{"id":16427,"date":"2014-10-20T06:00:46","date_gmt":"2014-10-19T19:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=16427"},"modified":"2014-10-21T08:15:27","modified_gmt":"2014-10-20T21:15:27","slug":"canberras-unholy-trinity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/canberras-unholy-trinity\/","title":{"rendered":"Canberra\u2019s unholy trinity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"APH<\/a>Here\u2019s Canberra lore\u2014or three rules of an Unholy Trinity\u2014explaining how politicians operate. When nothing makes sense, rely on the Trinity pulsing beneath the surface of party, parliament and government:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. It\u2019s always personal<\/li>\n
  2. There\u2019s always a deal<\/li>\n
  3. Follow the money.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I claim no custody of this lore. Spend four decades in the company of politicians in this town and the Unholy Trinity becomes a trusty guide. The rules have general application. Thucydides would have jotted them down if only he\u2019d spent more time in the press gallery. Machiavelli penned a version for princes.<\/p>\n

    When the Trinity parades in public, the rules appear as power, politics and policy. Rule one, the personal, is the power dimension. Rule two, the deal, is the politics. And money is ever a synonym for policy. In this discussion, other fundamentals of passion, principle and purpose sit on a different mountain\u2014one at the other end of the range, shrouded in cloud.<\/p>\n

    To jargonise, the rules describe crucial inputs; the outputs are government and legislation. Government and law are done in writing while the Trinity operates an oral culture. The personal calculations and deals are done face to face. Talking comes first. The write-up happens later to dress the deal as policy. The Canberra press gallery reports politics as high-gossip-with-added-facts-and-figures to hint at what goes on in the big building under the giant flag, home to the three rules, two Houses and one government:<\/p>\n

    1. It\u2019s always personal
    \nThe \u2018What\u2019s in it for me?\u2019 and \u2018How could this hurt me?\u2019 questions are only part of the rule, although never to be discounted. As Jack Lang taught Paul Keating; \u2018Bet on self-interest, it\u2019s a horse that\u2019s always trying\u2019. Beyond glory and greed, render \u2018always personal\u2019 as the \u2018will to power\u2019, with all the personality baggage loaded onto that one phrase\u2014ambition, ego, hatred, fear. Only driven personalities apply. The terrain is treacherous, the rewards as great as the risks. More fall off the mountain than reach the peak.<\/p>\n

    Isaiah Berlin catches the first two rules in Political Judgement<\/a><\/em> when arguing that the politician\u2019s art has few \u2018laws\u2019 and little \u2018science\u2019. Instead, personal instinct and skills are decisive. The skilled politician grasps \u2018the unique combination of characteristics that constitute this particular situation\u2014this and no other…the character of a particular moment, of a particular individual, of a unique state of affairs, of a unique atmosphere, of some particular combination of economic, political, personal factors\u2019.<\/p>\n

    The \u2018always personal\u2019 rule is about the individual politician\u2019s mix of experience, imagination, intuition and luck. Then the rule broadens to encompass the personalities of all the other politicians in the tribe (party), because the best allies and worst enemies sit beside you. Skill is about seizing the emerging pattern or surviving the crisis, making the call or doing the deal, building for a win or swerving to minimise loss. At the peak, this is Bismarck\u2019s statesman able to hear the footsteps of history; down on the lower slopes it\u2019s doing the numbers and judging the mood of caucus. While no qualification is needed to be a politician, a lot of qualities are needed to be good at it.<\/p>\n

    2. There’s always a deal
    \nIf to govern is to choose, then to politic is to deal. Australians want good government and law but aren\u2019t keen on the politics that produce those fine sausages. Barry Humphries, comic genius, national treasure, and creator of snout-in-the-trough-supremo     Sir Les Patterson<\/a>, delivers a verdict from the heart of Oz, mocking Canberra’s dramas as ‘the battle of the dwarves’. A more understanding but equally ironic version was that of a wonderful old press gallery hack who used to proclaim in the non-members bar: \u2018I\u2019m shocked, shocked to discover that base and grubby politics is being played here in the heart of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia\u2019.<\/p>\n

    The oral culture of the deal can burst into spectacular view: the Kirribilli agreement<\/a> when Hawke promised Keating the succession in front of two witnesses and the similar moment when Howard promised to hand over to Costello because \u2018one-and-a-half terms would be enough\u2019. Both leaders reneged, which points you straight back to rule one on power and personality.<\/p>\n

    3. The golden rule is that gold rules.
    \nWhen you can\u2019t decipher the personalities, and the deals are safely secret, the money trail points the way up the mountain.<\/p>\n

    With the rules as aid, turn to the memoir<\/a> by Australia\u2019s 27th\u00a0Prime Minister. My Story<\/em> is a good and revealing work, although often in ways Julia Gillard might not intend. She writes how her eyes were set on the far peak where purpose and principle reside, but the Real Story is the struggle on the mountain where the Unholy Trinity rules.<\/p>\n

    Graeme Dobell is the ASPI journalist fellow. Image courtesy of Flickr user Dave Sutherland<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Here\u2019s Canberra lore\u2014or three rules of an Unholy Trinity\u2014explaining how politicians operate. When nothing makes sense, rely on the Trinity pulsing beneath the surface of party, parliament and government: It\u2019s always personal There\u2019s always a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":16432,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCanberra\u2019s unholy trinity | 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\/canberras-unholy-trinity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Canberra\u2019s unholy trinity | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here\u2019s Canberra lore\u2014or three rules of an Unholy Trinity\u2014explaining how politicians operate. 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