Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of , vol. 150, part 1, 2017, pp. 3–8. ISSN 0035-9173/17/010003-06

Don’t Blame the Unemployed

Peter Baume AC DistFRSN Distinguished Fellow’s Lecture Annual Dinner of the Royal Society of New South Wales, The Union, University and Schools Club 25 Bent St, , 3 May, 2017 Professor Baume studied medicine at the , General Hospital, Birmingham, and as a U.S. Public Health Service Fellow in Nashville, Tennessee. He practiced as a gastroenterologist and physician in Australia from 1967 to 1974 and received his M.D. from the University of Sydney during that time. From 1974 to 1991 he served as a Senator for New South Wales. He held a number of portfolios, including Aboriginal Affairs, Health, and Education, and was a member of Cabinet. From 1991 to 2000, Professor Baume was Professor of Community Medicine at the University of N.S.W. He was on the Council of the Australian National University from 1986 to 2006 and was Chancellor of A.N.U. from 1994 to 2006. He has also been Commissioner of the Australian Law Reform Commission, Deputy Chair of the Australian National Council on AIDS, and Foundation Chair of the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority.

id you know that the good food you photography? You are thoughtful and dis- Dhave just eaten demands a quarter of all tinguished and contributing to society. your blood for digestion and absorption, and Let me put one — just one — serious this can lead to anyone becoming somno- proposition to you to start. lent — in spite of anything that is done? That Let me first tell you a story. An Austral- is why the post-prandial speaking slot and ian recently visited Detroit and called a taxi. after-dinner addresses are so dangerous. When it came it was filthy. So he called But what a distinguished audience this another taxi. It too was filthy. Later he was is. If one added all the higher degrees, all told by American friends that people who the titles, all the honorifics, in this room drove taxis in Detroit generally lived in those together with the many accomplishments taxis because they were too poor to live any- of all the partners who mean so much, one where else. is able to count so much talent and so much Against the background of that story, will achievement — it is most impressive. you now consider the unexpected Brexit You, as members of the Royal Society of result in Britain, the election of Donald New South Wales, are enriching the com- Trump as President of the United States of munal debate and communal understanding. America, the election of Pauline Hanson to Your regular lectures raise topics that would the Australian Senate, the rise of Marine Le not otherwise be raised and they provide Pen in France, the movement away from platforms for worthwhile arguments that established political groupings here, and would not otherwise be heard. Your monthly more? meetings are valuable and worth attending. Why has it all happened? Where is it lead- Where else would a mere doctor learn about ing? Why were they elected? And by whom? beer, and botanic gardens, and Antarctic Well, let me try to guess.

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They were elected properly under systems And we are creating or allowing to be cre- that we have designed. But so was Hitler ated an ever more unequal society that the elected. They were elected by people who young might want to change. There is no were angry, people who had lost faith with justification for CEO salaries that are 300 established political parties, people who were times what someone on the factory floor under threat — as they saw things — people earns, or what someone who delivers the who were nostalgic for some mythical bygone mail is paid. era, people who were alienated, people who If there is no place for the young in this had nothing to lose and people who think society, if there is great inequality, no hope, that politicians do not care and do not under- if there is systemic and systematic disadvan- stand. People who wanted to hear simple tage, then they might try something differ- answers to complex and difficult questions. ent. It might be a fundamentalist society. It They wanted to change the system and might be a totalitarian society. they had votes. They were not happy with Added to that: if automation pro- the arrangements that exist. They did not ceeds — as it will — we are going to have like our values, or our society. They saw in driverless cars to go with the driverless trains those people they voted for some prospect we already have. for real change. And the movement they There go professional drivers. If clever have started is not over. robots can work 24 hours, then we do not More protest votes. More racist and anti- need people in factories. There go manufac- immigration votes. More votes for Pauline turing jobs. We all go to the ATM for money. Hanson and her detestable views. Did you There go bank jobs. You know about climate know that David Marr wrote an essay about change. There go coal mining jobs. We do her recently called “The White Queen”? It not need secretaries, or telephonists, or as was a good title. But returning to my predic- many shop assistants as we did. There they tions: more votes for populists. More votes go. Did you see the segment with Stan Grant for one issue people. It will all continue. last Friday? There went ward clerk jobs. There Given all these things, and, in addition, went many cleaning jobs. And so on. given inequality, given lack of opportunity, Yes, there are going to be new jobs. Lots and given political failure, why should the of new jobs. Lots of sunrise industries. But young — our young (our grandchildren there are probably going to be fewer paid and grand nephews and nieces) — comply? jobs overall, not compensated by new indus- Why should they adopt the form of society tries and the increased need for personal care we have and we have shaped and we have workers. There are not going to be enough asked them to adopt? Why should they go paid jobs to go around: let us accept that to school? Why should they stay out of the this is so. workforce until they are fifteen? Why should Then the questions change. they not die in despair from suicide? Why Let us not blame people if they get no should they not try to change the society paid work. It is not silly for the union move- which cannot deliver to them what are not ment to propose a four-day working week. unreasonable demands for their lives? Why It makes the available paid work go around. should they not be revolutionaries? How much they are paid for those four days

