We Reward Our Best with Honours. Why Do We Accept the Worst in Politics?

On Australia Day, it's time to demand a Representative Standard we can hold every politician to.

This Australia Day, I’m holding two truths at once.

I love this country. I love what we claim to stand for: mateship, a fair go, multiculturalism, 65,000 years of First Nations wisdom. I watched Cathy Freeman win gold in the 400m at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and felt something I can only describe as wholeness: a nation unified in shared pride, not despite our differences, but because of them.

Today, she was named a Companion of the Order of Australia, our nation’s highest honour, recognised for her service to athletics, to reconciliation, and for her role modelling to young people. Absolutely deserved. This is what excellence looks like. This is what living our values - consistently, under pressure, over decades -earns.

And then I thought about our politicians. And I despaired.

Here’s what hit me: we have clear, measurable standards for Australian honour recipients. The Order of Australia has explicit criteria assessed by an independent council. Outstanding achievement. Sustained service. Positive impact. Going above and beyond.

We celebrate Cathy Freeman not for one race, but for what she represents about Australia at its best, measured against standards we all understand.

We have nothing remotely comparable for the people who govern us.

That gap is destroying our democracy.

The Test That Proved We Need Standards

On 20 January 2026, Parliament was recalled to pass the Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism Bill in a single day: rushed, with limited debate and minimal scrutiny.

It was the latest unedifying spectacle in a political system defined by performative conflict. Five weeks earlier, a terrorist attack at Bondi Junction had traumatised Sydney. Within hours, the weaponisation began. False accusations. Coordinated media campaigns. Political theatre replacing leadership.

By 20 January, the political machinery had constructed a brutal trap—one even the Liberal and National parties, who helped build it, found themselves caught in. The legislation was so ill-thought-through, so rushed, that it challenged their own stated commitments to free speech and parliamentary scrutiny. Yet mainstream media support had turned grief into a political ultimatum: vote yes and betray democratic principle or vote no and be branded soft on terrorism.

The trap was of their own making, but once set, it caught everyone.

In the House, most Community Independents voted yes. Only Andrew Wilkie voted no. In the Senate, David Pocock held a community roundtable first, criticised the undemocratic rush, and voted no.

I understand the pressure the others faced. Single-member electorates, many with thin margins. Traumatised constituents. Media ready to crucify hesitation.

However, that’s precisely when democratic principle matters most. Without clear standards everyone commits to in advance, even well-intentioned representatives default to political survival, and even those who helped set the trap can’t escape it.

The trap only works if you walk into it alone. A collective stand breaks it.

However, collective stands require shared standards built before the crisis arrives.

We don’t have those standards. That’s what 20 January proved. That’s what needs to change.

The Australian Representative Standard: Eight Elements We Can Measure

David Pocock and Andrew Wilkie aren’t perfect. No politician is. However, I use them to demonstrate something we can name, measure, and demand from everyone.

I’m calling it the Australian Representative Standard.

Eight elements. Not mysterious. Replicable. Measurable.

1. Community Consultation Before Critical Votes: Did you listen before you decided?

2. Naming Systemic Problems Explicitly: Can you say what’s broken, clearly and publicly?

3. Structural Change Over Partisan Theatre: Are you fixing root causes or just managing symptoms?

4. Negotiated Wins That Create Accountability: What have you built that lasts beyond your term?

5. Independence That Can’t Be Bought: Where does your money come from, and what are the strings?

6. Evidence-Based Competence: What research backs your policy? Do you change when evidence does?

7. Progressive AND Inclusive Values With Broad Appeal: Can you champion fairness in a way that unites, not divides?

8. Institutional Design That Enables Principle: Do you support reforms like proportional representation that make integrity possible?

These aren’t personality traits. They’re practices.

And because they’re measurable, we can hold our representatives to them.

Did you know?

It took the national outrage of the March4Justice movement on 15 March 2021 when 110,000 turned up to 200 locations around the country force the establishment of basic workplace standards in Parliament House. Until recently, the highest office in the land had no independent HR function, no enforceable code of conduct, and no proper process for complaints of bullying, harassment, or assault. We rightfully demand better from any local business or school council, yet we had to march in the streets to demand it from the people who write our laws.

If we can’t even guarantee a safe workplace under its own roof, what hope do we have for national standards of representation?

What We’re Tolerating Instead

They’ve Forgotten What They’re There to Do

Here’s what we’re tolerating instead of real representation.

The Coalition’s Irrelevance

This crisis isn’t confined to the regions. The Liberal heartland has eroded from within. Once-safe inner-city seats like Kooyong, Wentworth, and Curtin have fallen to independents, and outer metropolitan seats to Labor, not because the Liberal Party abandoned its values, but because it never genuinely upheld them.

