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Many former MPs write memoirs but few are as readable or as instructive as these reflections from former National Party Senator Ron Boswell, who retired in 2014 after thirty-two years in harness. For seventeen years, he was the Nationals’ Senate leader but chose never to have the cabinet job that his leadership role would have entitled him to: first, because he didn’t want to stand in the way of younger, more obviously talented people; and second, because he didn’t want to lose the ability to speak up on issues, free of the dictates of cabinet solidarity.
This review appears in the latest Quadrant.
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Humility plus passion for what’s right, “as God gives us to see the right”, are not the qualities usually associated with MPs, but they’re essential for anyone in public life who wants to be both effective and respected. Along with the legendary Senator Brian Harradine, another who became Father of the Senate, Boswell was one of those rare MPs whose influence derived less from office than from force of character and dint of argument.
Back in the late 1980s and 1990s, Boswell took the lead in alerting people to the dangers of right-wing extremism, from the League of Rights and others, at a time when decent people were at risk of being taken in by conspiracists and race-baiters. Towards the end of his career, he was hyper-conscious of green extremism, and the dangers it posed to Australia’s prosperity. Long before almost anyone else, he foresaw the Renewable Energy Target’s threat to the affordability and reliability of our power supply. The pity is that his 2014 warnings to the Coalition party room fell largely on deaf ears. And along the way, on the first occasion 
that Malcolm Turnbull wanted the Coalition to support what was a quasi-green energy policy, in the name of saving the planet and staying in tune with the zeitgeist, Boswell was one of those who encouraged me to run for the leadership of the Liberal Party.
Typically, Boswell has not published this book simply to tell his own story, though he does that with much insight and some humour. Like everything in his public life, this book is meant to make a difference: he wants to encourage more people to run for parliament, especially people with the experience in small business that’s so badly needed if our parliament and our governments are to get the social as well as the economic balance right; plus, he wants to see the parliamentary pension restored, so that there are more numerous capable people prepared to run the risks of public life, because there’s the assurance that they’re unlikely to be left financially bereft should they fail.
He’s right to decry the increasingly narrow background from which our MPs are drawn. For at least a generation, most Labor MPs have come from an apparatchik class, as long-term union or party officials prior to entering parliament. And these days, Liberal MPs too typically enter parliament after being parliamentary staff and then lobbyists. As Boswell says, “they enter the portals of democracy knowing only how to branch stack and run populist campaigns … today, focus groups lead us into the tyranny of small ideas”.
Not only is Boswell right about the desirability of broadening the range of MPs’ pre-parliamentary experience; he’s also right that the parliamentary pension, formerly available for all those who’d faced an election three or more times, would be an incentive for more people of talent and ability to consider a tilt at public life. The problem is that giving relatively young people a taxpayer-funded pension on leaving parliament, such as former Senator Bill O’Chee, who qualified for a pension at thirty-four, struggles to pass the pub test. Not for nothing was it John Howard himself who abolished the old parliamentary pension scheme after an envy-tinged campaign against it, led by Mark Latham and the Daily Telegraph.
“Politics is a noble profession,” says Boswell:
Being democratically elected by your fellow citizens to represent them is the greatest privilege. But the noble professionals are no longer applying for the job and that has to change. If you win a seat you take on a lifelong sentence because you can never regain your position on the career ladder … Like it or not, we have to financially buffer politicians on departure … It’s one of these messy facts that society must face up to if it wants to get better performance from its parliaments and government … [Otherwise] good people just won’t be part of it. Pre-selections are left to the factional warriors, who can’t deliver quality candidates.
To work, any new pension scheme would probably have to be confined to former ministers, and be pitched as a way to ensure that ministers weren’t making decisions with one eye on their post-parliamentary job prospects. It’s a change, or a restoration really, that would be worth doing. But given everything else on a government’s agenda, it’s the kind of change that could only be considered were a Dutton government, say, in its fourth term, having already: solved the energy problem, fixed the federation, boosted the armed forces, reformed welfare and revitalised the economy. Only then, once voters’ trust in government had substantially been restored, and probably only with bipartisan support, would a change of this nature be a realistic political prospect.
However improbable his dream of restoring the parliamentary pension might currently be, Boswell has nonetheless produced a superb instruction manual for anyone wanting to make a mark on our public life. There are distinct stages, says Boswell, “that new parliamentarians go through”:
The first is when you initially arrive … you’re playing in the Australian Firsts. Then after that comes doubt. What am I doing here? … All I am is division fodder? … [But] you have to be involved if you want to have a say in Australia’s progress. You soon learn the rules, how to break them and how to make them.
Successful politics is about knowing the things that annoy people and acting to ensure they don’t get worse. Boswell was no mere gun-for-hire but was indefatigable in protecting the interests of people threatened by free-market purism. “Economists talk about ‘perfect’ markets where many buyers and many sellers set a just price,” he says. “But when markets become ‘imperfect’ with two or three buyers at one end and thousands of sellers at the other, it doesn’t take Einstein to figure out that the price will suit the large corporate buyer.”
