Because, increasingly, governments seem to be relying for advice from political advisers – whose job is clearly designed to enhance the chance of the politician’s being re-elected – decisions made, based on that advice, are informed from a very narrow knowledge and experience base.
How many politicians, who are eventually promoted to Minister, have studied at university?
How many of those do not have a HECS debt, thanks to Gough Whitlam’s now abandoned policies?
Is there more than a handful of them who have first-hand knowledge of the problems experienced by a close friend or relative, suffering from a serious disability?
How many of them have been out of work for any length of time, struggling to cope with a truly inadequate income?
How many of them have spent enough time in an ATSI community to have a glimmer of understanding of life in that community?
How many of them have suffered racial abuse and discrimination or have close friends or acquaintances who have?
How many of them have spent any significant period of time having to make seriously important decisions on priorities because of extraordinarily limited funds availability?
How many of them have been dependent on carers, or themselves have been a carer for any length of time?
How many of them rely on advice from the Public Service departments rather than from their political advisers?
For generations, home-based mothers were regarded as not having a job!
What a travesty of truth!
Being a hands-on parent means you not only look after your children’s hygiene, nutrition, safety, attention to homework and general progress at school, keep a close eye on the children’s friends to ensure there are no detrimental influences on the child, talk to teachers, and – in between trying to ensure your children head towards a viable future – do the shopping, cooking, transport the children to any sporting venues more than a bicycle ride away – and, particularly if you are (as many women are) a sole parent, fit in part- or full-time employment outside the home as soon as the children can be properly supervised in your absence.
Few men are in a position to begin to understand what that is like, and if you receive little or no support from a partner, even the part-time work is a significant problem when the children are small.
That is just for starters, in detailing the knowledge not necessarily available to our decision-makers from firsthand experience.
And there are still men who see everything to do with managing the household and the children as the mother’s job!
Then there are those who cannot find work.
In some areas there are few jobs available, particularly for those relatively unskilled, yet for them to move elsewhere and look for work, they need first to find accommodation, have some decent clothes to wear to a job interview and be able to afford transport to interviews. That is before they have started earning! And the paltry amount offered by WorkSmart will be re-established once we emerge form the COVID-19 lock down!
The state-run TAFEs of bygone days did at least offer those who did not think in terms of university, a realistic chance of becoming qualified in a trade. Today’s privatised organisations require up-front fees, with no likelihood of a refund if the organisation goes belly up – as too many have done.
The current incarnation of Centrelink is also in part privatised, and in consequence sees its role as satisfying shareholders rather than helping human beings in need.
RoboDebt was a prime example of profit-motivation driving an illegally designed program which damaged people in desperate need of support. How many have already been refunded money they did not owe?
The cashless welfare card puts money in the pockets of the card supplier (money which ought to be going to those in need!) while making life even more difficult for people struggling to manage their finances, on the pretence of helping them to budget.
Not everyone is out of work by choice, but if you have grown up in a household in which your parent(s) has/have been unable to find work, you do not have a model to guide you, as is the case with those whose parents are in continuous employment.
If you have a serious disability, from birth or acquired, assistance from NDIS is way short of optimal – again because privatisation and outsourcing means you are not necessarily being helped by appropriately trained and motivated people. And this is also true for able job seekers who have to follow unrealistic regimes while competing for jobs in a market with more job seekers than jobs!
How many of those, planning the legislation which demonises the jobless, have had an firsthand experience of the effect of their policies?
Just to throw in another very pertinent issue, thanks to very poor decisions about the NBN, there are many parts of Australia where access to the internet is difficult or impossible. And on top of that, despite valiant efforts to remedy the situation, many of our more elderly still do not have the ability to use the internet and miss out on government information, posted online in the arrogant assumption that it will reach everyone.
I have a friend, only months younger than I am, who never checks her emails or uses a browser because, following a stroke, causing some cognitive impairment, it is too challenging. And she is also, in consequence, cut off from MyGov and similar websites.
It used to be that people from all political backgrounds, stood for election in order to promote policies to help people in ways that matched their political ideals.
Now, we have a few political parties whose adherents attach themselves, early in life, after possibly a brief taste of a ‘real’ world career, become a party apparatchik, assist the local branch, stand for pre-selection – preferably in a ‘safe’ seat – and enter parliament with a limited picture of the world outside their ideological group.
I grew up at a time when communism was a live issue. When I studied mathematics at Imperial College in the mid-1950s, the head of my Faculty and several of the lecturers were members of the British Communist party (BCP). The invasion of Hungary in 1956 was a turning point and the BCP dwindled thereafter, but the picture we had in the UK at that time was of communism being designed to help those oppressed by the power of the establishment, and to attempt to share wealth more equitably. Potentially noble aims, but Stalin and his successors merely established a new, utterly authoritarian regime, while the underlying concepts of socialism lingered on, raising suspicion because of events.
The idea now that an individual, independent of any party structure, could in any way influence national policy agendas is a pipe dream. Yet, when I was a teenager, it was still seen in the USA that even a lowly cow-hand could aspire to be President!
Not too many billionaire cowhands around to seek election these days!
The market rules, and international corporations call the shots so our elected politicians rush to do their bidding while ignoring the needs of the electorate!
Like the UK, but not quite as completely, we have followed too closely in the USA’s policy footsteps and unless we backtrack, we will pay a very high price.
The current disastrous state of the world’s heath, as regards people and also the economy, must surely give us pause to think – we could do better than this.
The lowering of emissions because of the slowing down of industry and the significantly reduced use of transport – particularly airplanes! – MUST be used to change our trajectory.
The economy is NOT the major consideration. Not unless it is being restructured to assist fighting global warming and improving people’s lives.
We have representatives on the National Cabinet who do not share the Coalition’s ideology – and the Coalition, in any case, only has a one seat majority – far from overwhelming! – which means there are effectively as many who oppose them as support them. (The Coalition did NOT win a majority of votes!)
As a member of Extinction Rebellion Darwin, I am aching for the lock down to be lifted so that we can be out on the streets demanding policy changes which will give our grandchildren hope for a life!
I end as always – this is my 2020 New Year Resolution:
“I will do everything in my power to enable Australia to be restored to responsible government
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