It’s often noted how slowly David Pocock speaks. The former Wallabies captain, who knocked off the ACT’s Liberal senator in 2022’s independent wave, gives carefully considered answers in media interviews. He is in many ways the opposite of fellow Senator Jacqui Lambie, with whom he is often paired, as key votes on the Senate crossbench.
But it’s not just the speed. There is something preternaturally calm about Pocock, even as he argues for progressive reforms the major parties refuse to countenance.
Take Friday’s RN interview, in which he called for a “middle path” on negative gearing and capital gains. The senator has spent much of his term advocating for reform in this space, with he and Lambie previously commissioning research into five possible sets of changes.
“We are in a housing crisis, and I’m concerned politicians aren’t quite clocking just how bad this is,” Pocock told the ABC matter-of-factly, in a widely shared clip. “We should be talking about tax reform, planning reform, stamp duty, migration. We need to be having a sensible conversation about all of these things and then finding a way forward.”
It’s the same rational tone he’s taken in interviews on the safeguard mechanism, the PRRT, the need to raise JobSeeker, the Stage three tax cuts, and his bill introducing a “duty of care” to young people on climate. He’s measured in Senate estimates, even when calling out Home Affairs for treating those fleeing Gaza differently to those fleeing Ukraine, and even when government senators fire back aggressively.
For a former rugby player once arrested for chaining himself to mining equipment, he rarely lets his frustration show. And yet frustration is something he clearly feels. When I spoke to Pocock in August, he seemed exasperated by Labor’s failure to implement a total ban on gambling advertising, as recommended by a Peta Murphy-chaired committee. I ask whether this one has got to him, and if so, why.
“I think it’s just such a blatant example of putting industries ahead of Australian people,” he says, in a pause-filled sentence that takes 20 seconds to deliver.
“You’re elected to this place to come and represent people,” he adds, picking up the pace as he points to the work done by the committee, the harms of gambling addiction, and the overwhelming popularity of a ban. “What are we doing? It’s pretty tragic. Such a lack of courage. And, I think, a lack of clarity about what it actually is to be an elected representative.”
Pocock expresses similar chagrin on climate (“it’s an extraordinary thing to be alive now and to know everything we know, to see that we have basically all the solutions…”) and housing affordability (“it’s so, so grim … no one actually wants to actually go to some of the root causes”). He finds it “astounding” that the majors won’t listen to the experts who appeared before his lobbying inquiry, and “cooked” that they won’t release the legal advice they rely on to defend the lack of transparency.
But compared to the Greens, with whom Pocock shares many priorities (as well as the balance of power), the ACT senator takes a much more conciliatory approach. He often calls on the Senate to pass government bills, even when he thinks they don’t go far enough — as he is currently doing on Labor’s “Help to Buy” legislation. In his first speech, he rejected the mantle of kingmaker, saying he wanted to be a “peace broker”.
“My team and I, we’re trying to get outcomes for the people we represent on a whole range of issues,” he tells me. “Sure, yeah, you’re going to get frustrated. Sometimes you need to be able to really show that and push hard. I think other times it’s counterproductive. So trying to work out, yeah, how do we actually get an outcome here?”
He isn’t interested in what he calls “political theatre”.
“At the end of the day, if you’ve got that without outcomes, then it’s pointless. I mean, you just make people more cynical.”
One may question whether Pocock, with his willingness to compromise, has achieved as many outcomes as he otherwise might have. Then again, he only has one Senate vote, unlike the Greens, who hold 11. He is, however, hopeful about the prospect of minority government, and of more independents holding more power. Is the government ready for that?
“My experience on the crossbench has been that when the crossbench has the balance of power, we end up with better legislation,” he says. “Sure, it may be slightly slower than the government would like, just ramming bills through. But I genuinely think we end up with policy that is better thought out, that reflects more what the majority of Australians want.”
He points to the long list of private senator’s bills and private member’s bills “sitting on the notice papers somewhere”, whether on gambling, pork barrelling, or political appointments, which the major parties don’t want to even debate. “One of the things that’s really stuck out to me over the last two years is the number of times that the major parties vote together to entrench or just keep the status quo going.”
So after two years in Parliament House, is Pocock more or less optimistic about Australia’s ability to tackle the problems facing us?
“In a weird way, probably more optimistic,” he says. “You realise that there’s so many good people in here who genuinely want to solve these issues, and often, y’know, have to just toe the party line that they don’t agree with.”
It’s a very reasonable position to take. But it doesn’t seem like reason is going to convince the major parties to listen, not until there is a crossbench powerful enough to make them.
