Crikey’s 2021 Politician of the Year shows that, yes, we can have good government

The Keating-era adage “good policy is good politics” is one long honoured in the breach rather than the observance in Australia. The days of smart, reformist politicians using policy bravery as a political selling point are long gone.
What’s changed? A few things. Some bold reforms of yesteryear have delivered far more for large corporations than ordinary voters, rightly prompting scepticism from the electorate. Some of the losers from neoliberal policies — usually white, working-class men — didn’t take their loss of economic and social privilege lying down and drifted to more extreme politicians.
And the media environment is very different. If the current News Corp had been around in the 1980s, it would have led the charge against Hawke and Keating and their “elitist anti-worker economic reforms” in order to return the Coalition to power.
Nowhere has that change been more clearly demonstrated than on climate policy, where a straightforward market-based solution to the problem of CO2 emitters imposing externalities on society has always been available but, for reasons of political opportunism and the malignant influence of fossil fuel companies, been vehemently opposed by the Coalition, News Corp and much of the business sector.
Crikey’s Politician of the Year has found a way to route around the damage of the climate wars to deliver ambitious reform. NSW’s then-environment minister now Treasurer Matt Kean has been the driving force behind NSW’s strong emissions abatement target of 50% by 2030 — nearly double Scott Morrison’s target — and the massive investment in renewables that is behind it.
And he has achieved it with none of the internal rancour that has marked the Coalition in Canberra for more than a decade. Instead, the NSW Nationals are committed to the target.
With the support of Gladys Berejiklian and Dominic Perrottet, Kean has nailed the crucial feature of climate policy — far from being a trade-off between jobs and the environment, as so many on the right have long framed climate policy, in fact jobs and ambitious climate policy go together, and regional communities are best placed to enjoy the benefits of investing in renewable energy.
While a carbon price would be a more efficient mechanism for delivering emissions reduction, direct government investment and enabling of private investment is the more political effective mechanism for achieving that.
The narrative Kean has been selling is one of more investment, more jobs and higher economic growth, along with a significant reduction in emissions. It’s one that Chris Bowen seized on for federal Labor after he took over the climate portfolio, and one that Morrison has belatedly made some effort to employ as part of his sales pitch for a risible net zero by 2050 target — though the dominant narrative from the federal Coalition continues to be that it will protect fossil fuel jobs at the expense of our future.
Kean has shown that we can have effective, centrist, reforming government in Australia, at a time when the Morrison government is a rudderless, corrupt, stunt-obsessed policy void.
Honourable mentions
Kean just edges out Western Australian premier Mark McGowan, who nearly got the gong for a different reason.
In the art of politics, complete annihilation of your opponents is an impossible goal, an electoral Cannae that can never be achieved in a democratic electoral system. But McGowan came close to achieving the impossible with a stunning 14% swing that reduced the main opposition party, the Liberals, to just two seats, and handed a majority to Labor in the state’s upper house.
The result terrified Morrison, who promptly abandoned his attempt to demonise Labor premiers for their response to the pandemic. The WA Liberal Party has been a mess since Colin Barnett left, but you can only fight what your enemies put in the field, and McGowan proved the political apex predator of 2021. So long a comfortable home for the Liberals, the west is now hostile territory.
South Australian Senator Rex Patrick has continued an often lonely crusade for transparency and accountability in the Senate, assiduously using freedom of information laws to constantly challenge one of the most secrecy-obsessed governments in memory. His victory over Morrison’s absurd efforts to hide national cabinet records under the guise of being a cabinet subcommittee forced the government into a panicked move to change the law, and his efforts to discover the truth about the now-abandoned Naval Group submarine contract saw the Defence Department actually paying Naval Group’s costs to keep information secret.
Dud of the year
In a toss-up between smirking vacuum Morrison and soon-to-be-ex-politician Christian Porter, the West Australian secures the title of Dud of the Year in which he will assuredly claim to be a comprehensive vindication of himself. It takes real talent to lose a job in the most corrupt government in federal history, but Porter, who once convinced himself he was a future PM, demoted himself first from attorney-general, then to the backbench, then out of politics altogether with a series of truly spectacular misjudgments. The only people who will miss him are the hoteliers of Manuka.
“We MUST respect this earth - it is all we have
Claudio Dametto - South Australia
“I will always Vote to Preserve Our World.
Liam McGregor - Western Australia
“A simple message that even a politician can understand
Felicity Crombach - Victoria
“Please show you care about our future generations!!
Phil Harmer - New South Wales
“Save our world , Life & health before profits.
Kerry Lillian - New South Wales
“Close down all coal mines and Do not mine gas . Make these Companies
Daniel Johnson - New South Wales
“We want carbon free energy!
Edan Clarke - New South Wales
“Feels good to be taking a voter action step
Beaver Hudson - New South Wales
“Great Initiative. Let’s Hold elected officials Accountable to their bosses, us!
John Paul Posada - New South Wales
“We need actions not words we need honest democratic govt We need a pm
Bob Pearce - South Australia
“Thank you for this great resource. I was feeling helpless. Even this small step
Silvia Anderson - Victoria
“If political parties continue receiving political donations, we will rarely have politicians working for
Dan Chicos - New South Wales
“I only vote for people who will take urgent action to restore a safe
Susie Burke - Victoria
“Current government is not representing the opinion of the majority of Australian to meet
Neil Price - Tasmania
“We are fighting to rescue our kids' future from those who seek to steal
Vanessa Norimi - Queensland
“No time to waste Now or Never My vote is for NOW
Rosalie White - Victoria
“I am only 9 but I already care
Ava Bell - New South Wales
“From New Lambton Uniting Church - Caring for our world is a moral imperative.
Niall McKay - New South Wales
“Our federal govt is an International climate Embarrassment - its about time they stepped
Oriana Tolo - Victoria
“Vote earth this time!
Sue Cooke - Queensland
“We are in one on the wealthiest countries in the world. we have the
rowan huxtable - New South Wales
“The climate Emergency is the public health opportunity and urgent priority of the 21st
Mike Forrester - Victoria
“If they want my vote they better act now
Barbara McNiff - New South Wales
“We need to act locally now for the earth. Our only home. Vote Earth
Anne Miller - New South Wales
“I often look at the places I've known all my life and see how
Jim Baird - New South Wales
“Strike one For people power!!! Democracy might prevail outside the current cronyism that faces
Lorraine Bridger - New South Wales
“Our federal politicians Are Afraid to make action on climate change a major election
Jennifer Martin - New South Wales
“climate election, let's go!
Fahimah Badrulhisham - New South Wales
“Great to see this website that is a focus on action for climate change
Lynette Sinclair - New South Wales
“Let’s show politicians and the Murdoch media that climate change is by far the
Jane Aitken - Australian Capital Territory
“If you want to stay in power You need to take action to stop
Jane Bulter - New South Wales
“We are all that stands between terminal climate change and the vulnerable. We are
Carol Khan - Queensland
“We need a Government that Believes this is real and not taking money from
Ken Gray - New South Wales
“I'm voting for my childrens future
Anneliese Alexander - New South Wales