4 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Baume — Don’t Blame the Unemployed is another question. Let us teach people to When I first went there I realised how use leisure productively, because they are little I knew about how politics worked. A going to have increased time and increased word about political parties. A colleague leisure. Let us encourage people to learn once said that members of political parties more. Let us encourage people to be carers: were either: mad, lonely, or ambitious, or a we are going to need so many more of these combination of those things. That is a sad as the grey tsunami bears down. statement, and parties need to be different But let us do something to welcome and again: they used not to be like that. Actually, encourage people instead of blaming them there were — and are — a few people genu- and stereotyping them. Trying to maintain inely interested in the country, But it was the status quo without serious talk is not possible to meet all those types — the mad, enough. the lonely, and the ambitious — through a Now that is the end of serious talk. Let couple of decades or so in Parliament and us be a little lighter and tell you what Par- longer in one major political party. liament was like. Mind you, it is one thing I remember telling some parliamentary to talk about how it was then: it is certainly colleague on the phone that he was mad, different today. and a few minutes later he put his head into You might care to know that in pre-revo- my room and said, “I am not mad.” He was lutionary France some people referred to Ver- the person who announced, when the issue sailles as “ce pays ci” — this special land — and of equal employment opportunity became politicians and their staff regard Canberra as important, that “a woman’s place is in the much the same. They talk about minutiae, kitchen and the other room.” His wife, to about what goes on in Canberra, about the her credit, left him because of that. relationships between certain people, and One time the then young they think that those things matter and they made a strong speech against Sir Reginald think we are interested in those minutiae. Schwarz who was then the Post-Master Of course, they are wrong. We actually care General. It was a really strong speech — and about wider issues. Keating is good at vilification. Tom Uren The first thing you might consider is that (who had been a boxer) told Keating that in the Parliament represents the community Changi prisoner of war camp Reg Schwarz that elected it. This is really frightening — or had been beaten daily for his underlings, of it should be: there are eggheads, like us, there whom Uren was one. Uren then told Keating are ignoramuses, there are racists, there are that if Keating attacked Schwarz again, Uren ideologues, there are conspiracy theorists, would hit him. The old Changi ethos was there are businessmen and women, there strong. It went across the chamber. Political are slobs, there are average people, there foes had this tie from when they were all are people of all sizes and shapes. There is prisoners of war together and they looked Pauline Hanson and her horrible acolytes, after each other in Parliament. there is Jacqui Lambie, there is Derryn One of my seniors had been on the awful Hinch, there is Cory Bernardi. They are all Burma railway and he was treated always there. They were all elected properly. They with great respect by the other side of poli- each represent a constituency. tics — and he treated those on the other side

5 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Baume — Don’t Blame the Unemployed with great respect too. That same senior Many strange things happen in the Parlia- person called me into his Sydney office soon ment. Bill Wentworth was one of the most after I had been pre-selected. He said: “Your intelligent men I ever met. He was brilliant. job is to introduce people if asked to and He was also too conservative for me. He was give votes of thanks. Otherwise you are to be the driving force behind a uniform rail gauge silent. Now, how do you take your tea?” for Australia and advocated a harbour tunnel Which reminds me. My political patron ten years before others. People said he was John Carrick, now Sir John, had been in mad on both issues. But they came to pass. Changi as a prisoner of war. As a Minister Before he died, he told me that there had to he addressed a visiting Japanese delegation be a tunnel from the Spit to North Sydney. in Japanese. Apparently, the delegation knew It will happen too. But apparently when he his story and recognised prison-camp Japa- was speaking once, someone, probably Fred nese — and bowed very low. Daly, borrowed a waiter’s white jacket and The best remembered day in Australian stood behind him solicitously while he spoke politics was November 11th, 1975. It is told about “reds under the bed”. That resulted that Whitlam strode back into Parliament, in Daly being thrown out. It was Daly who saw the young Keating, a Minister for three said: “In the great horse race of life, always weeks, pointed at him, and shouted: “Keat- back self-interest. At least you know it is ing, you’re sacked!” trying”. On that fateful day, a message was passed Which reminds me. Once, in my medi- down our ranks in the Senate at about 2.20 cal days, the Prime Minister was ill and I P.M.: “Don’t let your expression change. was involved peripherally in his care. So, Whitlam has been sacked. Malcolm is the when, subsequently, I was elected, the only Prime Minister. We are getting the Budget person I knew well — from the other side of as quickly as possible. Pass it on.” That is politics — was the Prime Minister, and his history as it is not known to most people. behaviour towards me was always as impec- Had the Labor leaders in the Senate had cable and friendly as the treatment I got prior knowledge of the events that day, the from Fraser and Anthony. procedure they adopted would have been Some very strange things happened in different and they might have won. Parliament. When I first went there I was It is also recounted that just before a told that there were three things new people swearing-in, Whitlam met parliamentarian had to learn then. They were: more people Barry Cohen looking morose. It transpired have talked their way out of Parliament than that Cohen — a Jew — lacked a yarmulke have ever talked themselves in; when the for his swearing-in. It is told that Whitlam person in the chair stands up, you sit down; took Cohen to his desk, opened a drawer, and do not eat the fish. Today that is not and said: “What colour, comrade?” so — the fish is quite safe to eat. My own election took 35 days to be final. I was also told that the people opposite The Hare-Clark system is very fair but very were the opposition. If it was enemies you slow. Actually, when it was final, we heard wanted to find, you had to look around you about it on radio through my beloved at people on your own side. The Senate com- mother-in-law. My party never told me. mittee system meant that I got to know a lot

