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  Issue No 86 Official Organ of LaborNet 02 March 2001  

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Interview

Master of Opposition

Interview with Peter Lewis

Over the past five years, John Faulkner has turned the Senates Estimates structure into his own House of Pain. He explains the art of Opposition.

 
 

When you lost power in 1996, did you think it would be this hard?

I think because of the extent of our defeat we weren't under any illusions about what lay ahead for us. Obviously it has been a difficult time, but the Party has remained focussed and united and I think it has been a very effective Opposition. So effective, of course, that we won 20 seats in the 1998 Federal Election, as Kim Beazley said on the night - the most seats ever won by a first time Opposition. And I think we have kept our discipline and now, with less than a year to go to the next Federal election are more than competitive. We, I think have an excellent chance of victory.

You are regarded as one of the masters in Opposition, what is the secret to running negative?

One of the secrets is not to be too negative. It is important that any Opposition takes seriously its role in appraising government policies and practices that it doesn't agree with, but also, always maintains its focus as an alternative government. I think that is really what the Labor Party has done well. We just haven't slipped into becoming Her Majesty's loyal and perpetual Opposition. We have always considered ourselves a serious alternative government, opposing by putting forward a platform for government, although obviously in the eyes of the electorate, we are seen as the Opposition. People see the Government; they see the Opposition; they acknowledge that Labor is in Opposition; that Kim Beazley leads the Opposition and other members of his team. But always, we have had our eye on the main game and the interests of those people we represent, which of course, is forming a Labor Government at the first possible opportunity. So, it is a question of getting that balance right between being in Opposition but being a credible and serious alternative government.

By the same token, it seems you have had lots of material to work with. Has it surprised you how many openings you have found?

I think Labor's Senate team has been pretty skilful in the Senate estimates process and in finding the weaknesses in the Government administration, and there have been plenty of weaknesses to try and exploit. It is one thing to be able to expose them; find them - and that is a task for the Senators - and then having done that the next task is to ensure that others in the community learn about them and understand the difference between what the Government's approach might have been on these issues and matters, and what Labor's alternative is.

How in nuts and bolts terms do you get an issue, like say, the Costello smirk story up into the public domain?

This is not rocket science. In relation to Mr Costello's smirk there was a very small article on page 42 of the Sydney Sunday Telegraph. Last weekend I happened to be reading it on the plane going down to Canberra before the Estimates Committee, and I thought well, these are the sorts of questions we should be asking the Department of Prime Minister & Cabinet, who of course have, engaged a media consultant employed by the Prime Minister, a character called Geoffrey Cousins. We don't know what he does with his time, but apparently he is paid $45,000 a year to try and make the Liberals more media savvy and this journalist was suggesting that part of that money is going in to try and remove the smirk from Peter Costello's face. I'll tell you one thing, I reckon we did as much as the consultant for $45,000 after removing his smirk. We certainly took it off his face for a few days.

Are there occasions when you actually have to get the issue up into the media first to run off it?

Oh no. That is just a bit of spin from Costello. Most of these issues you have got to make yourself and that goes to the effectiveness of the Opposition's own operation and the Opposition Senators - the Labor Senators - ably assisted by their staff and their colleagues in the House of Representatives. Look, in Opposition the Senate Estimates Committee process is the best accountability mechanism that the Commonwealth Parliament has. And of course, a serious Opposition must treat such an accountability process seriously. I think we do, and we give it a real focus and I think we have got some very good results because of it.

It has been suggested by some that you are so good in Opposition because of your experience being in a minority of one of Level 9 in Sussex Street for several years. Who is the tougher opponent? The Howard Government or the NSW Right?

Well, that was a long time ago. I think the Labor Party has understood, right through the period of the Hawke and Keating Governments, in the Senate for example, that you are not working with the numbers. We've never worked with the numbers in the Senate. You have got to go back a very, very long time in Australian political history to find a situation where the Australian Labor Party has the numbers in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. So, it is second nature to us. I don't think it's so much about my background in machine politics.

But look, I'll tell you one thing. Many of our Senators have a background in either the Trade Union Movement or in machine politics, as you would expect, because of the system that operates within the Labor Party, and even though we are roundly criticised by the Conservatives because of this, it is a damn good training ground.

The Labor Senators don't come in as a na�ve group of political lightweights. I am just typical of that with a very long period in machine politics, nearly 10 years working for the NSW Branch of the Labor Party. The fact that you come from a minority section or a majority faction or anywhere else, or some other part of the Labor movement, I don't think is relevant. I think more significant is the fact that most of us have had a lot of experience in terms of hard politics before we come into the Parliament, and sure, it's different. There are new skills to learn. We can't always translate experiences in the Labor Party or the Trade Union Movement to the Parliament, but they are always valuable, and it is a tremendous background and I think the Conservatives sling off at us because of this sort of background are really disadvantaged because they don't have it.

