{"id":15537,"date":"2014-09-02T06:00:25","date_gmt":"2014-09-01T20:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=15537"},"modified":"2014-09-03T10:45:12","modified_gmt":"2014-09-03T00:45:12","slug":"the-canberra-officer-7-political-nous-and-playing-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-canberra-officer-7-political-nous-and-playing-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"The Canberra officer (7): political nous and playing politics"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Then<\/a><\/figure>\n

Previous posts in this series explored the Canberra officer project<\/a>; Arthur Tange<\/a>; the promised land of Jointery<\/a>; taming the service chiefs<\/a>; the Vice CDF<\/a>; and CDF atop the diarchy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The military venturing into politics is taboo: politicians command, generals obey, constitutional and military demarcations are clear. Well…yes, but…<\/p>\n

Senior officers play against top politicians, often close to the hottest politics. The taboo can\u2019t banish the political codes and tones and moves the ADF wields. To illustrate, consider a great Canberra officer who burnished rather than burnt<\/a> his career by telling Parliament the truth about \u2018kids overboard\u2019.<\/p>\n

Angus Houston was one of the best recent chiefs of Air Force, stepping up to be a fine chief of the Defence Force. Houston\u2019s decade at the top<\/a> proved he\u2019s an excellent product of the Canberra officer project. Not least of his skills was political nous. Houston\u2019s political intelligence is one of the project\u2019s defining requirements, even if taboo.<\/p>\n

First, a 2010 character sketch<\/a> from the veteran Ian McPhedran:<\/p>\n

Well regarded by politicians from both sides and seen by the public as a warm and gentle man, Houston is a tough operator when it comes to dealing with his subordinates and the six defence ministers and three prime ministers to serve under his watch. \u2018In private he can be imperious and he is brutal with his underlings,\u2019 a well-placed source said. His ruthless streak was used to good effect to prevent former Army Chief Peter Leahy from lining up for the top job. Former Howard Government Defence minister, Brendan Nelson, said Houston loved the Defence Force \u2018as much as he loves his wife.\u2019 He was intelligent, caring and protective of people in uniform. \u2018He has a genuine affection for them,\u2019 Dr Nelson said. He said his biggest shortcoming was that \u2018he doesn’t understand that sometimes it is important to admit you don’t know and to promise to find out.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So\u2014key traits, political or military\u2014push hard, have the facts, no weakness. Come to a period when Defence allegedly leaked against its own Minister (Defence investigated and absolved itself); eventually the Minister resigned. Exiting in 2009, Joel Fitzgibbon lashed out<\/a> at Judases in his own ministerial office and in Defence. The weekend after the resignation, Glenn Milne in the Sunday Telegraph<\/em> (June 7, 2009) reported Fitzgibbon telling colleagues that Houston was \u2018the best politician in the country\u2019.<\/p>\n

The Houston response to the barb-cum-compliment was a concise description of power as seen from the CDF\u2019s chair:<\/p>\n

My job is not to say: \u2018Yes Minister\u2019. My job is to basically provide frank and fearless advice, and I do that. But at the end of the day, I totally accept that the minister or the Prime Minister in the National Security Committee of Cabinet has to make the decision.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Notice the grouping: minister, PM, and NSC. Ministers come and go. The NSC presides and the PM rules. Houston had a ringside seat at the NSC where he watched policy being made at close range, and, by invitation, took part in debates.<\/p>\n

On the day Foreign Minister Stephen Smith was shifting to become Defence Minister in 2010, Houston was briefing journalists on Afghanistan, and praised his new minister<\/a>:<\/p>\n

As the minister for Foreign Affairs, he was intimately involved with everything to do with Afghanistan. I’ve always found him to be a hell of a nice guy and I respect him for his competence and his capability.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Fulsome, indeed, but no departmental secretary would pass such a public judgement on an incoming minister. Former Liberal leader, John Hewson, wrote<\/a> that Houston\u2019s \u2018disturbing\u2019 comments on Smith\u2019s \u2018appropriateness\u2019 illustrated the military\u2019s sense that it\u2019s different and special:<\/p>\n

It is not an exaggeration to say that Defence now pretty much sets its own \u2018rules of engagement\u2019 with government. Indeed, it can be argued they are not blameless in explaining the high turnover of Defence ministers. Defence force chiefs see themselves as \u2018all powerful\u2019 and in ultimate control, with the department working for them, and the minister mostly to be tolerated, sometimes where necessary intimidated or just humoured.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In the strange ways of politics, this attack rates as a tribute to perceived power.<\/p>\n

Finish with a funny moment that says something about current perceptions. In 2011, as Houston headed for retirement, the Canberra Times<\/em> ran a yarn quoting \u2018a defence insider\u2019 saying that the Defence Secretary, Ian Watt, would step down at the same time Houston left. That prompted a denial statement from Dr Watt: \u2018Notwithstanding media speculation in this morning\u2019s Canberra Times<\/em>, I advise that I have no intention to resign from my position when Air Chief Marshal Houston retires, whenever that might be.\u2019<\/p>\n

Defence secretaries don\u2019t yet have to commit sati on the pyre of departing CDFs.<\/p>\n

Graeme Dobell<\/em><\/span><\/a>\u00a0is the ASPI journalist fellow. Image courtesy of Department of Defence<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Previous posts in this series explored the Canberra officer project; Arthur Tange; the promised land of Jointery; taming the service chiefs; the Vice CDF; and CDF atop the diarchy. The military venturing into politics is …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":15539,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[944,782,64,165,38],"class_list":["post-15537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-angus-houston","tag-chief-of-the-defence-force","tag-civil-military-relations","tag-defence-secretary","tag-department-of-defence"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Canberra officer (7): political nous and playing politics | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-canberra-officer-7-political-nous-and-playing-politics\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Canberra officer (7): political nous and playing politics | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Previous posts in this series explored the Canberra officer project; Arthur Tange; the promised land of Jointery; taming the service chiefs; the Vice CDF; and CDF atop the diarchy. 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