Sunday 5^th February 2006

John Howard's Parliament

On the first day of the first session of the Howard government parliament - almost ten years ago - John Howard is recorded as saying:

"I would like to take this opportunity in congratulating you [The Speaker] to reaffirm a number of the things that I have said about the importance of reasserting the supremacy of the parliament over the executive - and I say that very deliberately. It is part of our system of government that the executive is controlled by parliament and parliament controlled by the law and the customs and conventions of our society. I think it is important that steps are made on both sides of the parliament to reassert and re-establish a degree of respect and regard for the institution."
- John Howard, House of Represesntatives Hansard 30^th April 1996.

And in his next breath he continues his noble display, stating that:

"There is a role in the national parliament for proper and full expressions of view from both sides of politics. I will, to the best of my ability, extend proper courtesies to the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Beazley), to all members of the opposition and to the independent members..."

"...anybody who comes into this parliament with the discredited record you have already developed on fiscal consistency has no capacity to demand anything of what this government will do - and you will not have your demands answered, thank you very much."
- John Howard, House of Represesntatives Hansard 1^st May 1996.

And when Senator Robert Hill responded to Senator Kernot, he stated:

"I think you are confusing two separate notions here. The issue of whether a government must always go to the parliament first before it sells any government asset has got nothing to do with the principle of accountability to the legislature at all."
- Robert Hill, Senate Hansard 27^th May 1996.

Senator Kernot's very correct point that the absolute principle of parliament having supremacy over the executive is actually a very qualified absolute principle was easily ignored by Senator Hill.

But I have a further interest in that quote from John Howard's first day in parliament. Have a look at the first quote again.

You need to notice a very key phrase that reappears in Howard's speeches, either in this or very similar guise, through the years:

"...and I say that very deliberately."

What does he mean by this?

For one thing, it is one of the secret's of Howard's magic. It is Howard's way of drawing attention to one hand so that the audience doesn't see the trick being wrought by the other.

John Howard had, in fact, qualified the nature of the "supremacy" of parliament over the executive quite clearly, but in such a way that people could only hear and remember the sentiments about supremacy over the executive. Senator Kernot (and everyone else) had not noticed the beauty contained in the latter part of Howard's quote:

"... and parliament [is] controlled by the law and the customs and conventions of our society."
- John Howard, House of Represesntatives Hansard 30^th April 1996.

But it actually translates thus:

I am John Howard and I act in accordance with the parliament whilest the parliament acts in accordance with the law and the customs and conventions of society. The parliament may be acting lawfully, but only I am able to deem that it acts in accordance with the customs and conventions of society, because the people voted us in to government and I get to tell you what those customs and conventions are. So there: we may do as we wish.

Many people today still do not understand that P. J. Keating's label, "Honest John", was ironic. Maybe we have become more American than even I had feared...

Note: The role of The Speaker in the House of Representatives - touched upon at the start of this piece - is crucial to further understanding Howard's way, but requires its own intense analysis, which I am only beginning.

End of rant.

(C)opyright Sylvano Lucchetti.