone that John Cleese’s character in The Meaning of Life used to tell a student his mother had died)
that Steve Bracks had just resigned as Victorian premier. The snotty minds of
teenage boys tried to figure if the announcement carried any significance or if
it was just pre-empting the inevitable and inexorable cataloguing of all those
who had done Something Good for the school in the previous term, while
cardigan-wearing English teachers (there was at least one) ruminated on how
this would affect their next Labor branch meeting, attended mainly by stackees
and disillusioned Whitlamites.
Thankfully, we get a much more appreciable account of what
happened leading up to that important day in the life of Steve Bracks by way of
his memoir, A Premier’s State. More
of a history than a commentary, the book – arguably on the shorter side – is
very much Bracks’ way of setting the record straight. Not that much needs to be
straightened, mind you – eight years as premier, a continuation of
privatisation that started under Jeff Kennett, historic reform of the upper
house – so Steve Bracks is hardly a problematic leader in the vein of, say,
Mark Latham, who to my mind always raises more questions than answers with his
appearances and his articles. The Latham
Diaries is a beguiling account of his time as federal Labor leader, which
is always a tough gig (jusk ask Simon Crean, his predecessor, and Kevin Rudd,
his successor) and Latham’s memoir should be read mainly as some sort of
Dostoyevskian horror story about a man with a Munchian scream on his face who
tried to fly too close to the sun in a Kafkaesque nightmare. OK, that metaphor
is complex, belaboured and probably incorrect, but that’s also a good way to
describe the federal ALP as it stands. But of course, I’m not studying politics
as part of my course, so I don’t know anything.
If you have paid at least half-hearted attention to the news
in the last month and a half, you will realise that Bracks is very much back. His
recent appointment as consul-general to New York (seeing it as a game of
political football would indicate the Coalition was the Melbourne Football Club
in that scenario) – a plum and uncontroversial gig usually given to great mates
or great enemies (Kim Beazley’s appointment as ambassador to America and Tim
Fischer’s appointment as ambassador to the Vatican is an example of each (see
if you can work out which is which)) –– was almost overshadowed by his son’s
involvement in Celebrity Splash (if I
could proffer my thoughts on the show, it would be the following: why bother
investing so much if the program lasts only a few weeks, and Adam Richard’s
moustache sucks). He was also at the Williamstown Literary Festival recently,
where he and former journo James Button (who was without notes and extemporised
brilliantly) summed up the political landscape with much despondency.
One reason you should at least try and bum a copy from the
library is to see how Bracks sees his political adversaries. Premier Denis
Napthine, who was state Leader of the Opposition between 1999 and 2002, is
described by Bracks as finding the leadership as “burdensome” and being
“introspective”.
On Latham:
I really had very little to do
with Mark Latham over the years I was involved in politics, but the little I
knew about him led me to believe that he would be a high-risk leader of the
federal ALP. He seemed to have a permanent chip on his shoulder, which resulted
in him constantly belittling groups of people from all walks of life. He also
regularly overestimated his own ability. I remember being shown a draft
education policy that he had written when he was the shadow education minister
– it was almost incomprehensible and as a result was never used. (268)
On Ted Baillieu when he became Leader of the Opposition:
It seemed to me that he lacked
determination. People used to say to me: “Oh no, that’s just one of his
characteristics. That’s just his style.” But I still thought he looked a bit
half-hearted and gave off this air that he was only doing the job because he
had to, because he felt obliged to, not because he was hungry for it. (204)
This passage seemingly proves my hitherto-unrevealed
hypothesis that Ted Baillieu was only doing it for the same reason Mitt
“R-Money” Romney ran for president last year and “Dubya” Bush ran for a second
term (surely even he realised he changed America – and by the definition, the
rest of the world – for the worse in his first term): daddy issues. Sure,
Wikipedia tells us that it was not Baillieu’s father but his great-grandfather
instead who was in state parliament back in the day, but still the same
principle of familial obligation applies.
Also of interest is his critique of the Greens, which he
chooses to identify as the “Green Party” so as to remind readers of their
political allegiances. Says Bracks:
The Green Party purports to be
disdainful of party politics, actively discouraging the perception that they’re
participating in a political process. But the fact is that they are a registered
political party that seeks to gain and then wield political power. Their
failure to admit this and instead attempt to disguise their true nature by
cloaking themselves in “The Greens” is tantamount to dishonesty… Their
untruthfulness is just one reason why I believe the Green Party is not fit to
govern. I also think they lack universal policies that would clearly advance
Australia. They are essentially a single-issue party that has tacked on other
strategies for the sake of political convenience. (252)
Given that he co-authored a review into the ALP after 2010
with fellow party elders John Faulkner and Bob Carr, his warning against
shacking up with the Greens for political convenience – repeated at his
Williamstown Literary Festival appearance – should be read seriously,
especially by Melbourne MHR Adam Bandt, who is predicted to be looking for a
new job come September 15 8:
Labor simply cannot continue to
accept the capture of just over 30 per cent of the primary vote, rather than
the 40 per cent it has traditionally gained, which necessitates a reliance on
preferences from another party to form government. (256)
It would seem that Labor’s malaise and the rise of the
Greens are connected; how to untangle this veritable Gordian knot is the
million-vote question. Bracks, by the way, identifies the rot as being caused
not only by poor communication but unwanted leadership change, real and
speculated (something that Bracks never had to deal with), has to be named as
well.
Sure there are photos and stories of Bracks’ coming of age,
but the point is that Steve Bracks’ memoir is one to read for the two people
reading this who want to have a successful career in social democratic
politics. For everybody else, A Premier’s
State is a good history of a certain period by a person who is well placed
to write about it, but should have had more reflections. Maybe he’s not done
yet.
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