Australian politics has at its core some ethical standards by which MPs may be judged. They include equitable representation and responsible lobbying, clean hands and the avoidance of corruption, and honest relations between parliament and the executive. How have they held up in the so-called Utegate affair?
All parliamentarians have a role in representing their constituents and, in the case of senior parliamentarians, representing wider community interests. They should do so while maintaining a level playing field. Everyone should be served equally. No one should get preferential treatment.
But some tilting of the playing field is often inescapable in life and politics, and is therefore acceptable. In this case both the level playing field (as attested to by Michael Delaney, CEO of the Motor Traders peak body) and the tilted playing field (as shown in some legitimate email evidence) have operated side by side.
How can that be? Those closer to the government of the day, in this case an acquaintance and constituent of the Prime Minister and/or the Treasurer, seem to have attracted greater official interest. But at the same time, there appears to have been no shameful neglect of other representations.
The Opposition cry foul but if they really believe anything exceptionally unethical has taken place then they are setting very high ethical standards indeed. These are standards they themselves have failed demonstrably to meet in the past, and that they will find very hard to adhere to should they regain the government benches.
Corruption in politics does not just mean money changing hands. If this is the standard then there has been nothing corrupt about Utegate (unless you count the gift of the ute itself).
However, corruption in politics is more usefully seen as a corruption of the process by which the highest standards of non-partisanship and even-handedness should be applied to the policy-making process. When this happens special interests are deliberately advantaged over others.
As revealed once again by this affair Australian politics at the federal level is not squeaky clean. Some interests and individuals do better out of the system than others. But neither is it deeply flawed and corrupt. In the rough and tumble of Australian politics government ministers sometimes do play favourites; but they do so while generally attempting to give everyone at least a basic level of service.
To put it another way, while some of us fly first class and some fly