McKinnon Prize for Political Leadership
Recognising and rewarding constructive leadership is how we strengthen trust, restore integrity, and move Australian politics forward.
Criticism is easy. It’s quick, it’s viral and it often rewards the loudest voice rather than the most thoughtful one. But building a better country demands something harder: the recognition and reinforcement of good leadership. That’s why the McKinnon Prize for Political Leadership matters, and why we were proud to help deliver this year’s event alongside the McKinnon Foundation and Mike Baird.
The Prize does something rare in our political culture: it spotlights leaders who choose integrity over theatre, outcomes over point-scoring. In doing so, it shifts incentives. When we amplify examples of courage, collaboration and competence, we send a clear message—this is the behaviour we want repeated. Recognition isn’t a gold star; it’s a signal to future leaders about what earns respect and trust.
Good leadership isn’t glamorous. It looks like showing your work, engaging honestly with people who disagree, and staying at the table when the cameras turn off. It’s an evidence-first approach to big problems—energy reliability, public service delivery, cost-of-living relief—where decisions are explained, trade-offs are owned, and communities are brought into the process rather than treated as spectators.
Celebrating that approach is not naïve; it’s practical. Cynicism doesn’t fix hospitals or keep the lights on. Encouraging the leaders who do the unglamorous work—listening, negotiating, compromising—does.
This year’s McKinnon Prize reminded us that better politics is not an abstract ideal. It exists in real actions taken by people across parties, levels of government and communities. Our job, as citizens and institutions, is to notice it, back it and ask for more of it.
If we want a healthier democracy, we need to reward the behaviour that makes it so. Recognition is how cultures change. Let’s keep changing ours for the better.
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