Bert Kelly, The Bulletin, January 19, 1982, p. 104.

Recently 33 Federal members signed a statement to say that they were in favour of gradually reducing the lavish protection given to the car industry. They were particularly critical of the import quota system which gives particular advantages to particular people while denying them to others. Quotas are particularly resented by farmers because they isolate quota holders from exchange rate pressures which are affecting exporters so seriously.

Among those who asked for a few bricks to be quietly taken from the car protection wall was Grant Chapman, the member for Kingston in Adelaide, the electorate that contains the Mitsubishi factory. Of course the wise ones were saying, “Of course, Grant Chapman is right and he is very brave to say what he says but it will cost him his seat at the next election. This is a great pity because he is really good material and he has clearly demonstrated that he has guts. But he must learn to keep his head down below the parapet when the shooting starts.”

That Chapman’s stand on car protection is right is hardly open to argument except by economic troglodytes. To continue the present extravagant protection for cars is obviously foolish because it discourages the industry from changing and so encourages it to destroy itself from within. It encourages us to have five manufacturers of cars when we only have a market big enough for two or, at the most, three. Everyone knows this but not everyone has the guts to say it. But Chapman had said it and now all the wise ones predict that he will shortly be washed up on the political beach.

Well, I don’t agree. I do not think the political experts realise how the ordinary citizen despises politicians when political cunning replaces wisdom. We now treat with cynical contempt the statements made about the evils of protectionism by our leaders overseas because we know that they will probably come home and do the opposite.

We are told that they have to behave that way, that it is necessary in politics to say one thing and do the opposite, that smart footwork is all that matters and that economic principles must be quickly and quietly sacrificed on the altar of political popularity. The plain truth is that we are sick to death of this kind of behaviour.

I am not sure that politicians cannot tell people the truth. The Melbourne electorate of Maribyrnong is held by the Labor member, Dr Moss Cass. He was, and I hope still is, an odd bod with a queer kind of beard and with almost no political cunning at all. Soon after he was elected, he made some startlingly frank statements about marijuana and similar risky subjects. Our side of politics rubbed our hands with glee and quickly decided that, when the citizens of Maribyrnong found the kind of member they had, they would quickly spew him forth. But instead they returned him with an increased majority. I guess they were glad to have a member who said what he thought and not what he thought they wanted him to say.

Moss Cass was Minister for Conservation during the Whitlam reign. There were some bad floods on the Murrumbidgee and one of our members asked what he thought was a cunning question, “What was the Minister for Conservation going to do to protect the fair city of Wagga from flooding?” Moss blurted out that he didn’t think he could do anything, that Wagga was built on a flood plain and that flood plains were for floods, and then he sat down! The House gasped with astonishment that any minister could say such a sensible thing. I sent him a little note, “Moss, it is quite intolerable that a bloke with whiskers like yours can talk such sense.”

People are sick of politicians who are so busy watching where their feet go that they can’t see where the country is going. Everyone knows that the car industry, for its own sake as well as ours, will have to make some massive changes in the next ten years; otherwise it will become even sicker and sillier than it is now. Grant Chapman, with Mitsubishi right bang in the middle of his electorate, has had the courage to say so. It is a great pity that there are not more members like him. If there were, they would help the car industry in the end by forcing it to make the necessary adjustments we all know must one day be made, and the longer they are delayed, the more painful they will be. And action of this kind would help the ordinary citizen who now has to pay an extra $2000 for each new car in order to protect our inefficient industry.

But above all, action from other members similar to Chapman’s would restore our faith in the democratic system. We could do with more politicians with guts, like Chapman.