Politics & Power Quote by Jay Weatherill

“Open and accountable” is the politician’s cleanest currency: a phrase that sounds like reform while committing to almost nothing measurable. Jay Weatherill’s repetition of “I want to make sure” performs earnestness, but it also subtly shifts responsibility away from any specific action and onto an attitude. It’s governance framed as reassurance. The line is designed to be quoted, replayed, and remembered as a stance rather than a policy.

The real target here is not transparency in the abstract; it’s legitimacy. “Presenting to the South Australian people a Government” treats the state like a product launch, implying that confidence is something you manage through optics as much as through decisions. That’s not inherently cynical; modern government runs on consent, and consent runs on trust. But the phrasing tips its hand: public confidence becomes the central metric, not outcomes, not accountability mechanisms, not consequences for failures.

Context does a lot of work in statements like this. They usually surface when confidence has been shaken: a controversy, a resignation, a messy process, a whiff of insider dealing, even just a sense that politics is getting too insulated. By invoking “at all levels,” Weatherill widens the frame, signaling unity and seriousness while also leaving room to distribute blame. The subtext is: we know you’re watching; we know you’re skeptical; we’re asking you to keep believing anyway.