By Jennifer Meyer-Smith
It’s now 10pm and there’s only two hours left of 2016. Thank goodness for that! At midnight, it will be 2017 and I’m willing to hope that there will be more to thank for in 2017. I know, I know; it might be just wishful thinking but if we don’t have hope, we don’t have much else.
So this is what I hope will happen.
I hope the Greens and Labor do what comes naturally and see that electoral survival means that different parties must come together to form the strongest force in order to win back government from the current bunch of traitors that Australia has even seen. I like to call them the LNP Degenerates.
I want the Greens and Labor to kiss and make up because it is the best chance for the Australian People and our Environmental responsibilities to have both parties in control. What one party lacks in policy prioritisation and philosophical principles, the other party makes up for in strategic numbers and political advocacy.
This means The ALLiance will be something to support and not fear by the Labor and/or Greens faithful determined to stay insular and non-collaborative with political allies. Those party faithful in either party must come to see that forming a working alliance between both parties and any other collaborative progressive party and independent, will be the best result for the Australian People and for their own political survival despite what political apparatchiks in either party might be attempting to build into party guidelines.
Once we have a Political Force working for us within Parliament and going in the same direction, we will see further cracks open wide in the LNP Degenerates in 2017, as they continue to panic as they see their political power diminish.
But before we allow the Greens and Labor to hope for our support, we must expect that all policies they choose, prioritise and then design represent a staunch opposition and reversal to any neoliberalist elements that have been allowed to creep into our socio-economic-political culture for 30 plus years under the Lib/Lab duopoly.
It’s Time for an Australian renaissance of renewed hope and progressive reform. I want a true socialist democracy again which is what we had for a brief but beautiful time under Gough.
Therefore, I want the following (in no particular order of importance) from my government which will be The ALLiance of independent and collaborative parties, namely the Greens, Labor, assorted upcoming progressive parties and sane independents:
• Universal education with better than Gonski expectations, so that all students are equitably equipped and all teachers are fully recognised and paid respectably according to their highly important input;
• Universal healthcare so that Medicare is reinstated to its best ever status (including dental care) without any cuts implemented by this LNP Degenerate government;
• Free university education for all students from no, low and middle income families (and high income families on a case by case basis);
• Microfinance incentives of Micro Finance Grants (MFGs) and Micro Credit Loans (MCLs) to unemployed and under-employed people on Newstart or Disability Benefits so they can escape unemployment and poverty by developing their own self-employment in their micro businesses based on their ingenuity, skills, experience and qualifications. The MFGs ($10-15k) and MCLs ($20-30k) must be government-backed, fully accessible, and over and above Newstart or the DSP so that recipients can establish their small enterprises AND feed and house themselves at the same time;
• Climate Change is a growing danger and any appropriate policy must reflect heightened priority to combat it, which includes active and immediate fading out of traditional dirty energy sources. Renewable energy industries throughout Australia need promotion and financial resources to become immediately operational, so their emphasis is on saving the environment and providing many, diverse local employment opportunities for Australians. The Adani project proposed in Queensland is a baptism of fire for the fledgling ALLiance and must be seen to be a false prophet to the People of Queensland and a poor choice by Queensland Labor for which they will come to repent;
• Environment Protections must also be fully supported by The ALLiance. Such protections that come to my mind immediately are the old growth forests of Victoria and Tasmania; the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland; the Great Australian Bight; farmlands throughout Australia needing protection from coal seam gas companies wanting to exploit it; fisheries throughout Australian waters threatened by deep dredging and over-fishing; our river systems such as the great Murray which are hostage to nutcases like Barnaby Joyce and his constituents to the detriment of others downstream; and the list goes on;
• New industry innovations that will provide regional, rural and remote industry incentives that will meet the needs of diverse people in outlying areas where dissatisfaction has grown because of the sense of disenfranchisement which of course has helped Pauline Hanson to rise to stardom as the false prophet for disillusioned people.
The ALLiance in 2017 can start to provide the conversations that will get constituents believing again. When such party collaboration changes become apparent, I guarantee that there will be a groundswell of hope that will lift us out of these desperate times under the LNP Degenerates and into a renaissance time of greater political expectations with The ALLiance.
