Over the past four years Australia has seen a continued attack on its core Westminster principles of government, led almost exclusively by the Liberal-National coalition. How should we respond as a progressive movement to these attacks? Should we aim high, or retaliate with the same tactics? What is at stake for representative democracy if civic institutions continued to come under attack, and we continue to undermine our Westminster principles of government?

Let’s start by reflecting on a few of the examples where Liberals have undermined the institutions of government, parliament and democracy.

First, releasing cabinet in confidence documents to hurt former governments. Tradition is that cabinet in confidence is just that, confidential, and for good reason. The minutes, discussions and arguments of cabinet are essential to democracy to function and critical for a government to have robust public policy outcomes. However, former prime minister Tony Abbott approved the release of cabinet documents, with the sole intent to hurt the former Labor government, then in opposition, in doing so directly undermining proper governance – giving no thought to the national interest, save trying to wound the former Labor government.

Second, the use of inquiries and commissions purely for political gain. Within a few months of an incoming Liberal government in 2013, two substantial royal commissions were commissioned with the express aim of damaging the former government and debilitating Labor. One was into a former Labor government home insulation scheme and the other, more dangerously, into trade unions generally. Never before has the wide-reaching, coercive power of a royal commission been so targeted to destroy an opposition. This became blatant when both a former Labor prime minister, Julia Gillard, and the leader of the Labor opposition, Bill Shorten were required to give evidence, under oath (both cleared of any wrong doing). The royal commission became even more farcical when the commissioner Dyson Heydon became the star of a Liberal-National party fundraiser while he was still royal commissioner. Could you imagine if every time the British Labour party won government it undertook a judge-led inquiry into the Conservative party?

When this starts to get even more serious is when executive government directly attempts to disregard, discredit and destroy the reputation of statutory appointees of government. The Liberals again leap into these dangerous water with reckless abandon – first to a human rights commissioner, Gillian Trigg, who was not only ridiculed and criticised by the then prime minister and the attorney general, but offered an incentive to resign and be appointed to another position in an attempt to silence her views. This employment incentive was referred to the Australian police. Were this a one-off, we could be generous is seeing this as a mistake, however more recently we again see the Liberals trying to influence a statutory office, this time the chief legal officer of the Commonwealth, the solicitor general. In this instance, a cabinet minister attempted to gag the office of the solicitor general, and insert his ministry into the approvals process for any referrals – this then blew up in parliament further – pitting the number one and two legal officers of the Commonwealth into a very public brawl. So where is democracy and ‘good government’ in this mudslinging exercise? What respect is given to statutory officers and our democratic checks and balances by the Liberals and how do we repair public trust in statutory offices if this happens time and time again?

To wrap up the Liberals’ destructive game, we must look to the decision by the then Liberal opposition leader to restrict the practice of ‘pairing’ votes in parliament. This act of pettiness in the extreme was a first in Australia – directly trying to cause parliamentary chaos was the only outcome the Liberals wanted. Sadly, before long, Labor too fell into this trap and now in federal opposition is refusing to provide pairs.

So where does this leave democracy? The natural inclination is that once the ‘convention’ is broken, Labor should not feel morally obliged to attempt to reinstate it. However, what is the broader risk to democracy, in an era of Donald Trump, Brexit and Ukip, if we continue to undermine our very system of government? My belief is that we cannot afford to lower ourselves as a progressive movement to the level of the Liberals, and we have to continue to uphold the system and principle of good governance, otherwise we risk the continued degradation of our democratic institutions.

If Labor party activists play in the mud with the Liberals, some of it will stick. We must not help to create the environment under which the alt-right thrives. We must follow Michelle Obama’s now infamous quote, that ‘when they go low, we go high’, for it is not just the Treasury benches at risk, but the continued erosion of the foundations of our democratic systems and institutions. If we fall into the Liberals’ trap and do not call them to account on their corrosive behaviour, we may well continue to see political extremism rise, as more and more people lose faith in the system of government.

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Neil Pharaoh was the national co-convener of Australian Rainbow Labor from 2008-2013 and Labor candidate for Prahran in 2014. He tweets @neilpharaoh

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