Published: 31 August 2021
Last updated: 4 March 2024
Professor Kim Rubenstein is running for the Senate as an independent. She tells Anne Susskind about the benefits of a more diverse parliament, how she can inspire voters and the legacy of Netzer
IF THE AUSTRALIAN constitution had been amended to allow dual citizenship for parliamentarians, our Covid vaccination and quarantine responses would have been better, says Professor Kim Rubenstein, who recently announced her bid for the Senate as an independent candidate.
It may seem like a long bow, but Rubenstein, a Canberra legal academic whose expertise is in constitutional law, argues that a more diverse parliament would have meant that more of our politicians were concerned about travel, and sensitive to the travel needs of the almost 49 per cent of Australians born overseas or with a parent overseas.
In turn, if parliament had a more globalised perspective, it would have prioritised dedicated quarantine facilities such as Howard Springs, and a more efficient vaccination rollout. In the lull that descended after the government closed the borders, and with the pandemic appearing under control, it failed on both those scores, maintains Rubenstein, who is Professor in the Faculty of Business Government and Law at the University of Canberra.
Although her chance of winning a seat must be slim – the ACT has only two Senate spots, and they’re held by a Labor and Liberal senator – Rubenstein is optimistic and full of ideas. More than 750 people have signed up to her party, Kim4Canberra, in the first two weeks since she announced her candidature, and she told The Jewish Independent she was confident of reaching the 1500 members required to register under the newly amended Electoral Act.
It’s a fantastic response, says a very upbeat Rubenstein, 55, whose daughter Cohava (Hebrew for star) is “managing the numbers” and whose son Eliezer (God’s helper) is managing the social media and content, having chosen for her promo video Beethoven’s rousing 5th piano concerto, aka The Emperor.
I wonder if actually I’ll stand out more because I am sounding more reasonable to people. I’m aiming to.
A favourite quote is from Rabbi Hillel: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me but if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?” and her launch Zoom seminar featured Zali Steggall, the Independent member for Warringah, Helen Haines, the Independent member for Indi, and Kerryn Phelps, the former Independent member for Wentworth.
Rubenstein’s concerns are wide-ranging and ambitious: updating the constitution to incorporate the Uluru Statement from the Heart, changing section 44 (1) on dual citizenship and parliament, the creation of a republic, and, among other things, gender equity, climate change and refugees.
It’s a confluence of all these issues that has prompted her candidature, made more urgent during the “disastrous” pandemic and by systemic issues of sexual harassment and misconduct in parliament and beyond. “Australians crave - but have been denied - leadership,” she says.
For votes, she is targeting Canberrans who want someone who truly, fully represents them instead of Labor and Liberal members beholden to their parties. She’s after people who have become cynical about politicians. In Canberra, she believes she will appeal to public servants and those in academia who have seen a government that has devalued the public service and higher education. There are lots of sectors responsive to this. “I can be their voice.”
Trying not to puncture the balloon, I suggest it is not an easy time to be putting herself forward as a voice of reason, in the midst of Covid chaos. Surely it will be a challenge to be heard amid the clamour?
Rubenstein doesn’t skip a beat: “I wonder about that. I wonder if actually I’ll stand out more because I am sounding more reasonable to people. I’m aiming to. Public policy definitely requires reason and rationality, and thoughtfulness and judgment in the broadest sense. I am wanting to try bring that into our deliberative frameworks. Our parliament needs it.”
She’s had wide media coverage across TV and print media, she says. She loves swimming against the tide, and thinks many people frustrated with politicians are looking for someone to represent them. “I really want to enable people to feel less cynical about politics and energised by someone like me, and to want to be an active citizen.
“A theme throughout my work, my writing and legal work, is about a commitment to citizenship and membership. Now the next rung in the framework or context for doing this is parliament. It’s another sphere.”
Rubenstein says her community involvement dates back to when she 13 or 14, and a leader in Zionist youth group Netzer. In 1982, she was school captain of Presbyterian Ladies College in Melbourne (only the second Jewish captain, the first being Karen Mahlab in 1978. There had been a Jewish deputy much earlier, in the 1950s, who was told that she would have been captain had she not been Jewish).
She says we need to re-frame dual citizenship as a positive, not the negative as it has been in the past. Instead of being such a hurdle for political nomination, it could be seen as a good news story that people with overseas connections felt sufficiently enthused about Australia that they were keen to be active citizens in parliament.
I really want to enable people to feel less cynical about politics and energised by someone like me.
“What do we need to do to remedy our system so that it is more enabling for these people rather than disabling them? There are different ways of managing conflicts, for example, setting up registers of other citizenships as we do in relation to people’s financial interests, so that everyone is aware and we can deal with it that way.’
Her work at the University of Canberra’s 50/50 by 2030 Foundation (which aims to see men and women equally represented in government and key decision making) over the last 18 months, the women’s marches and outrageous behaviour in parliament has energised her into thinking about how important it is to have women in parliament.
She was approached at one point by an established party, she says, but is committed to being an independent because it would be very difficult to stand with all the policies of any of the parties and she would be spending too much time working internally within a party to convince other politicians, instead of trying to gain influence directly.
“There are gender issues for both men and women, allowing men to be more involved in caring for children. Until you have gender equity in the home, it’s very difficult to have it in the public sphere.” Rubenstein has been “blessed in that context”, she says, with her husband Garry Sturgess, a writer and publisher (an ex-law reporter for The Age in the 1980s and early host of Radio National’s Law Report).
If she must be labelled, says Rubenstein, it’s not left or right; progressive is probably closest, although sometimes her individualist approach can be small l liberal. Being Jewish is central; she is, she proudly says, a descendant of Jewish convicts.
During the campaign, she will turn off her phone on Shabbat, which is important for her health and wellbeing.
Being Jewish in a non-Jewish environment as school captain was very affirming of her Jewish identity, and her Netzer involvement and a year in Israel have been central to her sense of place in the world. She feels comfortable in Jewish and mainstream contexts, and with her leadership in both.
During the campaign, she will turn off her phone on Shabbat, which is important for her health and well-being. She is observant and was at one stage president of the ACT Jewish Community, “a wonderful community” with a few hundred families and she’s hoping also for support from many other Jewish people in Canberra who don’t necessarily connect with the community or centre, among them lots of young graduates, and many in the universities and public service.
Her children’s distinctively Jewish names were chosen because they “really speak to me.” “It’s about being proud of who you are. I take a lot of pride in the environment I’ve grow up in, been nurtured in. I’m really clear about my Jewish identity. It will be interesting to see to what extent antisemitism shows its head in my campaign. I’m hoping for all of us not, but obviously I am prepared for that to be something I’ll have to deal with.”
