Politics is becoming a career: survey

Media Release
13 June 2010

Politics is becoming a career: survey

A survey of the career backgrounds of Parliamentarians has found that their most frequent pre-MP employment experience is within the world of politics and government. 

The survey by government relations specialists Senate Communications shows that almost a quarter of MPs have worked primarily in government or local government roles before entering Parliament. This has jumped from 15 percent in a similar survey six years ago.

What’s more, one third of MPs have worked in a political or bureaucratic role at some time in their lives.

Senate’s Government Relations Partner, Mark Blackham, says the result shows that for an increasing number of MPs, the world of government is their main life experience.

“The days are virtually over where people enter politics to fix things they find wrong in ordinary life. Now, they are more likely to enter government or party politics at a young age as a career move.

“The growth of bureaucracy and political interest groups allows many more people to find long term employment inside the world of national politics.
“MMP has strengthened the ability of political parties to keep their preferred MPs in Parliament – so MPs can choose to make politics a lifetime career. 
“This means that the rarefied environment of politics is the main experience they draw on when making decisions,” Mr Blackham said. 

After government and politics, the next most common career before Parliament has been in business, which is claimed by 16 percent of MPs. This is similar to the last survey, and is dominated by National MPs. But as National now has far more MPs than six years ago, the proportion of business backgrounds in the National caucus has dropped from 38 to 25 percent.

The most common qualification of MPs in Parliament is related to law. There are 16 MPs, evenly spread across the parties, who have trained in law. The second most common qualification is in teaching – there are 14 MPs who are trained educationalists (the same as six years ago). Half of these are Labour MPs.

Countering the trend toward more professionals soaked in government experience, is a parallel growth in ‘jacks-of-all-trades’. Sixteen percent of MPs have had such a wide variety of jobs that is hard to categorise them as having one dominant career. This number has almost doubled over the past two elections. The span of work is often surprising – from stable hands to television presenters.

“These MPs are more likely to have had a wider experience of lifestyles and people, and are more likely to be innovators and self-starters,” Mr Blackham said.“Innovators in Parliament have a fight on their hands against a trend that is turning Western politics into a kind of nation management-by-numbers,” he said.
 
The survey used publicly available statements about MPs’ working experience. Over 90 percent of MPs have had more than one ‘career’. The survey chose to categorise MPs by their primary qualification and/or or single-longest period of pre-Parliament employment.

Ends.