Governing In Absentia
The Age
Friday May 17, 1996
THROUGHOUT his political life, Mr Kennett has never been noted for the careful consideration that has preceded his public pronouncements. Whatever his strengths, tact and careful calculation of the consequences are not among them. Not for nothing do cartoonists depict Mr Kennett with a mouth perpetually agape.
But the pronouncements of the Premier in the six weeks since his re-election have been more unpredictable than ever. Rather than mellowing with the job, Mr Kennett shows every sign of increasing volatility.
An example occurred this week when the Premier confided in a Melbourne radio audience about his desire to take a lengthy spell from the cares and pressures of his job. During his two decades in Parliament, he said, he had rarely been able to take his full leave entitlements and was consequently owed a large amount of accrued time off. He was now considering taking some of this in the form of a lengthy sabbatical, or ``long-service leave", at the end of the year.
It is a strong possibility - indeed, it is to be hoped - that Mr Kennett's flotation of the notion that the Premier of Victoria could award himself three months out of the office was only wishful thinking. If it was, then Mr Kennett's fantasising will do nothing more harmful than strike a responsive chord with many Victorians who are also stressed by the burdens of duty. Most of us, in our more wistful moments, wish we could retire to sunlit pastures and there do nothing more demanding than grow daffodils (as Mr Kennett expressed a desire to do during another recent interview).
No one would be more deserving of such a blissful condition than a politician who had for many years put the welfare of his constituents above that of himself and his family. But the unfortunate reality is that political life does not work like this and Mr Kennett is hard-headed enough to know it.
Those who aspire to a career in politics quickly become aware of its costs. If the costs are unacceptably high, then the proper course for them is to leave. This is especially the case for those in government, where the rewards are much higher as are the responsibilities. This is why Australians expect government to be a full-time occupation. This is why they demand that ministers' personal and family interests must be subservient to the community's.
Accordingly, the Premier's suggestion that he might award himself three months' leave of absence is astonishing. This is not what Victorians re-elected the Government for. Presuming the second Kennett Government runs its full four-year term, the Premier is surmising about the joys of absenting himself for more than 6 per cent of that time.
Parliamentary leaders should have breaks. Argument can be mounted that they do not have enough and that the community pays a price in insufficient consideration of policy matters, inadequate attention to detail and low behavior standards in the chamber. Demands for time and attention make life extraordinarily difficult for ministers and their families.
Stress often gets to them and it is possible the Premier's mounting irascibility is a symptom of this. It may be that he is even sending early signals of a terminal weariness with the demands of a difficult job. Whatever it means, jumping ship for three months is not the answer. If he feels the need for leave, he should take it now, and systematically in the future. But in sensible amounts.
© 1996 The Age