Day after day in the Parliament - you get characters like Alston and Minchin and others in the Senate, and of course Reith and Abbott in the House of Representatives, slinging off at Labor because of our Labor machine, or trade union background. And as I always say - so what? We are proud of it. We are proud of our trade union background. We are proud to say that for some part of our lives we worked in the interests of Australian workers and their families, and when you look at that mob of sleazy, spivvy lawyers on the other side of the Parliament, I reckon man-for-man and woman-for-woman we match them every inch of the way.

What would you say was your biggest hit over the last five years in the Estimates forum? Which was the issue that you got the most personal satisfaction out of raising?

I think we have had a lot of hits over the years. The most recent one which had real significance was over the tax advertising - particularly the Prime Minister's direct mail letter which we were able to use the Senate Estimates Committee process effectively to stop a direct mail letter using the Commonwealth electoral rolls.

We have had a lot of hits. Some of them have been quite significant like that one. Others have been a little bit amusing. Every now and again there's an issue which reminds you that you can't get too serious about the process. Take for this week's example, the massages offered in the Department of Finance and Administration. People very quickly pointed out that the Department of Finance are normally massaging the magic bottom line and were now massaging bottoms. But then again there have been other serious issues this week. An example of course, was the involvement of the Australian Federal Police in the ABC. So it is a balance, we just try and keep focussed on those sorts of issues where there is interest in the community and interest of course amongst the media - and the mix seems to work.

Can you think of one of the embarrassing moments you've raised that has actually transferred into a good public policy outcome?

The issue I just raised with you in relation to the misuse of the Commonwealth electoral roll for the Prime Minister. I think that in the longer term this will translate into more appropriate use by Commonwealth departments of the electoral roll as a data base and will probably do a great deal to ensure that privacy concerns of citizens.

One of the emerging issues is the lowering in esteem of all politicians in the rise of One Nation; the politics of discontent. When you are running negative, are you mindful of this?

When you say, running negative, that's a fair point to make. But don't forget that a little bit of transparency in government - appropriate use of the Parliament's accountability mechanisms - is what this business is all about. I mean, the Conservatives wax lyrical about the importance of the Senate as a House of Review - well, if that is mechanism for accountability that's what we are doing. Estimates Committee, I think, is an enhancement for the Parliamentary process, not the opposite, and I would be willing to defend it anyway. And I think this is while it is an important mechanism as far as Oppositions are concerned, it is something that ought to be defended by Governments as well, and certainly will be defended by any prospective Labor Government.


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*   View entire issue - print all of the articles!

*   Issue 86 contents

In this issue
Features
*  Interview: Master of Opposition
Over the past five years, John Faulkner has turned the Senates Estimates structure into his own House of Pain. He explains the art of Opposition.
*
*  Politics: Beazley the Bridge Builder?
As the Howard Government flounders, Brett Evans looks at the challenges Kim Beazley faces as his hour of destiny approaches.
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*  Unions: Lashing & Loathing at Patricks
Three years since one of the Howard Government�s most infamous episodes, the Waterfront War, Zoe Reynolds discovers how casuals are now doing the doing the dirty work on the docks.
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*  Legal: Workers Without Rights
Mark Morey outlines the legal status and (lack of) rights for foreigners in Australia on working visas.
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*  International: Dispatch from the Dispossessed
Mahendra Chaudhry, Leader of the People's Coalition and the Fiji Labour Party comments on this week�s court decision.
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*  Economics: Business Power and Mobility
The US election season makes it patently clear how Big Business is able to transform its financial resources into political power via campaigncontributions.
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*  History: The Spoilers and the Split
The Movement, Groupers, the DLP and The Doc. All have been blamed in various ways for the ALP split in the 1950s, ensuring the ALP was kept out of federal government until 1972. Can One Nation return the favour?
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*  Review: The New Hard Politics
Dennis Glover argues that policy has taken over from spin as the political battleground of the new century.
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*  Satire: Bradman Latest: Family In Dramatic Court Action
The family of the late Sir Donald Bradman yesterday sought a restraining order against Prime Minister John Howard after it became apparent that he wants to be involved in every single detail of the The Don's funeral.
*

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Columns
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»  The Locker Room
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»  Tool Shed
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Letters to the editor
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»  Banks: Time for Pay Back
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»  Pardons in Perspective
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»  What Man's Burden?
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