Welcome to our March 2024 Newsletter!
Do we still refer to March as “Mad March” in South Australia now that the car race has been moved to December?
Whether the month is still officially “mad” or not, it’s been a very busy few weeks, balancing various work commitments with attending events at the Adelaide Festival and Fringe.
Last week I attended an Adelaide Writers Week event when the Town Hall hosted two big political figures from the UK; Tony Blair’s former communications director Alistair Campbell and former Conservative minister Rory Stewart. These days, Campbell and Stewart co-host the UKs most popular podcast, “The Rest is Politics”, through which they provide analysis of the big political issues of the day, one from a centre-left perspective and the other from the centre-right.
It was a fascinating evening of both entertainment and insight, including Alistair Campbell getting a tune out of the bagpipes. At one point, Rory Stewart gave a frank and revealing assessment into what it is like to be a government minister, often having to reign in his deeply held beliefs in favour of towing the party line. He clearly found the whole charade a dishonourable and humiliating experience. Ultimately, this came to a head when he was eventually dispelled from the Conservative Party when he refused to back the decision by his then leader, Prime Minister Boris Johnston, to endorse Brexit.
I was struck by how this highly intelligent, rational man could no longer stomach the idea of serving in government because the act of governing itself had become so absurd, characterised by often dishonest, careerist politicians with limited capability.
Somehow, throughout the western world we must raise the quality of both our political debate and those who seek to enter the profession or I fear that we’ll continue to erode public trust in our politician’s which is already at an all-time low.
The void in high quality political debate and objective journalism is already being filled by the never-ending stream of online content that is becoming all-pervasive in our lives, especially amongst younger people. My concern is that this tends to push us to the more extreme ends of the political spectrum as the algorithms curate and feed us content that only serves to entrench rather challenge our views.
But there is some hope. Australia is now the second biggest audience for “The Rest is Politics” podcast which suggests there is still a big audience for sensible, informed political debate. It’s just a shame that we very rarely see this from our elected representatives.
As for “The Rest is Law”, if you have any questions or concerns in areas where we may be able to assist, feel free to give us a call, as we say… we’re here to help!
Please telephone our main office number on (08) 8231 6100 or email reception@ezralegal.com.au.
For information on the range of legal advice and services that we provide, head to:
Michael Fabbro
Practice Principal
Ezra Legal
