Party politics at work
Sue Brooks June 24th, 2010
We start today with a new PM elect. While there is much talk about the fact that Julia Gillard will be our first female PM I can’t help but think how fickle is the world of the politician. Do we all feel cheated that Kevin won’t be judged again by the Australian people? Will it really hit home that we vote for a party and not for a person when we vote for a member of any political party at election time?
I am becoming more and more jaded by the whole entire process and even more worried and concerned that our country is actually run by many, many people that we don’t actually elect. The spheres of influence run deep and I believe it is many many people, other than the politicians themselves, that actually influence the decisions that we all have to abide by. I personally experience this at the local level so I hate to think what occurs at the higher levels of government.
The media also plays a huge part by directly influencing public opinion. The personal beliefs and allegiances of our media owners and the business and corporate CEO’s and their board members as well as Union reps are all very powerful and pull many strings. I worry that the general public are fed the stories that support the interests of everyone other than the general public.
So will the change in Labor leadership help the Labor Party to continue to lead our country? I doubt it. I think the change will make us all feel less secure about the political system itself. The challenge for all of us is how do we help to make our system of government more open and transparent and more representative of the majority of the people. Do the majority of the people properly understand how the country is run? I’m not sure I have an answer I’m sad to say.
- General News
- Comments(16)
Sue,
Today is why I loathe what we claim to be democracy.
Contrary to what Kevin Rudd said, the people did not elect him, his electorate did. The people (as a whole, have no saying in who will be PM), Kevin was elected by the Labor party, not the people.
Having said the above, I feel sorry for Kevin, the majority of the electorate base the views on what the media reports. Sadly that is biased.
What we have to accept is the fact that true democracy is dead in this country. Big business and the media control the minds of the people. If it is not on TV or the front page of the national papers, we just don’t know about it.
History: We once had independent politicians, then we had political parties, then we had less political parties, then we had basically, two political parties, guess what come next?
Today was a very sad day for our country.
Sadman
I woke up this morning to the news that there was going to be a leadership spill. I didn’t watch the news the night before, so I had no idea. But I saw Mr Rudd on tv saying that the marginal factions didn’t elect him as PM, the public did. So I agree with Mr Sadman. That is simply not true and yet not one journalist picked him up on it. When that speech was repeated throughout the day and he said “the marginal factions didn’t elect me” I found myself yelling at the tv “oh yes they did”, and when he said “the public elected me as PM” I found myself yelling at the tv “oh no they didn’t”. There’s never been so much conversation in my living room for more than 2 decades. Yes, this was one big and exciting day. I feel like I’m a teenager again.
But no, I didn’t like the way it was done. Politics are politics, but Mr Rudd did win the labor party the election in a presidential style election. I think they owed him that much. Sure, he probably was leading them slowly down the path of self-destruction, but I’m not sure Julia will do much better. Same hand grenade – different pin.
“I am becoming more and more jaded by the whole entire process and even more worried and concerned that our country is actually run by many, many people that we don’t actually elect. The spheres of influence run deep and I believe it is many many people, other than the politicians themselves, that actually influence the decisions that we all have to abide by. I personally experience this at the local level so I hate to think what occurs at the higher levels of government.”
I was wondering if people would come to this realisation after this event, in reality, politicians (no offence intended Sue) make decisions that are decided upon not by the government but by those who sit in the shadows (corporations and the media – the hidden people).
The sooner we as a people seek to change how our lives are “managed” by governments, the sooner we change for the better. And this “change” won’t be retoric or hollow promises, this will be community led change.
Phantom,
I have been trying to promote “community led change” for many years,with little if any success.
We live in a very apathetic society,this is made worse by the high level of family debt. Face it, people who own nothing but a mortgage and bankcard debt are not going to rock the boat.
The powers that be have achieved more with the introduction of the credit card, than they could ever have achieved by force or arms and at a lesser cost.
This is only the first step on the path to that “Brave New World”, democracy is dying, albeit slowly.
Sadman
Maryborough has an excellent Independent Member of Parliament who looks after his constituents and steadfastly resists party efforts to ‘sign him up’ . We should all be so lucky. It is the two party system, like the two supermarket system, which has led us into this mire . As it did in grocery. Two of anything is not really competition.
There are many areas in government as, again, in grocery where a nod or a wink on the golf course, at a private party on a boat, or in the gentleman’s club between senior board / party members recognises that profits to members of the clique can be maximised by clandestine collusion. Competition ? What competition ? Duopolies in commerce or in two party adversarial government systems serve the participants, but not the great Australian public. It is up to all of us at polling time to try to elect an independent or a minor party candidate first, second, and third choice and only to make our mark, reluctantly , fourth and lower for the ‘major party candidate’ we find less loathsome. Much as we do in grocery shopping. Maybe if enough of us do it we may slowly achieve a better state of affairs – but no breath holding please.
Colin,
Optional Preferential suits the ALP- usually. It splits the conservative vote or renders it ineffective.
