With an election looming, the blame game has started & is now in full swing - politicians on both sides are telling us what the other side is going to do if they get into power, or how what the other side has done has foiled their grand schemes. Scapegoats are sought & appropriately sacrificed to the media bonfire. The government, of course, has been doing this for some time. We call them "scandals" because "incompetence" has too many syllables for prime time, & "blame" sounds too dull.
In fact, that's all we're really doing - finding someone to blame for a failure in the system somewhere, rather than finding out what really went wrong & fixing that - that would be too hard, require time & resources, & wouldn't make the prime time news. Once upon a time, you had to be quick enough to make the morning edition of the paper, but with twenty-four hour news, there's the trickle of newsworthy stuff to keep the media hungry, & then the big release each day to prove that the politicians are indeed awake.
When it comes to blaming someone for something so that we don't look too deeply into the problem, politics is becoming masterful. Many a minister of questionable background has been foisted into a portfolio for which they are unsuited or have no interest, only to be blamed when something within that realm - over which they had no control - falls apart at the seams due to a fundamental policy problem brought down from above, or else an incompetence in the implementation of a perfectly good policy carried out at the lowest levels.
I look with dismay at the political career of Peter Garrett - someone not well suited to the Labour Party, but who got them a lot of votes because he appealed to them. Within Labour, as an outsider, it was easier to treat him with disrespect. He had the credentials as Environment Minister, but was shunted into lesser roles when policies were mishandled. His fault? I doubt if he had the administrative background to oversee the implementation - that's for the public service. He did, however, know how to talk to environmentalists about the issues. He had real opinions. He was muffled, however, & his fellow politicians could not allow him to deviate from the party line.
From the perspective of a voter (or the media), when a policy fails, then someone must pay the price for the failure. We choose to pick on the Minister because they are a face. We use them as a voodoo doll & stick pins in them in the hope that causing them pain will somehow make our lives better. This is, of course, particularly silly. We should take responsibility for the actions of ourselves & our society, rather than looking for a puppet to hurt. When questionable insulation installers roamed the streets "taking advantage" of the "windfall" in the industry, where were the industry representatives who did not certify these people? Where was the community that allowed such people into the homes of their neighbours who knew no better?
Ah, but there was a Minister to blame. Problem solved. That'll learn 'em. Those dodgy installers won't do that again!
