Former NSW Premier Mike Baird has said Australian politics has become dominated by career politicians more interested in winning elections than creating bona fide change.
“The biggest [disappointment] to me is political leaders that don’t do what they know is right or what they believe in. That invariably means that people are managing to try and win elections,” Mr. Baird told Future Generation Australia CEO Caroline Gurney on a podcast on Jan. 8.
“They’re stoking division for that aim—because they’re either trying to drive support in their base or they’re trying to drive people away from opponents. And I think we’ve lost something. I think we’ve lost you know that great capacity—what is needed for our country.”
Mr. Baird also maintains that politicians must have limited stints in public service.
“Most politicians stay well beyond their expiry date. They almost became institutionalised. It became almost a career. I always viewed it as a chance to contribute, to try and shape and change—and then go and do something else.”
Mr. Baird’s comments come just a week after the release of a study that found Australia’s politicians are the most disorderly in comparison to some Western contemporaries.
Philip Cowley, a political science professor at Queen Mary University of London conducted research comparing levels of parliamentary conflict during Question Time between the United Kingdom (UK), Canada, Australia, and Ireland.
Australia was ranked the worst, with an average of 12.8 interventions by the speaker of the house in every Question Time.
Career Politicians
Although spending 10 years as a NSW MP, treasurer, and premier, Mr. Baird began his career in banking, working for both the National Australia Bank (NAB), the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC), and Deutsche Bank up until his preselection for the seat of Manly in 2007.Upon exiting politics in 2017, Mr. Baird returned to the private sector, serving as a chief customer officer for NAB. He now serves as CEO of Hammondcare—a non-profit Christian charity focusing on aged care.
In contrast, several prominent political leaders in Australia have served their entire careers in the public service.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese worked as a researcher and adviser for various ministers before entering Parliament in 1996, where he has remained ever since.
Entering public service straight out of university, Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen was initially elected to Fairfield Council before he entered Parliament in 2004.
For Treasurer Jim Chalmers, before entering Parliament in 2013, he was a ministerial research officer and adviser with a brief stint as the executive director of the Labor-aligned think tank, the Chifley Research Centre.
Structural Issues Contribute to Careerism
The influx of career politicians is connected to structural issues within political parties.Individuals wishing to enter politics must receive support from political parties and internal factions. For those outside of these networks, it is difficult to win support, meaning aspiring candidates typically must find work within the party to first acquaint themselves.
Further, Australian political leaders must select their ministers from existing candidates that have been voted in—like the UK and New Zealand—which is not the case in some other countries.
In Indonesia for example, citizens vote for the presidential and vice-presidential candidates of their choice. The president then picks his team for the executive, the team that runs individual portfolios.
This allows the president to pick people with relevant backgrounds to run portfolios.
Indonesia’s former Trade Minister Thomas Lembong for instance, had a career spanning 15 years in banking and private equity. He had never been in politics before his ministerial appointment by then-President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) in 2015.
Similarly, the former Minister for Communications Rudiantara spent the majority of his career running large telecommunications companies.