To take just a few examples of successful crusading, from a book replete with them: he helped to block extended retail trading hours and weekend opening because this wouldn’t much increase sales but would force mum-and-dad businesses to lose their family time. He smoothed the path to fishing deregulation by persuading the Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen to gift to the industry all the state government-owned marinas. Mostly working behind the scenes, and turning up unannounced at ministerial doors, he had a lot of wins; some, like seeing off One Nation first time round, beating the Turnbull republic, and keeping Woolworths out of pharmacy, with a bit of help.
Have a strong set of principles; be a good listener; be largely indifferent to recognition or reward; and work assiduously for the people you’re committed to: such were the trademarks of Boswell’s success. To me, there was just one Boswell success-too-far: his stirring up the Coalition party room against the “fair dinkum” paid parental leave scheme, which I’d taken to two elections, that would have made it easier for middle-income families to have more children. And he would help the cause of restoring at least a modified version of the old parliamentary pension, if he acknowledged that Howard’s abandonment of it was an out-of-character error from an otherwise fine government.
Still, there have been few to match him as an honourable adornment to our public life. Here’s Boswell on growing up the right way:
I don’t recall anyone frightening me by telling me that salt and sugar would kill you or … that the sea was sure to rise up and flood your lounge room because of a melting polar cap. You weren’t scared of being run over by a car, basically because there were very few in existence … If you were administered corporal punishment by a nun at school it was more likely to lead to a clip on the ear from your father when you got home as opposed to being the foundation of a law suit or a trip to counselling. Fast food was not going to kill me as a child because it didn’t exist. I am not making light of these things … merely pointing out that my generation didn’t live in fear of almost anything.
Among much else, this book is a reminder of how tougher times could produce better men.
Not Pretty, but Pretty Effective
by Ron Boswell (with Joanne Newberry)
Connor Court, 2023, 319 pages, $39.95
The Hon. Tony Abbott was Prime Minister of Australia from 2013 to 2015. This review first appeared in the Australian in March.
It is disappointing that so many parliamentarians have either no, or very little, experience in the world of commerce. Whether it be big or small business there are some fundamentals that must be considered when making policy. The most important of these has to be the ability to consistently make a profit. Profits encourage new businesses, provide employment and give a reward to those who dare to invest in their ideas. Bureaucrats do not understand profits even though they might have read a book about it. Socialist politicians invariably have lived on the taxpayer teat or a wage all their lives, have usually been brainwashed to believe that profits are evil and then think they can grant higher wages without a commensurate lift in productivity. Unfortunately more and more Coalition politicians have limited experience of the real world so lead the mad charge to the left in the false hope that ordinary people want the same .
True. What is completely dispiriting is the number of aspiring politicians, on both sides, who come from the ranks of flunkies, spin-doctors and “advisers”, with no experience of the real world and whose only skill is manoeuvering successfully through inner-party intrigue. Just the sort of people we don’t want in Parliament.
Depressing item: I recall reading an article about one of the Hawke ministries. Extraordinary range of skills: not just unionists and party loyalists, but a number of farmers, businessmen, professionals. And that was a Labor government.
A parliamentary pension after three goes at being elected (or is that actually getting elected?) would still just encourage a whole load of bottom feeders to grift on it. Let parliamentarians pay for their pensions, just as the rest of us do, with superannuation.
If sweeteners are needed to attract a wider field (and there is a debate to be had about that) then some immediate benefits could accrue for first-timers simply putting their hand up and having a go – provided they become elected. These extras could be in the form of an increased electorate allowance in order to establish a presence in the electorate or something like that.
Spot on, Elizabeth. The PM, with no experience in the business world whatsoever, is going to retire on an indexed pension that would require a super pot of around $8m (based on sitting on your hands, doing nothing, and getting an easy 5%). And he’s proposing to whack people with self-managed funds of a much lower value who have built up their own pot, independently and without any help from, or burden on, government.
“Among much else, this book is a reminder of how tougher times could produce better men”
I think we’re going to see some tougher times so maybe we’ll start to see some better men .. and perhaps a woman or two. Never forget Margaret Thatcher.
All state and federal parliamentary superannuation schemes should be no different to schemes currently applying to all other employees: 12% (or whatever number is current) of an MP’s salary goes into his or her super fund and cannot be withdrawn until the age of 67 (or whatever the law allows into the future). There is no justification for any super schemes more generous than those that cover all other Australian employees.
Absolutely correct. The same should apply to all public sector employees. The overly generous super scheme of economically unproductive parasites such as politicians and public servants, just feeds their elitist fantasy.
“were a Dutton government, say, in its fourth term, having already: solved the energy problem, fixed the federation, boosted the armed forces, reformed welfare and revitalised the economy. “
Wow, that’s a big ask, Tony! Some pretty radical international events would have to happen before that comes to pass, I think. Not that such a development is impossible, given the volatility of today. But, sadly, I don’t think Dutton has the confidence to tackle those enormous challenges. A Matt Canavan would – but that is not going to happen – since (I think) there had not been a Country/National Party PM since John McEwen.
