This week brought the news that Georgina Downer has been preselected as the Liberal candidate for the seat of Mayo (recently vacated by the Centre Alliance MP Rebekha Sharkie, who was taken in the great Section 44 purges of 2017/18). Should she be successful in the upcoming byelection, Downer — a research fellow with the right wing think tank the Institute of Public Affairs — will be the fourth consecutive generation of the Downer family to serve prominently in Australian politics.
Australia is, it turns out, more seduced by dynastic authority than we like to think.
The Downers
Georgina carries probably the heaviest family history with her — state premiers, federal ministers, high commissioners and a couple of knighthoods for good measure. Her great grandfather Sir John Downer served two non-consecutive periods as premier of South Australia prior to federation, before joining the first batch of federal senators in 1901. His son Alick was minister for immigration in the Menzies government, and went on to become high commissioner to the United Kingdom for nearly a decade from the early 1960s to the early 1970s.
His son, Australia’s own Boy Mulcaster Alexander Downer — before taking up the family trade of high commissioner of the United Kingdom, and settling into his curious second life as a leftist agent of Hillary Clinton — was the shortest serving leader in the history of the Liberal Party, before becoming minister for foreign affairs for the entirety of the Howard government. He held the seat of Mayo for 24 years, which his daughter will now contest.
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The Hawkes
Surely if any leader in Australian history could claim to derive their authority from the “charismatic” portion of Max Weber’s model, it would be Bob Hawke, right? But even he came through a dynasty. His father Clem was briefly general secretary of the Australian Labor Party in South Australia, before finding his calling as a minister of the Congregational Church for nearly 60 years.
His uncle Bert was a remarkable political dilettante — first, at age 23 he became the youngest MP in South Australian history, being elected to house of assembly in 1924. After losing his seat in 1927, he headed west, eventually winning the seat of Northam and serving as a minister in the governments of Phillip Collier, John Willock and Frank Wise. In 1953 he became Western Australia’s 18th premier; and stayed on as opposition leader after Labor was defeated in the 1959 election, eventually leaving parliament in 1968.
The Porters
As we’ve noted elsewhere, our new Attorney General Christian Porter (who also held the role for the WA state government) comes from a long line of Liberal Party figures. His grandfather, Sir Charles Porter was an MP in the Joh Bjelke-Petersen government between 1966 and 1980, serving as minister for Aboriginal and Island Affairs from 1977. Charles’ son Charles “Chilla” Porter followed his career as an Olympic medal-winning high jumper with a long stint as director of the WA Liberal Party across the 1970s and 1980s.
And Christian is not shy about bringing that up, doing so in each of his maiden addresses to parliament:
[The Liberal Party] is the party which my father served as a state director, and which my grandfather created in Queensland, upon Menzies’ instruction, and which he served as a state director in Queensland and later as a minister of the Crown.
The Fergusons
Martin Ferguson has a, shall we say, diverse CV, having been ACTU president and a senior member of the Labor government from 2007 to 2013, before taking on a role as chief union basher at the Minerals Council.
Martin’s brother Laurie was a Labor MP for 26 years, finally packing it up in 2016 — this is in addition to serving six years in the NSW Legislative Assembly from 1984 to 1990. Their younger brother Andrew also held the not entirely apolitical role of NSW Secretary of the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (Construction and General Division).
Their father Jack himself had a decades-long political career, ending in 1984 after an eight-year stint as NSW’s deputy premier. It’s said Martin and Laurie do not at all get along, despite living next door to one another for quite some time. A common story in NSW Labor circles is that Martin went and mowed his lawn while Laurie was getting married in the backyard next door.
But wait, there’s more! Stay tuned for part two soon.
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Pity about this country having such a shallow political gene pool.
Is there no medication for it or does it require major surgery?
How about changing the rules so no-one can serve more than two consecutive terms in parliament – either in the house of reps or the senate. This would mean that each elected person knows they have only six years (0r eight if we go to four year terms, preferably fixed). So they know they have a limited time to do something (anything) which has impelled them to seek election. Gets rid of those who are there with no ideas of what needs to be done. Further, a period equal to the time served before being appointed to any government body or employer (or union) group. Perhaps we would see a re-invigorated parliament including people from all walks of life, and get rid of the career politicians such as are filling up the benches. This could also have the effect of restoring the public service to its intended role of giving frank and sensible advice. Something has to be better than what we now have.
What great ideas, Mary. We can only dream, methinks.
Excellent suggestion!
I’d vote for that.
In other countries (let’s keep them unnamed) the knowledge by a politician that they are likely to be only there for 1, maybe 2, terms has been a great incentive to grab as much as possible in the time available. Negative publicity does not matter if you are not going to be reelected anyway.
It has also led to a revolving door between big business and politics, with concomitant conflicts of interest.
Not that we’re entirely free of that, but it could be a lot worse.
http://planetirf.blogspot.com.au/2008/07/opinion-no-regrets-downer-did-it-his.html
Nice summary of Downer’s (non)contribution to Australia, Irfan, even if it’s a tad too polite. The man really does belong to the cream of society – rich and thick. For many years he wrote a weekly column in our local NewsCrap daily, The (Adelaide) Advertiser. In both form and content it had the intellectual sophistication you’d expect from a mediocre Year 8 kid. And I doubt that Georgina is any brighter. Her appearances on Q&A suggest she’s an airhead (now I’m being too polite). Paul Keating hit the nail on the head by once describing Alexander as ‘the idiot son of the squattocracy’, and I’m afraid the good voters of Mayo may end up being represented by the idiot grand-daughter of the squattocracy.
Oh, joy.
Another Downer, I can see it now :- AWB II, Iraq II, Children Overboard II and NPA II.
But think of the fish net stockings – that thought has to be less shudder provoking
Mayo, you can do better by not having another Downer.