Our leaders are loyal to the citizenry? Don’t make me laugh!
The biggest kerfuffle in Aussie politics is all about the technicalities regarding ‘dual citizenship’. Our founding fathers were well aware that if an individual was going to sit in our Parliament, then it was important to know that they do not have divided loyalties. A principle which has been largely lost in the political point-scoring and bickering about paperwork. Do any of our politicians even notice the irony in this situation? What has become of us?
We, the people, need to begin questioning the obviously divided loyalties of our leaders. No one else will. The mainstream media are only interested in pissing in the pockets of their owners and advertisers. We all know the social media to be as corrupt and as stupid as the lowest common commercial denominator. Therefore, it is largely down to us. (Which, in effect, means we’re f*****d.)
What do we want from our political leaders? What is the one thing that is foremost in every average citizen’s desires regarding an elected representative? It is simple. We want a politician to put our problems and circumstances first; not that of Party, Religion, Sect, Ideology or Idol. Not their mates, their donors, their bank account, the ‘economy’, their favourite TV star, dog, or anything. How far from this simple ambition has our political system drifted?
Currently, it is almost impossible to even get elected to a parliament in Australia if you do not pledge your abiding loyalty to a political party. If you stand as an Independent you will not get any media coverage, or you will be pilloried in all the mainstream media. If your only loyalty is to the citizenry, then it is almost impossible to get elected. If you do get elected, (accidentally), you will have no power. You will not be ‘in the club’.
Yet, this is just the first of the loyalties that our politicians put well ahead of any thought for their constituents. If a constituent of Mr Turnbull is having trouble with a bank loan and walks into his office to discuss it, whose interest do you think will be at the forefront of our PMs mind? First, he will toe the party line. This will provide him with a script for his discussion. Then he will argue the case for all of his donors. But what about his private opinions and loyalties?
Our PM is an ex-merchant banker with a squillion dollars stashed away in offshore bank accounts. I would propose that this is probably Mr Turnbull’s No. 1 priority in all matters; both personal and private. The PM is an easy target of course. But if it came down to a choice between forsaking their money or fleeing Australia, how many of the people in our parliament do you think would choose their money?
I do hope you are not as cynical as me. The assessment I make is not flattering. The hypocrisy is as thick in the air in Canberra as it has ever been. The fight is as furious as ever. Yet it continues to be a fight about whose big money backers get to rule the roost. It has nothing to do with you or me. We only get to be observers (and to be ruled). And don’t doubt that most of our politicians fully comprehend both their own deceit and our continuing disdain for them. But they hardly care. They don’t have to. After all, we’re not their boss.
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Terry2 -
James -
Matters Not -
JiMM -
Paul Davis -
Terry2 -
JiMM -
Shutterbug -
Phil -
etnorb -
townsvilleblog
Return to home pageI fear you are right.
Today when Question Time came about Shorten offered to forfeit Question Time and go straight to the marriage equality debate to get it passed today.
The PM got up and started berating Labor and snarling that they were scared of questions being asked about dual citizenship.
I switched off in disgust so I don’t know what happened.
Well said James you’ve expressed my thoughts brilliantly and I agree 100%…..we need people who will put the public interest first and the party second, however I fear that politician would be more of a unicorn than a person
James re:
That assumes we have a commonality of problems and circumstances. I don’t think we do. Seems to me, we live in a capitalist society characterised by sharp class divisions with opposed aims and interests. With individuals advancing economically at the expense of the others. Thus the society we have is best understood by adopting a conflict perspective.
That’s the is – with the ought a completely different beast without wide support – except at the verbalised level.
Matters Not:
I agree completely.
It should be the politicians job to find out what their constituents want and need and then to do their best to progress those interests. Does this sound like any mainstream politicians’ first interest?
I am just watching MT take credit for voting Marriage Equality into Law – ten years after citizen opinion had shifted and three years after it might have been resolved if not for his own Political Party.
Proving that our Politicians will work in our interests; when they have no other option.