The ALP destroyed the house of review in about 1929 so no longer do we have a true Westminster system. No check and balances. Very open to the abuses we now see from sophisticated machine politics and spin.
The conservatives when in power find it does not suit them to change the system either.
So perhaps only a strong body of INDEPENDANTS can protect us .Bring back the house of review. Cut the Legislative Assembly by 21 members and have a Legislative Council of 21 with 7 each from NQ, CQ, SEQ. and Full preferential voting.
Google will yield valuable insight into the Legislative Council.
….ET.
E G Turner,
Some problems with your thinking. In our form of democracy, the government is the voice of the people. So when Labor disbanded the upper house, that is what the people wanted!!! They obviously did not fight against it’s disbanding.
Rather than try to re-install the upper house, I believe it would be better to abolish the state government. Give more autonomy to local government and have Queensland’s share of the GST divided amongst the councils based on population and area.
Let’s get back to “government of the people, by the people, for the people”.
Sadman
Sue
You are indeed funny. To see you write “actually run by many, many people that we did not elect” makes me laugh. What about the Fraser Coast CEO & Executive team – don’t they call the shots. At a Progress Association meeting some months back you & three (3) other Councillors said “there had been some blood letting at a Councilk meeting & that the tail would no longer wag the dog”. Yeah right Sue.
Rob sometimes I might be funny but your comment doesn’t make me laugh. Please provide evidence that the CEO and Exec ‘call the shots’ as personally I have no experience of this. If in fact the Exec were calling the shots this would be the fault of the elected members as it us collectively that direct the Exec to do our bidding in line with Council policy which is again set by the elected members not the Exec.
I don’t recall uttering the words attributed to me by you, at any community meeting as I have never believed that the tail has wagged the dog! I have personally, on many occassions, simply said what I have written here. I have however recently stated that Councillors had committed to supporting the staff when the staff implement our Local Laws and that if the community wasn’t happy with a possibly ‘tougher’ approach to law enforcement then it was once again up to the elected members to alter said Laws etc.
Sue it happened at the Burrum Heads Progress Association. You were with Les Muckan, David Dalgleish & Gerard O’Connel.
But it would not have been me using those words and I do on occassion, disagree with things said by other Councillors. The meeting at Burum Heads to which you refer, was one such occassion. We all have individual opinions and our own versions of events and our own methods of working within Council to gain benefits for our community. I do recall that the Councillors mentioned made comments at a Burrum Heads meeting. I was quietly listening and personally disagreeing with them. I am sure that other Councillors would similarly disagree with some of the things I say.
Why did you NOT voice your disagreement?
By your silence you agreed with what was said.
You are after all an elected representative & I find it laughable (again) that you say you chose not to speak. Do you do this in all dscussions?
I for one am sick to death of people who don’t have the guts to say what they believe. They just sit like nodding dogs in the back window of a Valiant for fear of offending someone somewhere.
Thanks nicosofburrum but my silence was simply politeness. I don’t comment after everything anyone says and I recall a Burrum Heads meeting where I was soundly ‘attacked’ or should I say criticised (it felt like an attack however) by a resident when I tried to explain a Council process. If residents want my opinion at their community meetings on a particular topic I will more than gladly give it but I am not there to make comment on every utterance made by a fellow Councillor or by every resident. I am primarily there to listen and to try and assist the community in meeting their objectives. I am always happy to respond when I am asked questions and if you ask any of my fellow Councillors I am sure they would describe me as opinionated at best! I prefer not to publicly criticise anyone but I attempt to stick to issues and work hard for outcomes. Some Councillors have a totally different style and version of events than I do. I believe that is called democracy and freedom of expression. I try not to speak just as a means of vote gathering either! At Council meetings I always attempt to voice my opinion as minutes to motions etc will reflect.
You sound like every other politician in Australia. Not my job. Not my fault. Why change the subject & waffle on about one meeting like that? Why shouldn’t people have a go at you if they don’t agree with what you say? When is the next council election?
Sorry Rob but I don’t understand where you are coming from.. You mentioned the meeting not me.. Probably my fault but yes you have every right to criticise me and are free to do so. Me being me however I’m likely to have a go at defending myself if I feel the criticism to be unfair. Next election is March 2012.
I’d like to comment on Rob’s post, where he said that Sue “sounds like every other politician in Australia”. I’ve had my fair share of arguments and disagreements with Sue, and I can assure you that she is NOT like other politicians. She will stand up for herself and has proven her willingness to debate other points of views (sometimes even when those points of view are regarded as unreasonable). What other politician does that? Other politicians will simple delete or totally ignore your comments and move on. Credit has to be given where it is due.
Something I learned over the years is that our greatest leaders are NOT those who play politics and pretend to be something they are not. Our greatest leaders are those who are simply themselves, and let us, the punters, judge them on their performance. In other words, they respect us enough to be intelligent enough to see past the spin. I’ve stirred and tested Sue enough to know that what she represents in public, is what she truly believes in. I can’t think of too many other politicians who would pass that test. Can you, Rob?