Voters in these seats once expected a baseline of integrity, pragmatic climate action, and genuine local representation. What they received was a party with no such standards to rely upon: a party overtaken by vested interests that chased populism over principle, denied climate science while out country burned, and treated communities as electoral fodder.

The Nationals, meanwhile, are haemorrhaging support in the regions to One Nation, not to Labor, but to a deep-seated loss of faith.

Instead of asking why, each side of this fractured Coalition is trying to out-flank Pauline Hanson on division and grievance. The result? A political alliance that is no longer a credible alternative government, defined by internal rifts and culture wars that offer zero solutions to what communities - urban and regional - actually need.

One Nation’s Scapegoat Machine

One Nation builds its 9–10% support on scapegoating migrants, Muslims, “elites.” Simple villains for complex problems. Now, backed by Gina Rinehart, Australia’s wealthiest person, who profits from fossil fuels and fights mining taxes, their strategy is clear: keep people angry at the wrong targets so they won’t notice who’s actually rigging the game.

Labor’s Betrayal of a Majority

Labor now holds 91 seats in the House: a commanding majority won in 2025 with a clear mandate for change. They have the numbers, the power, and the political capital to deliver real structural reform.

What are they doing with it?

• Rushing flawed hate-speech laws through in a day.

• Establishing an anti-corruption commission that can’t investigate past misconduct.

• Syphonic foreign policy: positioning Australia as America’s unquestioning deputy in every major defence decision, from AUKUS to Pacific policy, while inviting the President of Israel to Australia as a genocide unfolds in Gaza.

• Approving new coal and gas projects while setting weak climate targets.

• Maintaining cruel asylum seeker policies.

• Letting the housing crisis deepen and poverty rise.

They have the parliamentary power to fix negative gearing, raise JobSeeker, and build public housing at scale. They are choosing not to.

The Adults Are Already in the Room

Meanwhile, the crossbench independents and parties like the Greens are doing the actual work. Senators like Barbara Pocock demonstrate that principled, evidence-based advocacy is possible within a party structure, championing climate action, integrity, and economic justice with consistency and courage. Across the aisle, representatives are researching policy, consulting constituents, and holding government accountable without the theatre.

The Senate crossbench proves collaborative governance works. Nobody has majority control. Every significant bill requires negotiation. Better legislation results because multiple parties must collaborate, demonstrate competence, and negotiate based on evidence.

The irony is exquisite: independents who actually work together while the so-called “Coalition” tears itself apart.

This is what happens when the system requires accountability instead of just rewarding power accumulation.

We could choose more of this.

How to Hold Our Politicians Accountable

Here’s what you do. Here’s what I’m doing.

Name the standard publicly.

Every time a representative claims to be different, ask: Do you meet the Australian Representative Standard?

Measure their performance against it.

Did they consult? Can they name the systemic problem? What structural change have they negotiated? Where does their funding come from?

Support representatives who demonstrate it.

Pocock, Wilkie, Lambie. The Greens’ Barbara Pocock. The Community Independents.

Vote for the standard, not the party.

Party loyalty is how we got here.

Build it in your community.

In 2021, my electorate of Goldstein developed explicit criteria for our independent candidate. We found Zoe Daniel, who met these standards and won against a 76-year Liberal stronghold. She lost re-election in 2025 by just 175 votes.

That margin tells me two things: how hard we have to fight when the system is rigged, and how powerful it would be if every electorate had these standards in place.

Imagine if 175 more voters had a clear framework to compare the candidates. Imagine if every electorate demanded the Representative Standard before casting a vote.

That’s not bitterness. That’s the work ahead.

Both Are True

Australian democracy is in crisis.

Many politicians have forgotten they’re there to govern, not to serve vested interests. The Coalition fractures while chasing division. One Nation peddles scapegoats. Labor betrays its base with political sycophancy and moral cowardice.

And Australian democracy is evolving.

The crossbench is proving collaborative governance works. Representatives meeting higher standards are showing better is possible. More Australians are demanding measurable standards instead of accepting the worst.

Both are true.

I choose to amplify the possibility while staying vigilant about the threats.

This Australia Day, we honoured Cathy Freeman for consistently living our values under pressure over decades. We measured her against clear standards. We celebrated her for meeting them.

We deserve the same from everyone who seeks to represent us.

The Australian Representative Standard gives us the tool to demand it.

Demand it. Measure it. Support those who demonstrate it. Vote for it.

Every solution begins with a conversation. This is mine.

What’s yours?

You know what to do.

Onward we press.