Political commentary should not steep to personal irrelevant historical muckraking

I'm a political commentator, not a very good one, but hopefully a half considered one. I don't apologie for writing critical commentary on the policies and positions taken by politicians and industry leaders but I try hard not to do hatchet jobs on people which do little to lift the level of public debate.

On Sunday Ben Harvey from the West Australian wrote what I and others who contacted me (plus a couple of senior journalists) thought was a particularly nasty attack on someone who I know is doing a good job on behalf of his members. In response I wrote a letter to the editor which at this time has not been published, hence I thought I would publish it here and leave people to make up their own mind of the merits of my argument.

And in turn hopefully help send the message that all of us who write about others should focus on researching policies and politics rather than salacious gossipy personal history which adds nothing to the story. Not that there was much of a story here, as every volunteer organisation and non for profit in the state turns to the government for additional support and in the case of the volunteer firefighters they get less proportionally than the other volunteer emergency organizations, something that Ben failed to explore.

Here is my reply followed by the original opinion article.

[email protected]

Ben Harvey’s Opinion Piece on Sunday 21 November 2021 targeting the CEO of the Bushfire Volunteers of WA for empire building was no doubt a coup for the governments minders who have worked hard over the past four years to sideline this important volunteer organisation.

Repeated public dismissal of the issues raised by the organisation along with targeted personal attacks on their CEO Darren Browne by the current and former Minister and the Commissioner seems to be part of the modus operandi of this government.

While Darren is an interesting character with an interesting past which is no doubt of interest to those in the political/media world who follow people rather than policies, it’s of little interest to those who give up their time to fight fires or those who rely on volunteers in time of emergencies.?

For the average Western Australia and more importantly the 20,000 volunteer bush fire fighters the opinion piece did little to address the many legitimate questions that Darren and myself have repeatedly raised on behalf of our members.

Questions on how the new industrial manslaughter laws and the mandatory vaccination policy will impact the ability of local governments, farmers, their workers and volunteers to fight the coming summer bushfires.

Questions on how the $400m Emergency Services Levy is allocated across the states 500 bushfire brigades and how the government’s efforts to centralise control is more likely to impede rather than help local communities manage local fires.

The opinion piece was well below the standard of Ben Harvey as it focused on the personal and the irrelevant rather than the policy and politics of the governments creeping command and control approach to bushfire fighting and volunteering.

If any volunteer organisation needs to build an empire by being allocated a very small share of the ESL to help attract, support, defend and represent volunteers it’s the Bushfire Volunteers of WA.

Trevor Whittington CEO WAFarmers

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Ben Harvey: Is the Association of Volunteer Bush Fire Brigades riven by empire building?

BEN HARVEY

The West Australian Sun, 21 November 2021 2:00AM

If I asked you to name the institution in this State that is most riven by empire builders, you’d be spoilt for choice.

There’s the factional in-fighting that blights the Labor Party and the opaque power broking that drives the agenda of the Liberals.

The “I know where you buried that body” dirt files of the WA Police Union and the ego-filled arrogance of the Australian Medical Association.

How about the glass-jawed piousness of the media, or the trade union officials who thunder “workers of the world unite” by day whilst enjoying kickbacks and pay-offs by night?

There’s the incestuous alliances in the multi-billion-dollar oil and gas industry and the “speak softly but carry a big stick” diplomacy of the Chamber of Minerals and Energy.

Don’t forget the pomposity in the sheltered workshops that are our universities, or the haughty, intellectual jockeying inside the judiciary.

So much to choose from!

You’ll be surprised by what I think is the public policy institution that leaves the others for dead when it comes to Et Tu Brute-style politics: volunteer firefighters.

In more than 20 years of observing the organisations that keep our society ticking along I have never come across a cohort of people that have what is a pretty clear goal to get clouded: stopping fires starting and putting them out when they do.

I had been reluctant to step into this viper’s nest but decided to put in the mouthguard after I heard the Association of Volunteer Bush Fire Brigades bag the McGowan Government for saying vollies must be vaccinated.

The executive officer of the AVBFB, a chap named Darren Brown (pictured above and not to be confused with the illusionist Derren Brown), seemed to be everywhere complaining about the use of the “paramilitary” word “must” instead of “should” and warning towns could be razed if anti-vaxxers couldn’t man the hoses.

Brown has been in and out of the headlines for years.

In 2004, around the time he was pushing for pokies to be allowed into WA pubs, he was running as an independent candidate for the new State seat of Kenwick.

It emerged back then that electronic gaming wasn’t the only “pokie” business of interest to him. Brown ran a company called Clone-A-Willy, which was billed as completely safe and fun way for men to create rubber replicas of their penis.

It wasn’t just wangs that Brown knew how to clone. In 2005, while working for Liberal MP Tony Simpson, he cloned a Gallop government website in an act of political sabotage.

Fast-forward six years and Brown was working as chief-of-staff to Liberal MP Peter Collier (he of Clan fame). I am too scared to ask how they met lest I discover there is a replica of Peter Collier’s todger on someone’s bedside table.

As COS for the then Energy Minister, Brown was at the centre of a spin-doctoring storm relating to a blowout in the cost of running WA’s solar panel subsidy program.

His frosty exit from Collier’s office in 2011 ushered in a career as a blogger (under the moniker The Quick Brown Fox) and political consultant (“Private background briefings for boards and CEOs from $550”).

In 2013 he was again in the headlines, this time for turning on his old boss amidst a bullying scandal engulfing Collier’s office.

So Brown’s was the pretty standard pokie advocate/genital sculptor/political cyber-saboteur/renewable energy spin doctor/amateur blogger/West Wing insider-for-hire/whistleblower road to bushfire control.

The reason I bring up Brown’s colourful background is this. He, like many “leaders” in the world of volunteer firefighting, appears to have his own mission.

When you hear him bag the Government, be aware he might not doing it purely out of concern for the human rights of volunteers vis-a-vis mandated vaccination.

Brown’s modus operadi is revealed in a 2017 email he sent to the McGowan Government concerning the creation of the Rural Fire Service (which became the Rural Fire Division).

“The Government doesn’t need another public brawl and like I’ve said a hundred times, we would rather play nice than brawl too,” he wrote.

“I therefore propose that while considering anything about the RFS, Cabinet also considers funding the AVBFB to the tune of 3 FTE’s, an office and vehicles for 4 years.”

Maybe you can add political blackmail to empire building.