I joined the young liberals in 1966 at age 18, a product of a middle class sydney north shore upbringing, my father a high ranking military officer and my mother a ‘homemaker’, educated at private non denom secondary school, studying economics at uni part time working in the finance sector. I was ‘conditioned’ to believe in the rightness of the Menzian view of the world and that our fair go just society needed to be preserved nurtured and protected against the forces of evil, ie communism, socialism, the godless faceless demigods of labour and the union. Bob Santamaria and Eric Baume among others held sway on the airwaves (like Alan Jones et al more recently), there was no serious reporting or discussion of non Liberal ideology in the media except scaremongering.
I resigned from the liberal party in 1968 due to vietnam war conscription amongst other things. My branch urged us to vote no for the aboriginal referendum. Repulsive guest speakers included a rhodesian explaining the virtues of apartheid and another defending the white australian policy.
Looking at this bunch of miscreants currently on the government front bench, i dont see much change in the last 50 years.
Good essay James Moylan, i dispair for my children and grandchildren. How can we get a REAL progressive nation and community building government ?
JIMM
Did you notice that Turnbull voted in favour of all of the delaying motions and only voted YES for the final vote approving marriage equality.
He can claim no credit for the result after what has gone on over recent years.
Terry2
I tried not to notice.
It made me blue.
I penned a little bit of doggerel soon after:
Unhappiness has, alas
been evident of late
I end up in a deep morass
Whenever I contemplate
The problems we are facing
and the existential fact
regardless of our flailing
basically; were facked
So I’m taking steps to combat
This mental vertigo
By learning how to forget
Everything I know
😉
Regarding Truffle’s illfounded bravado about the Marriage Act today, I will leave this here.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-05/mardi-gras-shorten-accuses-turnbull-of-dodging-parade/8325824
Good points made there James. I sense we are heading for some monumental societal shifts here and globally. Some shifts we will initiate, like ending the two party system, and some will be coercive like climate mitigation.
There has been very little democracy in Australia for decades – lots of voting, but that doesn’t define democracy – our entire social system has been captured by corporations and private wealth so that the populace has come to accept that it lives in an economy not a society – a pernicious lie that we must relentlessly reject at every opportunity. Thatcher is thankfully dead and her toxic neoliberalism needs to be buried with her.
Corporate and private wealth now hold our parliaments hostage. Stockholm syndrome has kicked in and the captive politicians have fallen in lock step with their captors. Murdoch, commercial radio and TV are thoroughly corrupted and corrupting – but at least their future is severely limited by their failing business models.
James, the fact that you wrote what you wrote, and the affirmation of your thoughts in the comments, shows that the anger is there and it is building – and the angry increasingly know exactly why they are pissed off – they are articulate and their messages are taking hold. Marry those thoughts with the growing mass of other writers on similar media platforms globally, and it’s clear to me that the shift is on.
The pen is indeed mightier than the sword. Time we threw out the two party system – it’s time has passed – it served us once but now it is holding us back.
Plurality in parliament.
Agree wholeheartedly James! What astounds me is the obscene amounts of money paid to all the dickheads we have in the Federal Parliament! Not only do they get paid obscene amounts of money, they also get huge lurks & perks, & then when they retire, they get an obscene so-called “pension” for life! WTF?? Now we find out that a large number of these inept, lying idiots are not even citizens of this country, even though they have to declare they are (in writing). What happened to “breaking the law” by incorrectly claiming & incorrectly filling in of the necessary paperwork in order to “qualify”? If we “ordinary folk” were to falsely claim anything like this–in civvy street–we would be fined or put in jail for lying. What is the difference for all these pollies? Obviously, one set of rules of them, with no great penalties, & one set of rules for us with often large penalties! Imagine if I (as an Age Pensioner) wrongly declared information on a form to Centerlink? I would be fined, possibly lose some or all of my pension etc. But not them! WTF??
The politicians don’t seem to understand that the first thing required of them is that they be 100% an Australian citizen before they nominate for candidacy of the federal parliament, surely that is not too much to ask? That said the current government has only one allegiance, and that is to the mostly foreign multinational corporations who make a king’s ransom out of the Australian population without contributing a red cent in taxation to the upkeep and infrastructure of our country, a job which is left mainly to the Australian workforce.