6 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Baume — Don’t Blame the Unemployed of political opponents. They wanted many of is not the case in the Senate, which brings the same things I wanted for Australia — they governments down from time to time. just had different ways of getting there. There was another occasion — when I once told me a story about was a front bencher — that a health matter getting angry. Apparently, , came up. My party wanted a certain amend- then leader of the National Party, told ment. Janine Haines from the Democrats Chaney to get angry only on purpose. Just listened to the argument and said “You’ve then there was a visitor and Anthony become got me.” I reported to my party that we had very angry — thumping the desk and shout- the Democrats. Not so. The Democrats were ing. He turned to Chaney and winked. It not bound by a party whip. We had Janine was all put on. Haines but no other Democrat. Once as a minister I attended a Com- One never ceased being a doctor in Parlia- monwealth Heads of Government meeting ment. Labor people came to me. Our people in Melbourne. Someone had threatened to went to Labor doctors: they were making kill me and so my wife and I were transferred sure that confidentiality was observed. Of from our insecure motel to a secure suite in a course, many others came — attendants and hotel with an armed guard in the next room staff, for example. It was mostly for repeat and our car was tracked by traffic and got all prescriptions (which they often did not green lights. The strange thing was that our want their colleagues to know about), ladies children were in Sydney and no one worried wanted the pill, and so on. Occasionally we about their safety — except us. had real medical emergencies, one person There used to be bipartisanship on many had a nasty corneal ulcer, one person had a issues. I recall that Neal Blewett wanted to stroke, there were heart attacks, and so on. bring in a beaut policy for the then fatal Naturally, we charged nothing — not least illness of HIV infection. It was possible for because we would have been in breach of the my side of politics to let it pass without com- Constitution if we had accepted Medicare ment — they “looked the other way” — and rebates. It has to do with holding an office Australia led the world with that policy. of profit under the Crown. In any event, we In the old Parliament House we had a were drawing salaries because of our main bowling green and a bowling club. It was very job. democratic. At lunch-time we would play In the same vein, long after I had entered bowls with anyone who was there — often Parliament, the Department of Veterans’ drivers and cooks and cleaners and attend- Affairs wanted a report about a person ants. We played bowls against many of the who had seen me years previously, and the local clubs and had mixtures of people in Department was willing to pay some money our teams. The new Parliament House does for that report. I provided the report but not have a bowling green. insisted that I was not paid, so the constitu- By the way, the theatre of Parliament tion was not breached. is always in the House of Representatives, The mail was delivered hourly, and hour while politeness reigns in the Senate. After after hour I watched a man who was obvi- all, the votes in the House of Representatives ously hypothyroid (a diagnosis that is missed are certain. Theatre is all that remains. That easily, as Robert Clancy will attest) deliver

7 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Baume — Don’t Blame the Unemployed mail. Finally, it was too much for me and I they entered Parliament. They often used intervened to get a blood test, which con- what they had achieved professionally as firmed the diagnosis. Then I wrote to the preselection talking points. If people tried to local doctor and the man was treated. But bully professional people, those professionals the local doctor never acknowledged my could tell them to jump in the lake. letter. Today, alas, we have too many profes- Once, the President of the Senate became sional party apparatchiks who have done ill. He was Tasmanian and Labor, and one of no trade or profession apart from practical the Labor doctors, also a Tasmanian — but politics. They understand the pre-selection from a different faction of the Labor process and how parties work. They “game” party — insisted that I saw him so that no the system and get pre-selected. Parliament silly preselection questions would ever be is the poorer with this change. asked. The Senate was then in a furious act We want people who have had a suc- of passing legislation at the end of session cessful career. Parliament was serious but it so the President was in and out of the chair was fun, too. It is poorer, and many of our minute by minute. It took about two hours young think it is irrelevant, if people like to assess him. He had to go to hospital. you are not part of it — if you are not in When I was first involved, community there yourselves or vetting those who wish leaders — people like you —stood for Parlia- to enter Parliament. ment, people who had good and worthwhile So please enjoy your evening. And help careers in the community in the years before run a better Australia.

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