Opinion
Isn’t it brilliant when you encounter a truly competent person? An efficient nurse, council worker, banker, bureaucrat, baker. Someone who gets stuff done and, by doing so, quietly and regularly improves the lives of people around them.
Competence is a rarely trumpeted, often under-rated virtue, which is a shame.
In fact, the pleasure of watching people who are really good at their jobs, who move through the world with efficiency, precision and skill – on screen as well as in real life – is so strong that it has earned a name: competency porn. Think of Dr Rabinavitch in The Pitt. Or Legally Blonde’s Elle Woods crushing a witness. Keanu Reeves playing John Wick. Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote. Dulcie Collins in Deadloch. The journalists in Spotlight. Sherlock Homes identifying a murderer through a speck of dust on a shoe, or a twitch of an eyelid.
Then there are TikTokers folding fitted sheets, organising cupboards, vacuuming.
It’s not just individuals, either, but smooth-running, capable teams. TVTropes described it as: “The thrill of watching bright, talented people plan, banter, and work together to solve problems. It’s not just ‘characters being good at a thing’ … but specifically about using cleverness and hard work.”
It’s a delight.
And yet when people display incompetence, we rarely call it what it is. We frame it as something else. When the American president bombs Iran without securing the Strait of Hormuz to ensure the passage of oil supplies – and without securing the assent or support of allies – that’s not a curious new foreign policy doctrine. That’s incompetent. This war has also shown that when leaders thumb their noses at renewables, and continue to prop up dying fossil fuel industries, that too, even just by the measure of energy security and independence, is incompetent.
If Kyle Sandilands publicly bullies a cohost on air, sure, that can amount to misconduct, or an “attack”, but it’s also being bad at your job. Breaching community and radio standards serially while on air is also incompetent.
If an industry leader sexually harasses staff, we label it a #metoo moment, not foolishness from someone who does not have their act together sufficiently to do their job well.
When the Liberal Party leaders repeatedly skim then ignore reports that tell them they are losing community standing because of their inability to preselect, promote and speak to women, instead of adopting evidence-based measures to fix the problem, that’s incompetence. Why not see it as a key performance indicator, and just get it done?
When governments of all stripes observe the havoc and horrors the Tasmanian salmon industry is wreaking on the environment, the horrible sliming of the coastline, the disappearance of fish, the rapid degrading of the nutrition and quality of the salmon, as Richard Flanagan outlined so devastatingly in Toxic, and yet refuse to arrest it, this is simply inept.
It would be delightful if politicians could understand that what we want from them, more than anything else, is just – hear me out on this – for them to do their jobs well. We don’t want reports to languish, experts to be ignored, cans kicked further and further down policy roads.
One area in which the dangers of ineptitude continue, due to the warping influence of being politicised and easily weaponised, is immigration. The culture wars can both distract us and breed incompetence. When an offensive remark is made – such as Pauline Hanson suggesting there are no “good Muslims” – or an offensive sentiment insinuated, days and weeks can be lost to dissecting, apologising (or half-apologising), dog-whistling, hen-squawking.
Meanwhile, headlines fly by, full of warning and cautions we can barely comprehend – a polluted ocean, a febrile planet, unfettered AI, new technologies devouring resources and, possibly, our futures.
Which is why so many of us wearily agreed with widely respected former Treasury secretary Martin Parkinson when he said we need to avoid “culture-wars garbage” on immigration. Rather, he said, we should just implement practical measures such as updating the skills test – untouched since 2012 – to attract the workers we need. His suggestion was that the test be shaped around the best indicators of success – age and education. Parkinson, who led Labor’s migration review in 2023, said: “It doesn’t matter where you are on the ‘big migration’ or ‘small migration’ side of the debate, we want to get the best people.”
The Grattan Institute says that if we improve this test, which affects about 80,000 workers a year, state and federal budgets would benefit by an estimated $84 billion over the next three decades. Sounds sensible, possibly even effective.
Late last year, the McKinnon Foundation’s inaugural index, or “Dashboard of Democratic Health”, found that despite strong majority support for democracy, only about half of us are happy with the way it works. Almost two-thirds think corruption is a problem. Trust in federal politicians was at 35.9 per cent and political parties just 31.2 per cent.
What the McKinnon Index identified would surprise few of us. Australians are hankering for leadership: “Australians want leaders who act with courage, competence and vision rather than short-term politics. When asked what one thing could solve the challenges facing Australia’s governments, the most common answers related to calls for leadership with vision and action (14.7 per cent) and public participation in decision-making (12.7 per cent). This was significantly higher than answers related to reducing Australia’s immigration levels (7.3 per cent) or fixing the housing crisis (7.1 per cent).”
There was a strong relationship, too, between trust in government and government effectiveness. That’s the social compact – you deliver for us, we trust in you.
There are, after all, are some pretty substantial issues we’d like resolved.
A 2021 OECD report, Drivers of Trust in Public Institutions, analysing data from 22 countries, produced a similar finding. As The Australian Financial Review put it, “Competent governments able to deal with complex problems such as climate change, technology regulation, and emergency preparedness score best. A reminder of why public service capability is so critical.” The OECD found people wanted policy to be shaped by evidence and factor in future generations. The dream.
Competence should be the first thing we demand of our leaders.
We shouldn’t need to switch on our screens to be thrilled by the sight of someone working hard, well and effectively to solve a problem, without vilifying people, trying to score points or seek glory.
Julia Baird is a journalist, author and regular columnist. Her latest book is Bright Shining: how grace changes everything.
Julia Baird is a journalist, author and regular columnist. Her latest book is Bright Shining: how grace changes everything.Connect via X, Facebook or email.From our partners
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