The sad thing about conservative politics these days is that conservative voters have lost faith in their political representatives over the past generation. It is very apparent to all, as you have said, that the way to public office in the Libs is through service in the offices of MPs. I think it is clear to all that this does not produce the grass roots servants to the communities of past generations. Worse, with some notable exceptions, this also does not encourage the elevation of outstanding intellects with the foresight and capacity for the promotion of significant policy.
Elizabeth Beare, Bernie Masters and Watchman William (see above) have done a far better and more concise job of explaining what politicians’ pensions should be than have Tony Abbott or Ron Boswell.
“If you win a seat you take on a lifelong sentence because you can never regain your position on the career ladder …”
Que? What planet is Boswell on? Please – name for us those poor unfortunate politicians who have been sentenced to lifelong failure on the career ladder post-parliament. What other job, anywhere, has an entry-level salary of $200,000 plus?
What other job has such a rewarding pension scheme if one manages to keep his or her bum on a seat for just moments longer than it took the Morrison and Albanese governments to destroy small businesses, cancel our freedoms, and attempt to destroy democratic equality via the racist Voice to Parliament?
What other job gives parliamentary losers or retirees a run at well-paid government-funded sinecures? Please, Tony and Ron, name any ex-politician who has gone back into real and demanding commerce or trade, rather than well-paid government-funded institutions or Big Business positions where they are expected to grease the wheels for government contracts – or, like Bill O’Chee, cracked a nice little earner for the rest of his life.
Our parliaments are mostly filled with self-serving, self-important, ill-educated, unthinking parasites with limited or no real work or real life experience. To wit: Albanese, Bowen, Dreyfuss, O’Neil, Giles, and Gallagher for starters. Honourable exceptions include Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Pauline Hanson.
Labor’s arrogant, fatuous, mendacious and spineless ‘decision-makers’ and their other witless front-bench comrades are working hard to destroy affordable and reliable energy generation, the economy, small business, individuals’ lives, the foundations of western civilisation, our defences and our freedoms. The answer to Boswell’s presumably rhetorical question – “All I am is division fodder?” – is an unequivocal, incontestable, Yes! – for all Labor, all Greens and most Liberals / Nats, in all Australia’s parliaments.
Pay more to get better quality politicians? Their current salaries and pensions put the lie to that self-serving statement, as well as any shrill claims of entering parliament to serve the nation and the people.
Rather, pay them much less, make their superannuation the same as it is for every other Australian ‘worker’, limit their expenses and have them use their own credit card and claim back afterwards – as happens in many small and some big companies, to prevent – you guessed it . . . fraud. No more opportunities to blame nameless staffers for financial ‘oversights’.
Let our useless parliamentary leaders-in-name-only be rebirthed into reality.
Most observers of Chile’s firefighters “ los Bomberos”, will tell you that they are at another level when compared to the rest of the world. Whether that is true or not, would probably be hard to confirm. But for historical reasons Chileans have held their firefighting services in high esteem, and therefore it attracts individuals who matter. Doctors, engineers, architects etc give their time (and risk their lives) for nothing. It is a volunteer force, and yet apparently, it is quite special. Human beings who matter, often respond more to respect than recompense, and it has been that way since Adam was a boy.
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I went to school with Bill O’Chee, at TSS on the Gold Coast, and even in Grade 8 most thought he was sharp. No doubt he was. But I have come across individuals who had gravitas and intellect in spades- engineers lawyers and medical practitioners mainly, but a couple of businessman as well, and almost without exception the thought of entering politics appalled them. That is the problem. Not the money.
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The origins of government lies in fighting wars, and when wars fell out of fashion governments searched for a raison deterre. The problem is, that as wars stopped being fought, the public became educated, and now I could find on any airplane or almost in any restaurant individuals with more life skills, education, and knowledge, than either Anthony Albanese or Peter Dutton. It is true Anthony Albanese is a hopeless political appatchick, who neither knows nor cares what the cost of fuel is. But Peter Dutton is a former copper, from a police force renowned for its corruption and malfeasance, where officers developed skilled methods for perjuring themselves without fear of being caught. The political class in this country needs more than super to improve its stocks in the public mind.
This pay and pension debate reminds me of the classic Right demand for teachers to get performance-based pay.
Its a great idea of teachers were isolated robots.
But the good teachers are good not to get better pay but because their values and hard work align to the needs of the job and the people they serve. Rewarding them with participation trophies if they are slack would help; but the respect of themselves and of their best peers is the reward of the good teachers I have known.
Tony Abbott you were our example of good values and self-respect; but your generation let your party be white-anted to the point they cannot be trusted for any values at all. I have become a swinging voter instead of a rusted-on.
Tell the useless bast*rds to earn back our trust. Then we can think about paying them.