I suspect its at least partly due to the immediacy of media coverage, and a corresponding falling of the standards of said media. Pollies arent looking beyond the headlines two days hence. Neither are the voters, it seems.
1 Like
I think culture has shifted for both the electorate and our politicians. They donât offer us any vision and not enough of us are really all that concerned about it.
What I am really trying to get at is politicians have a job to do and they are not doing it. It seems they donât know how. None of them.
It seems to me they engage in busy work. Do something anything to make yourself seem busy. You donât have to achieve anything you just have to be there.
Voting differently is not going to change that.
The major parties will have majorities in the lower house for some decades.
I donât understand why the leaders and a few ministers in each party cant get together in a room and work out what they CAN do together. Start working towards finding a consensus on items that they agree on. Its not brain surgery.
They are supposed to be governing for all of us. They must be able to find some common ground.
I donât think itâs in their interests to take a risk on anything big. The other side can ensure it fails over the medium term and then use it against them to stay in power for multiple terms. Then they get all of the perks of being in government an the opposition, well, have the opposite.
Perhaps the difference in the past was that large national projects were essentially agreed on at the end of the day by both sides. Everything today is lined up on one side of politics or the other and must be destroyed by the competition.
2 Likes
Further to this, anything that isnât in the interest of certain multinationals is considered a waste or a threat and is then dressed up as lefty fairy tales. All of the cheer squad kick into gear and we end up with bizarre situations being accepted or not even noticed by the majority of the electorate.
2 Likes
Exactly the problem
I said this not that long ago, but how could anyone watch question time and not be embarrassed by what they see?
Youâd think question time would be more like a debate.
8 Likes
Fundamentally Liberal and Labor have very little common ground.
While a common goal could be to have a strong robust economy that employs everyone, they would never agree on a pathway to that, as the underlying principles are completely opposite.
And while Labor and Greens share views on the environment, they also would be stretched to work on the same platform.
It is not the fault of any politician, in fact, the Westminister system makes opposition obligatory.
The Yanks have a much better and workable system, but in any case democracy is flawed and something like China have is better.
Maybe a stupid questionâŚ
Hypothetically, would the Greens/PHON be opposition/shadow ministers if they had more seats than Labor or would we see things the same as now and tradition?
Opposition party is the one With the second most seats. The ALP/coalition are govt/opposition because they 99% of the time get the most and second most votes.
At a state level this hasnât always been the case. In Qld in the Joh years, the nats were the govt while the alp was opposition and the Libs nowhere. Iâm pretty sure that the country party held opposition/govt before the rise of the current major parties too.
1 Like
Shadow ministers have no legal standing at all. The constitution also doesnât mention the Prime Minister or Cabinet (they are simply assumed to exist, as per the constitution-less UK).
Legislation has been passed, however, to give these people of convention a higher wage than the pleb representatives/senators.
(I assume Beastie is asking what would happen if the combined third and fourth parties had more reps than the second, and chose to work together. Based on the Nationals being labelled part of the Federal opposition in the past, and presumably getting the opposition perks, itâs an interesting question.)
1 Like
I didnât realise the QLD thing.
It was more feds and a hypothetical. Just wondering if coalitions could be formed to âtakeâ opposition and whether there would be any reasons for/against besides airplay.
Fundamentally Labor are where the Liberals were in the 1970âs. The Liberals are somewhere right of the old DLP.
1 Like
Bring in proportional representation
Iâd suggest the DLP were only ârightâ in that they opposed hard-left with vigour and were tightly wedded to Catholic social values.
Most of their economic policies in the old McManus Brosnan days were of small business and fairness. I donât count Gair because he only joined the DLP because he was cold-shouldered by the ALP.
All changed after the old guard died though. Now itâs just 1950âs style Catholic stuff.
7:30 report tonight is going to get ugly.
Bali restaurants passing off dog meat (often from feral dogs that were poisoned with strychnine by animal control) as chicken etc. Plenty of footage of unsuspecting Aussie tourists chowing down on fido, apparentlyâŚ
Gotta love the ABC News Hounds, ⌠they stay on the scent until they get a collar.
1 Like
This isnât exactly breaking news. Fairly common practice throughout SE Asia (maybe not the strychnine).
To me this reeks of tabloid journalism (Today Tonight etc.), a reaction to negative Liberal/Conservative commentary of Aunty? First glimpse of the new direction of the ABC under a corporate remodelling?
Fair enough. You can never tell where these things could lead. Worth pounding away for a while I would have thought.