Table of Contents
The cases and controversies highlighted in earlier chapters of this monograph have much to tell us about the pressures on the interpretation of caretaker conventions, and the sensitive issues that public officials must navigate when upholding caretaker principles during an election campaign and until the swearing in of a new government. This chapter highlights some of the dilemmas posed by the need to be responsive to government while remaining apolitical and upholding public service obligations to be professional, impartial and to comply with the law. It addresses some of the forces impinging on public service impartiality.
Arguably, some of the anxiety surrounding caretaker conventions relates to the competitive and intensely partisan environment of contemporary politics. Although we live in the era of the ‘permanent campaign’, the period leading up to polling day is especially fraught—ministers and their staff are under intense pressure; Opposition spokespeople are looking to exploit opportunities to secure political advantage; journalists are looking to break controversial stories and to ‘get behind’ tightly stage-managed ‘run of the mill’ announcements.
As guidance documents make clear, decisions about whether caretaker conventions have been breached are ultimately matters for prime ministers and premiers. They make political calculations about the benefits and risks of particular courses of action. Although it is relatively common for someone to claim that caretaker conventions have been breached, such claims are rarely substantiated. Usually the public debate moves on, or investigations reveal that the decision taken in the matter was a question of judgement. Caretaker guidance documents are guidances only, not hard and fast rules. But, as will be seen in subsequent chapters, recent developments in the adjudication of alleged breaches is challenging traditional understandings of conventions as shared norms of behaviour.