Counteracting One Nation
Seat by seat
by Jennifer Menzies
Sometimes it takes a populist to defeat a populist.
In 1998, then Queensland Premier Peter Beattie understood the anger and grievance that drove the protest vote, leading to the election of 11 One Nation (ON) members in the Queensland Parliament. By the 2001 election he had successfully counteracted that protest vote and went from a minority government to holding 66 seats in the 89 seat Parliament.
Beattie’s approach was not to dismiss these concerns but to develop a detailed and local understanding of the issues driving discontent and crafting policies to address them. As Beattie recently pointed out, community cabinet meetings were critical to gaining that understanding.
In 1998, the community cabinet model was established as an initiative to address the rise of the One Nation party and was included in the agreement with Independent Peter Wellington to support a minority Labor government.
Populist movements, such as One Nation (now, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation), claim to speak for ‘the people’ because politicians are not listening to their concerns and are out of touch with the electorate.
Community Cabinet gave people the space to express the grievances, which drive populist movements. The aim was to rebuild the relationship of executive government with local communities and to ensure the government did not become remote or disengaged from the community and the issues that were critical to people’s lives.
The meetings were used to direct attention to the legitimate workings of the institutions of representative government. The idea was to direct attention back to the process of government and demonstrate the responsiveness of representative democracy. Many of the early community cabinets were held in seats either won by One Nation of with a large percentage of One Nation voters.
The Director-General of the Department of the Premier and Cabinet Professor Glyn Davis, at the time said the meetings provided for ‘regular, unrehearsed and unmediated contact’ with ‘undiluted public sentiment’ and ‘serve as an early warning system for emerging issues and as a constant barometer of how the government’s message is being received’.
As well as an early warning system, community cabinet brought a number of other benefits to both the community and government. The meetings showed that all Queenslanders had the right to access Ministers and senior Departmental heads. By bringing these decision-makers into their territory it allowed for an unfiltered access to the executive heart of government.
As well, the meetings were a way to let off pressure with local protest groups or disgruntled individuals and translating that protest to dialogue. Beattie was especially skilled at bringing in protest groups from the footpath outside into the meeting, encouraging their issues to be aired and incorporated into the general discussion. He also sought to increase people’s understanding of the limitations and realities of government and would often stress that Government did not have the answer to all problems.
Within Government, the advantages of the monthly community cabinet meetings were many. Senior Departmental officials attended meetings as well as the Cabinet and from this they gained an understanding of the pressure points of service delivery, policy hot spots and the impact on the community of new policy directions. This led to early identification of emerging issues and a community-by-community understanding of local concerns.
This understanding also allowed for the development of initiatives that responded to the diversity and complexity of Queensland’s political, social and economic life. In the longer term, the meetings helped to dissipate issues as direct action was taken in response to community concerns.
The rebirth of One Nation as a political force in Queensland is not identical to the first wave in 1998, but as the Beattie Labor Government was able to rapidly and successfully address the underlying concerns, which spark off such protest votes, it is a model worth harvesting for the lessons which remain applicable today.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JENNIFER MENZIES
Jenny is Deputy Director of the Policy Innovation Hub at Griffith University. Jenny has over 25 years experience in policy and public administration in both the State and Commonwealth Governments.
As a senior executive within the Queensland Department of the Premier and Cabinet she developed the government’s strategic policy agenda including the Smart State Policy.
She was Cabinet Secretary from 2001 to 2004 and the inaugural Secretary for the Council for the Australian Federation from 2007 to 2009. She publishes in the fields of caretaker conventions, federalism and intergovernmental relations.
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